I am a huge fan of Rachel Lynn Solomon books, but Past Present Future could be my favorite. I love the stories about what happens after. So much of romance stories are about them getting together and not that many about staying together. The ways we grow and evolve within love. Keep reading this book review for my book review of Past Present Future for my full thoughts.
Summary
When longtime rivals Rowan Roth and Neil McNair confessed their feelings on the last day of senior year, they knew they’d only have a couple months together before they left for college. Now summer is over, and they’re determined to make their relationship work as they begin school in different states.
In Boston, Rowan is eager to be among other aspiring novelists, learning from a creative writing professor she adores. She’s just not sure why she suddenly can’t seem to find her voice.
In New York, Neil embraces the chaos of the city, clicking with a new friend group more easily than he anticipated. But when his past refuses to leave him alone, he doesn’t know how to handle his rapidly changing mental health—or how to talk about it with the girl he loves.
Over a year of late-night phone calls, weekend visits, and East Coast adventures, Rowan and Neil fall for each other again and again as they grapple with the uncertainty of their new lives. They’ve spent so many years at odds with each other—now that they’re finally on the same team, what does the future hold for them?
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
I fell in love with Past Present Future. It’s about the realization that falling in love isn’t an end game. That it’s about staying in love and being in the action of love. We have our favorite former academic rivals and Past Present Future challenges them beyond their dreams. It takes place at such a pivotal moment of change. All these new experiences of college, of new cities, new friends, and their new selves. Who we become when we leave what we have known and the opportunities for growth.
But also the terror. We think that being able to re-define ourselves might be one of infinite freedom. However there’s also the fear, the free fall. Not knowing how to find our voice, to define it, and to figure out what we want to say. And for Rowan and Neil it’s also about the pressure they put on themselves for these experiences and dreams. Past Present Future was incredibly relatable to me as someone who was in a long distance relationship during college. Seriously. So much of it felt like an emotional fever dream.
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All these moments you’re looking forward to, but also the knowledge that it’s all so fleeting. The things we notice when we turn home and how things have changed, but, most importantly, we have. Past Present Future is about everything that happens in the moments we know aren’t infinite. The finite. It’s about the things we end up not telling the people we love. All the things we think we can’t talk about. It’s phenomenal and made me so nostalgic.
Find Past Present Future on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.