Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

by Rachel Levithan Cohn

[Rowena]

What a short read this book turned out to be and an enjoyable short read, too.

I really enjoyed this book because the concept behind the whole book of dares thing was just too cute for words. This book made it onto my radar because Ames read and liked it. I can almost always tell that I’m going to like a book that Ames has liked because I haven’t disliked a book that she’s recommended me.

This book follows young Dash and Lily as they get to know each other through a red notebook with clues to their next adventures. They get to know each other through these clues and they grow closer over their Christmas holidays spent without their parents. Dash found Lily’s red notebook at the Strand bookstore in NYC and followed the clues set forth in the book and the back and forth between the two of them began. The way that these two “meet” was too cute for words. I loved the clues, I loved the notebook and I loved seeing these two come together because really, they were too adorable for words.

Dash is loner type of guy who’s been through a tough custody battle between his parent so he’s a lot wiser than his young years and he’s tricks his parents into leaving him alone for the Christmas holiday. Lily is kind of the opposite as Dash where she loves Christmas and is not happy that her parents took their 25 year anniversary trip over the Christmas holiday.

The two of them made quite the pair and I really thought that Cohn and Levithan wrote a great story with two characters that I came to love over the course of the book. I’m really looking forward to reading more by these two (I haven’t read Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist but I will now). This book was enjoyable but as much as I enjoyed it, I wanted more to the ending. The way that it ended, I hope that there’s another story to follow. I’m totally crossing my fingers for another book featuring these two. I definitely recommend this book to anyone who enjoys stories by either author or really, to anyone who enjoys contemporary YA. This book doesn’t disappoint.