Review: This is for Tonight by Jessica Patrick

Release Date: May 4th, 2021

Genre(s): Young Adult, Contemporary 

Publisher: Swoon Reads

Pages: 288

Rating:⭐️⭐️⭐️.25

Thank you to Fierce Reads and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis

This Is For Tonight follows Andi Kennedy, who’s trying to grow her YouTube channel so she can pay for college. Her goal is to head to the Cabazon Valley Music and Arts Festival to film an interview with a famous band. But she finds herself competing for the spot with Jay Bankar, the annoying host of a popular prank channel. But as their competition grows, Andi finds a growing connection to him where she’ll have to decide what’s more important.

Review

This Is For Tonight was such a cute YA contemporary story that also explored familial relationships, grief, and planning for college. In the rising world of influencers, it was fun to have a story about a YouTuber with a small channel and her aspirations to grow her channel, all in the background of a music festival.

This book reminded me a lot of the books I loved reading as a teen. Even though Andi’s nearing the end of high school, This Is For Tonight is also a great fit for younger YA readers. It takes place in such a fun setting that readers will enjoy, in addition to all of the challenges and activities that the characters take on throughout the course of the book.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Jay Bankar’s storyline given the synopsis, but it definitely exceeded my expectations! While there were some times where we saw Andi’s judgment of him without really knowing what his channel was about yet, over time I really got to know her conflict and frustrations with him. I also thought it was interesting that we got to explore our expectations of influencers and how they behave in comparison to who they really are off-camera.

While the beginning and end of the book were absolute page-turners (and the book being a fast, fun read overall), I did find that the middle dragged a little bit. There was so much more excitement towards the beginning and the end that there was a noticeable pace change towards the middle.

Regardless, This Is For Tonight was a really enjoyable read overall, and I had a lot of fun with this one. I’d definitely recommend it for fans of light YA contemporaries, and I think this would especially be a good summer read.

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