Me on Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Title: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
Author: Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Release Date: October 26, 2010
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Pages: 280 (Hardcover)

This was my first foray into a Rachel Cohn/David Levithan co-written book, and I'll totally admit that I was half-intrigued by the summary and half-intrigued by the cover. It just seemed so fun and urban and happy and winter-y, and I don't usually go for those kinds of books, but then the summary pulled me in and I was all, that sounds so funny.

If you're looking for a quick and easy light, happy, fun, crazy teen romance at Christmas in New York, then give this book a try. :)

Dash is alone at Christmas and wandering through the Strand, the famous bookstore in downtown New York, when he finds a red Moleskine notebook with some challenges in it. It's been left there by a girl named Lily, who is also alone at Christmas (sort of, even though she's got family all over the city and her brother is hiding out in his room with his new boyfriend). She's been looking for someone to play her notebook dare game with, and after discovering someone has taken her up on her offer, she starts to discover Dash, even if he doesn't really come out and tell her his name.

As he tells her in the notebook, "My name is a connector of words." Snarky but genius. Pure Dash. As is the snarly description.

Dash is hugely intelligent (who else but a word nerd would want the whole Oxford English Dictionary?) but he seems alone, drifting through the city while his divorced parents are off with their new significant others to enjoy the holiday. Taking up Lily's red notebook of dares satisfies his boredom and introduces him to someone new and interesting, someone he probably wouldn't have met otherwise. Unless they bumped into each other at the Strand. ;)

Lily is bubbly and fun and happy and loves Christmas but she's lonely, too. Her parents are off on a second honeymoon, her brother's too busy spending his time with his new boyfriend to do anything holiday related with her, and her grandfather's off in Florida to propose to his girlfriend. The moment Dash takes her up on her book of dares, she's pulled into a quasi-relationship and when she gets the book back, tries to figure out who this snarly boy is (because there's no way she would've met him as school: all girls school).

After days of communicating through the notebook, the time for them to meet face to face comes, but they're not sure if they want to, if they'll be the same in person as they are on the page.

I love books like this that involve almost meetings and wandering around cities (especially cities I haven't been to) and meeting friends of the other person (oh, Boomer) and actual meetings that are nowhere near what was expected and sweet romances in the winter.