Love Me Tomorrow

Gr 9 Up–In this first title in a speculative romance duology by Jean (Tokyo Ever After), Seattle high school senior Emma Nakamura-Thatcher must ponder what to do when she gets an email claiming to be from her sweetheart from the future. Emma believes all love is doomed thanks to her parents’ divorce. Consequently, when she receives an email claiming to be from a future acquaintance who has “loved you from the beginning,” she is bamboozled. Using clues in the email correspondence, Emma and her best friend Delia speculate that the mystery emailer is either her dreamy music mentor, Ezra; a rich client’s handsome son, Colin; or Theo, the suddenly hot neighbor Emma has known forever. The mystery man clouds Emma’s judgment about what she wants right now and weighs on her alongside worries about applying for an East Coast music school and her father’s new serious relationship. This is a more-rom-than-com with a generally well-developed cast of characters. Emma’s concerns about her family’s precarious financial position (Mom is a cleaner with work-related early arthritis), her awareness of class issues and racial microaggressions, her bond with her probably-a-spy grandfather, and her trauma from her parents’ divorce are convincing. Particularly vivid are the portions depicting the experience of cleaning other people’s houses and passages portraying the heady excitement Emma feels when playing music. Toward the end, it feels there are too many possibilities to tie up, despite the book’s length. Nonetheless, the epilogue is intriguing, and readers will be excited to read where the second installment leads. Emma is biracial, with a white father and a Japanese American mother.