Thursday, January 5, 2012

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


This is when you know you're a BookNerd. Whenever I fly (which is quite a bit) I always take my Nook or Kindle of with me -- duh. In addition, I take an extra book for those 20 minutes at the beginning and end of the flight where your electronic devices must be powered off. Yep. It's that deep. So, I was flying back from New York City on New Year's Day, and I had packed Dash & Lily's Book of Dares as my extra book because it takes place in NYC during the holidays and that is essentially what I was doing. This book had been on my TBR for awhile.

I started reading it as soon as I got to my seat on the plane with every intention of putting it aside once we were at an altitude where I could turn on my Kindle. Except...I couldn't stop reading it. Not only was it the perfect story setting with NYC and the holidays, it was also the perfect length: I started it at the beginning of my flight, and as people were disembarking the plane at our destination, I was reading the last paragraphs.

Wow.

I loved this book!  This is the story of Dash, written by David Levithan, and Lily, written by Rachel Cohn. For different reasons, both their parents are away for the holidays and they are left essentially by themselves. Lily's brother, in an effort to find her something to do to keep her out of his and his boyfriends' hair all break, creates a scavenger hunt in a red notebook and places it by one of Lily's favorite books in The Strand bookstore. The person who answers the riddle needs to be a boy, of course. Dash finds the notebook, rises to the challenge, and so begins a trading back and forth of the red notebook, complete with Q & As from the two characters as they learn about each other and the other's favorite places of New York City.

I will admit, I did not like it at first. I felt it jumped right in and that it was kind of unrealistic for Dash to be like, "Yea, okay, I'll do this crazy thing. Sure." But that's my only complaint. I love how great Cohn and Levithan are of showing just how opposite Dash and Lily are in the beginning of the book, in regards to Christmas. But as the book progresses, you see that they really are not that different. I liked how Dash's friends met Lily and Lily's relatives met Dash, but Dash and Lily never met each other, and their friends/family were very vague with details. I very thoroughly enjoyed the conversation between Dash and Lily's Great Aunt Ida. And I love that they are both word nerds.

I tore through this book, not even pausing, only coming up for air as I flipped the last page. Great, great book. 

BookNerd Teri also loved this book, and she reviewed this book on her blog

~Flo~

3 comments :

  1. Great Review Flo! I knew you would like this book..who wouldn't? I am just sorry it took me so long to read it....

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  3. I just finished Dash & Lily. It was a really cute Christmas story. I absolutely loved Dash. There aren't too many young men that qualify as BookNerds, but Dash was PERFECT. We could use a few more Dash's in the world. I have been fortunate enough to find one blogger who I envision to be A LOT like Dash, but they are far and few between.

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