Review: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

Title: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
 Author: Rachel Cohn, David Levithan

Format: Kindle

Genre: Contemporary YA
Source:  Personal Copy

Published: October 26th 2010 by Knopf Books for Young Readers
My Rating: ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

From Goodreads.com

 

“I’ve left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.” So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the New York Times bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions? Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written a love story that will have readers perusing bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.  

 

 

I was looking for a fun, light hearted, Christmasy read and I found that and more with Dash & Lily! the concept of building a friendship and possible relationship from a scavenger hunt started inside a moleskin journal is ingenious! 

I love the writing style of David Levithan and Rachel Cohn. The back and forth banter is just wonderful!! I did struggle a bit with Dash's extreme dorkiness when it came to words and books, but then my husband reminded me of a kid I knew in high school who was very much like Dash. A snarly hipster-esque cutie with a vocabulary of the unabridged OED! So that just endeared Dash to me more.

The adventures these two take around NYC had me wishing I had grown up somewhere more fabulous than the painfully average anywhereville in the mid-west where I spent my childhood. I would give anything for a bookstore like the Strand! (Again, small town anywhereville is lucky to have a B&N.)

Of course, this book DOES include one of my least favorite YA aspects, absent parents - but it is pulled off well with good excuses as to where the parents are and who was supposed to be watching the kids. So it was a minor irritation.

In the end, Dash & Lilly's Book of Dares is an excellent (quick) read! I would recommend it to anyone who has ever thought themselves to be even a slight book nerd. Or to anyone who was ever an awkward teenager!