Self-love is the key to a joyful life

You will finish reading this riveting teenage love story in a single sitting. Bestselling author Rachel Lynn Solomon’s Past Present Future emphasizes the power of ‘loving yourself’ first before loving someone else. Teenagers Neil McNair and Rowan Roth fall madly in love with each other in less than 24 hours during their summer vacations. They are inseparable and promise each other that come what may, they will never part.

The duo leaves their hometown of Seattle and embark on a long-distance relationship during their first year of college. Rowan enrolls in for the Creative Writing course at the prestigious Emerson College in Boston, while Neil wonders if he has made the right decision to do his major in ‘linguistics’ when he does not enjoy it. The author beautifully captures the college atmosphere, peer pressure, and longings that teenagers go through in college days. Rachel also sensitively meanders through the ups and downs of insecurities and mood swings that teenagers go through in any relationship and friendship. Add to that the pressures of a long-distance relationship. The struggles that Rowan and Neil experience are heartbreaking. Some paragraphs will make the readers reflect on their real-life situations. Rowan aspires to become a good author but she is at a loss of words when it comes to writing a love story or putting her personal experiences in words.

Neil is grappling with his problems and mental health issues. His father writes to him from prison, but he chooses not to tell Rowan about it and deal with it alone. The teenagers catch up on each other’s lives over phone calls and fortnight visits but something still feels amiss. There are moments of lovey-dovey romance, but the author digs deep into her characters and manages to put forth their struggles in love life. They reach a stage where they feel the relationship is harming them. They take some time off individually and reconnect at a later stage. This unputdownable book talks about the power of ‘love’, especially ‘self-love’, and the hard fact of life that every love story does not have to end happily ever after!