Rachel Lynn Solomon
This book is about a young lady, Rowan Roth, on her last day of senior year in high school. For the last four years she has been in an epic battle with her arch nemesis, Neil McNair, competing for academic glory, and chasing the laurel of Valedictorian. When she loses, albeit as Salutatorian, she decides she will best him one last time, at the Senior Howl, thereby truly proving who is the best at Westview High School.
In typical Rom-Com fashion, they end up being paired together to try and win this scavenger hunt/game of tag gone wrong. Rowan hopes together they can beat everyone else, and then she will somehow take him down right before the final challenge. And then they start to learn the things they have been bickering about for four years are actually the things they like most about each other.
Look, this book doesn’t have a great, hidden meaning, nor does it transcend the millenia to highlight a great injustice and incite us to act. But it doesn’t have any pretense of these things and is just a good, funny, awkward, fresh, love story. Sometimes I need one of those!
I also love the stance on romance novels! Rowan has been forced over the years to make her love for them a secret due to the shame the genre garners in general and specifically from her family and best friends. She becomes out and proud of her love for them over the arc of the story. I am not a big romance fan myself, but maybe that is because they have always been put down in my presence as well.
Identifying far too much with being a competitive nerd like Rowan and Neil, (a large part of my initial attraction to my husband was how close our ACT scores were) I selfishly think it is good to have a book highlighting this positive, challenging behavior. I was blown away by how confident and smart Rowan is about sex at her age, and her mature attitude about a lot of other things. Rowan would have been a good friend to have during that turbulent time.
Soundtrack
- We are the Champions by Queen
- Graduation by Vitamin C
- Photograph by Nickelback
- Good Riddance by Green Day
- We are Young by fun.
- It’s Time by Imagine Dragons
Pros & Cons & Potential Spoilers
Pros
- The book focuses on positive behaviors during high school, rather than the unfortunate negatives that plague most of us
- Teen dealing well with topics that adults struggle to cope with (incarceration, anti-Semitism, and sexual relations) and making informed, compassionate responses
- Just a good feeling book
Cons
- I still struggle with my shame of romance novels, but this is a good first step