The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily (Dash & Lily, #2)

by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

New York Times bestselling authors Rachel Cohn and David Levithan are back together with a life-affirming holiday romance starring Dash and Lily. Just in time for the series release of Dash & Lily on Netflix!

Dash and Lily have had a tough year since readers watched the couple fall in love in Dash & Lily's Book of Dares. Lily's beloved grandfather suffered a heart attack, and his difficult road to recovery has taken a major toll on her typically sunny disposition. Lily's spark has dimmed so much that Langston, her brother, has put aside his grudge against Dash to team up and remind Lily what there is to love about life.

With only twelve days left until Christmas-Lily's favorite time of the year-Dash, Langston, and their friends take Manhattan by storm to help Lily recapture the holiday spirit of New York City in December, a time and place unlike anywhere else in the world. Told in alternating chapters, The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily is bound to be a Christmas favorite for seasons to come.

"Cohn and Levithan write with verve and plenty of wry comedy. . . . Intriguing characters and splendid writing."--Kirkus Reviews

"Peppered with sharp banter and up-to-the-minute New York City references. . . . A full-fledged rom-com."--Publishers Weekly

"Hilarious and heartfelt . . . [captures] the emotions of teen love, along with the hilarity of young adult life."--School Library Journal

A Zoella Book Club Pick!

• ISBN10: 0399553800
• ISBN13: 9780399553806
• Publish Date: 18 October 2016 (first published 6 October 2016)
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 224
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780399553806

Reviews

[bookoala]

3.5 stars
Book 1 was sweet and adorable. Book 2 is also sweet and adorable but in different yet good ways.
Talking through a notebook was good but talking in real life is better in a relationship.

[lizarodz]

Quite the Novel Idea https://quitethenovelidea.com https://quitethenovelidea.com/liza-reviews-twelve-days-dash-lily-rachel-cohn-david-levithan/

 

Ah, how I've missed you Dash & Lily! I adored the Dash & Lily's Book of Dares and it left me hungry for more. Now, six years after meeting these amazing characters, my wish finally came true!

The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily starts a year after the first book ended. Yes, they are still together and very much in love. but things have been tough.  Lily's grandpa had a heart attack and she's put Christmas on hold.  She's overwhelmed, tired, and afraid of change.  Her lack of Christmas spirit is upsetting all around her.

Dash is trying to be supportive of Lily, but he's at a loss of what she need from him.  This is how Langston (Lily's brother) conspire to give Christmas a kick start.  I adore Dash (short for Dashiell).  He's bookish, self-less, a good friend, a great boyfriend.  Dash and Lily are such a cute couple. They complement each other perfectly like a puzzle.

“From the time I was a baby, my mom took me to the library at least once a week. Librarians were like Mary Poppins to me. They always knew how to match a book to my mood or to whatever I was going through at the time. I could always find peace in books."

The cast of characters from the first book make an appearance here, which I really appreciate.  I mean, Lily's family is huge! Mrs. Basil (Lily's great aunt) and Langston are my favorite.  Mrs. Basil is eccentric and tell it like it is and Langston has a Puertorrican boyfriend (Yay!).  Boomer is Dash's best friend and a hoot, it seems like his mind is always up in the clouds, but he has a big heart.  He's now going out with Sofia (Dash's ex), and everyone is okay with that.  It was nice to see more of Lily's parents as they were absent in the first book.

The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily did not suffer from the second book syndrome and didn't loose any of its charm and is just as good at the first.  I laughed out loud, and was smiling like a lunatic, I'm sure.  I also loved that the plot itself kept the same magic, allure and playfulness. It was full of surprises, changes, Lily's crazy family, Dash's crazy friends and nasty dad, dares, and love.  It also deals with other serious issues, like depression, sickness, old age and divorce.  Cohn and Levithan are amazing together :)

“I love you, and it's driving me crazy to see you so upset. I want to fix it, and I know I can't. But what I want to do is rewrite this whole world so you can fix it. I want to come up with a story that all the world will choose to celebrate, and in it, the people we love will never get sick, and the people we love will never be sad for long, and there would be unlimited frozen hot chocolate."

Overall, I'm sure you can tell that I love Dash & Lily. Period.  I would be happy indeed if Cohn and Leviathan continue writing a book with these characters every year for Christmas.  Do yourself a favor and read the series :)This review was originally posted on Quite the Novel Idea

[Jo]

2.5 stars.

Originally posted on Once Upon a Bookcase.

I received The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan as a Christmas present. Having loved the first book, Dash & Lily's Book of Dares, I was super excited to read this book and revisit the characters who I loved so much. But to be honest, I was pretty disappointed.

I should start off by saying I don't remember a huge amount about the first book, except for how much I loved it. But in 2016, I wanted my Christmas books to be about Christmas. And, like What Light by Jay Asher, this one wasn't - it was just set at Christmas. At first - because it starts off with Dash attempt to bring back the Christmas spirit for Lily by buying her a Christmas tree, with the talk of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and each day being something Christmassy - I expected twelve days of gift giving in an attempt to make Lily smile and bring her back to her old self. But that idea just stopped. It was pretty much just the Christmas tree. Sure, the book is set over the twelve days leading up to Christmas, but, again, it's just a romance.

And sure it was sweet. It makes a change to read about a romance that deals with a relationship later on down the line, when the honey moon period is over and things aren't as easy as they once were. It could have been really interesting. But being narrated by the two of them, it became pretty clear early on that everything would be just fine if they would only communicate. So the longer they didn't, the more frustrated I got. She thinks he's not that interested any more, he thinks she wants some time and space - because he's giving her time and space, it seems like further evidence that Dash is losing interest, and because Lily is still in a low mood, the more he feels he should back up and let her deal with things rather than try and force her into happiness. It's a vicious circle.

And really? It was obvious to me how things would end up. And when the book ended and it turned out I was right, I thought, what was the point? By which I mean, what was the point of this book? It just didn't seem like a necessary story, and I think it may have been best to leave the first book as a stand alone. Yes, this was sweet, but I don't think it really adds anything to the story, especially when it becomes apparent that the two do still love each other, and just need to make each other aware of that, and all is fine. Really. There wasn't enough going on in this book to make me think that it was worth there being a second book at all.

So yeah, pretty disappointed. I liked it, but in the way you'd like something that you would also easily forget about. For me, not Christmassy enough, and no real point for this book's existence. This book, for me, showed me exactly what authors mean when they say it's time for a series to end, even when the readers want more. Dash & Lily's story was complete in the first book. We didn't need this one. But, you know, just my opinion. I know a lot of other people enjoyed it.

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: This book does not live up to the preceding Dash & Lily's Book of Dares. The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily is neither quirky nor charming. Taking place around Christmas about a year after they met each other, readers are thrown right into the downs of Dash and Lily's relationship.

While I appreciate the bid not to make out their romance to be perfect and full of roses, that's not exactly what I had signed up for. If there had been more depth, particularly in exploring Lily's state of mind, I wouldn't be so hung up about it. Instead, I felt that the treatment of their characters was rather superficial. Plot-wise, events were hit-or-miss. Some were thoughtful (eg. Lily's grandfather), some were fun (eg. Lily's escapades) and others were out of place (eg. Dash's father).

The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily is one of the rare books I like precisely because it's cute (without being overbearing about it). Sadly, I can't say that of the duology as whole.

[readingwithwrin]

"I'd spent my whole life avoiding Christmas. But not this year. No, this year what I wanted most this season was for Lily to be happy again."

See reviews first on my blog


Dash and Lily are back. Except things are a lot different this time. Dash is more into Christmas this year than Lily is. Because Lily has no time for it, between school, SAT prep, taking care of grandpa, her job, and doing homework she has no free time for Christmas or Dash really. So Dash does what he can to try to cheer Lily up. But things don't exactly turn out as he hoped they would and instead they take an almost horribly turn. Thankfully though things end up getting worked out and they just might turn out to be good.

"Maybe if it were up to me I wouldn't have the whole world collectively believe in Santa Claus, but I would definitely have them collectively believe in something because there is a messed-up kind of beauty in the way we can all bend over backward to make life seem magical when we want to. In other words, after giving it some thought, I think that reality has the distinct potential to completely suck, and the way to get around that is to step out of reality from time to time and find something a little more enjoyable with someone you completely, unadulterated enjoy. In my life, that's you. And if it takes dressing up like Santa to get that across to you, then so be it."

When I first finished this book I wasn't really happy with it. But the more I got to thinking about it and started to figure out why I didn't like it as much. I realized that the problem was that I did like it and I wasn't sure how to deal with that, because of how I felt about the first one. In this book, Dash and Lily are out of the honeymoon phase of their relationship. Things aren't all sunshine and rainbows and real life has been happening all around them. Lily isn't this little ball of sunshine anymore instead she's stressed out to the max teenager who is dealing with a lot of different things. And Dash well he's happier then he used to be, sure he's also slightly stressed out, but mostly he just want lily to be happy and to help her, but he's not exactly sure how until Langston offers him some advice.

"Wherever she is, whatever she's doing- it's not about you. It's about her. And you have to let it be about her. Sometimes we don't want to be found right away. If we step away, it's because we need to be found on our own terms."

The lack of communication these two have is real as well as the problems they face in and outside of there relationship. I found this book honestly refreshing in the ya contemporary category for a change. Dash and Lily were still somewhat the same, but they are also changing and growing.

"But I don't like it, okay? I don't like how everything is changing. It's like when you're a kid, you think that things like the holidays are meant to show you how things always stay the same, how you have the same celebration year after year, and that's why it's so special. But the older you get, the more you realize that, yes there are all these things that link you to the past, and you're using the same words and singing the same songs that have always been there for you, but each time, things have shifted, and you have to deal with that shift."

Now I am honestly glad that a second book was made for these two. Not only was it nice to get back with characters we already knew, but to seem them dealing with real-life problems and not just in the honeymoon phase. Seeing a couple work together and bringing out the best in each other is something that I like reading about more than what the first one was about. Sure we need the honeymoon phase and sunshine and rainbows, but if it's not going to last then I don't like getting invested in these characters. But I can happily say that I do like Dash and Lily now and I hope that maybe in a few more years we get another book about them and how they are doing then.
"I don't know what will happen between him and me in the future, and I hope I'll be okay with whatever does, but I know that no matter what, he was drawn to that notebook because he belongs with us. He's family."

[Sam@WLABB]

I fell in love with Dash and Lily, and was very excited to be back in NYC with them. This book takes place a year later. Lily has had a tough year due to familial worries, and Dash is trying to restore her spark. There are more moleskin adventures, clues to solved, and lots of laughs. Dash and Lily have a such sweet romance, and the love of Lily's family is also very special. Both Dash and Lily resolve some old issues, but also face some new ones head on, as things in their world continue to change. For those expecting the same vibe as the first book, it takes a while to get there, Lily is in a dark period, but the last part of the book is all that lovely chaos that I loved in the first book. This book was sweet and cute. It made me laugh and smile and warmed my heart. **I also smiled widely when Where's Fluffy was referenced.