If There’s No Tomorrow Review: When Tomorrow Is A Cliche

November 24, 2017 by Jenna | 3 stars, ARC Reviews, Books, Reviews

If There’s No Tomorrow Review: When Tomorrow Is A ClicheIf There's No Tomorrow by Jennifer L. Armentrout
Published by Harlequin Teen on September 5th 2017
Source: Publisher
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Young Adult
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A single choice can change everything.

Lena Wise is always looking forward to tomorrow, especially at the start of her senior year. She’s ready to pack in as much friend time as possible, to finish college applications, and to maybe let her childhood best friend Sebastian know how she really feels about him. For Lena, the upcoming year is going to be epic—one of opportunities and chances.

Until one choice, one moment, destroys everything.

Now Lena isn’t looking forward to tomorrow. Not when friend time may never be the same. Not when college applications feel all but impossible. Not when Sebastian might never forgive her for what happened.

For what she let happen.

With the guilt growing each day, Lena knows that her only hope is to move on. But how can she move on when she and her friends’ entire existences have been redefined? How can she move on when tomorrow isn’t even guaranteed?

If There’s No Tomorrow is my very first Jennifer L. Armentrout novel and I have to say that I was expecting a little bit more from it. The story touches on some important issues but overall, I found it to be a bit cliched and forced and I didn’t find any of the characters to be very interesting or likeable.

The novel follows Lena, who is going into her senior year of high school. All she’s really concerned about is having a great last year with her group of friends, playing volleyball, and seeing her crush who just so happens to be her next door neighbour. But a mistake one night leads to drastic consequences and Lena needs to learn to handle the guilt that follows her. My main issue with the plot of the book was that it was really predictable. There was nothing that really surprised me, beyond the mistake the Lena made, and I wasn’t really excited to read the novel and see it to the end. The second half of the novel seemed very forced and, despite how much effort it seemed that the author had put into creating emotional depth in Lena’s character, there was hardly any character growth at all. It was a bit angst-ridden and it seemed to drag on forever without any new developments. I was annoyed by how self-pitying Lena was and I found it quite hard to connect with her story or her character.

Having said that, I didn’t mind Lena’s character that much. I found her and the other characters in the novel to be quite unremarkable and easily forgettable. There wasn’t anything about any of the characters that made them stand out and for the first half of the book, they were actually quite interchangeable. I found myself having to flip back and forth to remember which character was which and how they all related to each other. It was hard for me to bring myself to care for any of the characters because they all came across as the same person. I couldn’t connect with Lena and found her to be very angsty and whiny. My favourite character was probably Sebastian, the love interest, because he was just a really nice guy and those are hard to come by in YA contemporaries.

Despite really liking Sebastian, I wasn’t a fan of the romance in the novel. Like the rest of the novel, it was a little bit unremarkable and unmemorable. I also felt that it wasn’t entirely necessary and just added some extra angst to the book that it didn’t really need. The romance didn’t make me swoon though there were one or two pretty hot scenes in there, which is a bit of nod to Jennifer L. Armentrout as a new adult author.

If There’s No Tomorrow didn’t really hit the spot for me and wasn’t the emotional read that I expected it to be. There were definitely some important messages about peer pressure in the novel but I thought that the characterisation and execution of the book could have been better and taken it from an average read to an amazing read.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Thank you to Harlequin Teen Australia for providing me with a review copy of the book.

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Jenna is an Aussie blogger and reader who loves to indulge in great books and great food. She is a doctor (of philosophy) and can usually be found fangirling about something, devouring delicious food, or taking a nap. You can find her on Twitter @readwithjenna and on Instagram @readingwithjenna.

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2 responses to “If There’s No Tomorrow Review: When Tomorrow Is A Cliche

  1. Grace Osas @ Somewhat Reserved

    Aw, I really dislike when the main character is unlikeable but the love interest is brilliant.

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