Today, she hates him.

It’s the last day of senior year. Rowan Roth and Neil McNair have been bitter rivals for all of high school, clashing on test scores, student council elections, and even gym class pull-up contests. While Rowan, who secretly wants to write romance novels, is anxious about the future, she’d love to beat her infuriating nemesis one last time.

Tonight, she puts up with him.

When Neil is named valedictorian, Rowan has only one chance at victory: Howl, a senior class game that takes them all over Seattle, a farewell tour of the city she loves. But after learning a group of seniors is out to get them, she and Neil reluctantly decide to team up until they’re the last players left—and then they’ll destroy each other.

As Rowan spends more time with Neil, she realizes he’s much more than the awkward linguistics nerd she’s sparred with for the past four years. And, perhaps, this boy she claims to despise might actually be the boy of her dreams.

Tomorrow … maybe she’s already fallen for him.

This is an adorable story of academic rivals-to-lovers that takes place over the course of a day. It might seem as though it’s insta-love in that fact, but these two have been at it for their entire high school careers, so of course there are some pent-up feelings underneath that “hatred” for one another.

Rowan was a relatable character in that she’s all about books – reading them and she’s even writing her own. So that’s two traits I can relate to. However, she hides her love for romance books because her parents have put them down in the past (and they’re writers as well). She hasn’t told anyone she’s writing a romance novel herself because of this. On top of that, she’s afraid of sharing her work, which I get. Writing is taking a piece of yourself and putting it out there. It’s scary, so I was lowkey proud of her when she finally told her parents about her writing (after she told Neil, of course). What I like about Rowan the most though, is that she is determined and stands by her beliefs when it comes to what good literature is. 

Neil was adorable all around in this. As annoying as it is to Rowan, he did love to antagonize her, but of course we all know it was a ruse to hide his real feelings. He’s very sweet and when he opens up to Rowan about his family life, I just wanted to give him a big hug. There are moments when you can see he really cares for Rowan, which definitely makes it no surprise when he finally admits his feelings for her. 

Since the story was in Rowan’s point-of-view, we didn’t get Neil’s thoughts, which I liked and didn’t like. I love dual POV’s, but it’s also nice to have a little mystery on the other character’s side. It was surprising how much we learned about these characters over their 24-hour period together, but it didn’t feel forced or rushed at all. The banter between Rowan and Neil was fun and I loved seeing them go from rivals to more over the course of the story. 

There was a lot to love about this book, including the scavenger hunt that brought Rowan and Neil together. It was a fun way to explore Seattle through a book. Between that and the romance and banter between the characters (including the banter between Rowan and her two best friends), this was a cute, light read that I’d recommend any day!

Rating: 4/5 stars