I can't even finish this. The pretension nauseates me. When page upon page is spent quoting books in an effort to... I don't know. Reinforce that the character is smart? It's like a brick to the head.

I don't need you to prove to me how smart your character is. How edgy and hipster he is. How quirky and earnest she is. Just show me in context with an interesting storyline (which it has), and strong characters (which it could have had.)

We had our first real snow this weekend and the advent season is approaching, so I decided to pick up Dash & Lily's Book of Dares to get in the mood for Christmas – at least a little bit. Actually, I wanted to save it for later in December, but my curiosity was simply too great.

It was a really sweet, but not too overly kitschy read featuring two likeable main characters. The spirit of the festive season came across in a great way and I enjoyed the dares passing between Lily and Dash with the More...

This review and others can be found on my blog, Bluebird Books.

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DNF at 45%, and on not finishing the book and still reviewing it, I only have one thing to say:

I regret nothing, though it makes me sad that it had to come to this.



Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares is a hot mess of a book. It tries too hard to be cute, deep, and poetic at once, and only succeeds in being none of the above. Oh, I know some people think it’s adorable, but I’m not one of those people and will never be one of those people More...

TBR Reduce Challenge #22- 2011 (Stefanie)

I got a few strange, even evil, looks after explaining I was reading a Christmas book in spring. Like I'm daring the winter weather to come back to Canada and piss everyone off. But, I didn't really care since this book was an absolute hoot!

I really don't have to much to say about this book, except It was freaken hilarious and I don't think I've had so much fun reading about two characters who don't even meet till almost the end of the book, but never th More...

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares was a ton of fun to read. I can see why it garnered so many prizes and awards. It's fantastically written by this quirky duet who is Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

The story starts with Dash finding a red Moleskine diary hidden among other books on the shelves of a renowned NY bookshop, The Strand. On its pages, instructions for a dare by a mysterious girl. Dash, an incredibly bookish and snarly 16 years old with a love for the word fanciful, accepts the dare and More...

I was looking for some young adult Christmas books to read over the holidays and I chose Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares & Let It Snow . I thought Dash & Lily was going to be a cute, Christmas read and nothing more. I didn’t expect it to be so witty and ingenious. I loved Dash straight away. Some people will certainly find him obnoxious at first (he’ll quite happily refer to himself as erudite and bookish), but I love a guy who’s articulate without being pretentious. We’re introduced to More...

Rating Clarification: 4.5 Stars

I loved this book. A.L.O.T.!! And all I can chalk it up to is the fact that I needed a good laugh. I downright, gut wrenching good laugh and this book did it. I literally laughed so much throughout the story that I’d stop and read passages to whatever family member was in listening distance because to me… it was comic brilliance. That is the true markings of a funny book IMO, when my family yells in surrender, “Enough! We know you’ve lost your mind!”

The dares were More...

After an excruciating hiatus from reading, I decided to brighten up my uneventful Christmas with a Christmas-themed book. A quick read, Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares proved to be mildly entertaining but wholly underwhelming and completely forgettable.

The premise is rather curious and quaint: Dash, one of the eponymous heroes of this story, discovers a mysterious journal penned by Lily. Their mild-mannered dares, orchestrated with a scary efficiency and the help of acquiescent friends and family, More...

Where have you been all my life?

Love, love, love.
Why oh why did this book have to be only 260 pages long? If it had been 800 pages, I would've wanted it to be longer! This book is incredible and maybe just maybe one of the best I have ever read. AHHH! I just love this book to pieces. If I could, I would marry this book.

No question that the characters are my favorite part. I especially enjoyed reading from Lily's point of view, although I LOVED Dash, too. Sometimes books with alternating poin More...

I highly recommend Dash & Lily's Book of Dares.

DELIGHTFUL.

Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares is the perfect Christmas read. It took me around New York in the busiest time of the year with Dash’s abhorrence versus Lily’s ecstasy for the holidays. It kinda remind me of the movie Serendipity: same Christmas-in-New-York setting with the same non-meetings but with the longing of meeting the one another.

Dash and Lily are the total opposites. Dash never recovered from his parents’ nasty divorce; Lily More...

Where oh where were the intelligent cute snarly boys when I was a nerdish sixteen year old in need of a small adventure? Oh well.
These two authors develop a great story between them, with each having a great distinct voice and characterization. Yet the two halves fit together perfectly. There isn't too much description which I think adds to the overall effect of the story, we get to know Dash and Lily only through their words and thoughts.
The story is very believable as they go to various locat More...

Original post at One More Page

One day early this year (way before I met the Goodreads people) I was going around Fully Booked in Eastwood when I suddenly had this little fantasy. I wondered: what if, as I was looking for books to get, I meet a guy who has the same taste in books as I do? A straight, single guy, near my age, who reads for fun? And let's make him cute, too.

It was a little fantasy that my friends and I entertained often, and it almost became a topic of a story for my fiction blog ( More...

2.5

I found it hard to engage in the story and wasn't really into it until the halfway mark (and even then I felt restless while reading it ~ as if waiting for some awesome to happen). Having said that ~ I think this will make a cute and fun movie (it has been optioned).

Also, I wanted some fun and wild dares while roaming around New York at Christmas and I expected a romance (a hip, funky one) and I guess it all just played out differently to what I imagined.

Some of the lines were cute/funny but More...

This was a really fun read, made doubly so by the fact that I read it during my trip to NYC and could picture, right down to the bookshelf, Dash and Lily on their travels. It totally made me wish I could have a book of dares with someone, though I don't know if I'd be game enough to follow through in real life. I loved Lily - loved that she was quirky but not in an off-putting way, loved that she loved to bake and read, loved that she loved her family, and loved that she LOVED Christmas. Dash to More...

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares is a wacky romp through New York, starting in the famous book store, The Strand. It had me laughing hysterically in parts, and is laced with heartfelt introspection.

The story starts out with a red notebook and a dare. This notebook lands into the hands of Dash, the perfect person for this pursuit. It’s Christmas time and Dash is alone by his own design. He’s not a big fan of Christmas, and some of the assignments or dares are pure torture for him because of this. T More...

So, I’ve never read any David Levithan, or Rachel Cohn novels before, although I’ve heard of their previously highly acclaimed works before; I’ve watched Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist way back when, but I never really liked it. Maybe I should read the book. Anyway.

So why did I choose to read this book now? Well, just read the description!! How could I resist reading about serendipitous love in NYC, during the holidays?!? Oh, and communicating via red, moleskin journal? Sounds too unique, More...

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares is a cute, quick and pleasing enough of a read. It definitely evoked holiday merriment and these two writers swapped POV's very well. I liked both Dash and Lily as characters, though I enjoyed the former much more than the later. Levithan is certainly the more talented writer in this duo. Nonetheless, neither of these characters would ever pass for being 16. I don't know any teenagers that speak or act this way. I don't even know many adults who speak or act this wa More...

Ahh they did it again! Rachel Cohn e David Leviathan são maravilhosos! eu já tinha adorado o Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist e este Dash & Lily's Book of Dares não fica atrás (até acho que gostei mais deste último)

O livro é tão fofinho, as personagens são carismáticas, opostas em si mas complementam-se! É um livro delicioso para ler-se naqueles dias em que o cérebro não exige muito. :)

Gostei bastante :D More...

This book was cute and funny, but failed to make me care about the actual characters as opposed to the things happening to them.

I liked the premise. Two unusual individuals communicate through a moleskin notebook and kindle an awkward romance - but meeting in real life brings a myriad of difficulties they never imagined. There were so many interesting ideas in this book: Can love really bloom from interactions not taking place in real life? Should one should wait for love to come to them or acti More...

"I was attempting to write the story of my life. It wasn't so much about plot. It was much more about character." - Dash

Check out my video review: http://www.youtube.com/user/thereadab...

4.5, but rounding it to 5 because it made me feel fluffy and good.

Sometimes there are books that make you think about the true meaning of friendship and love. Sometimes we find ourselves feeling so isolated in the world that one day we discover a red notebook that keeps us feeling like we are truly not alone. Dash and Lily's Book of Dares is a novel that warms the heart on a cold winter's night.

As I am writing this review it is four days until Christmas Day. This book was the perfect holiday rea More...

You can read more reviews at my blog, The Armchair Librarian!

One thing I credit this book with is giving me the perfect word to describe unfriendly hipsters: snarly.

Apart from that, though, it was a bust.

The title is great, and the premise is, too. I love the idea of two teenagers meeting in a bookstore through a notebook, and going on adventures that bring them closer and closer together. It's like a scavenger hunt, and the prize is your soulmate.

I think my problem with Dash & Lily is, epon More...

Read This Review & More Like It At Ageless Pages Reviews

3.5 Stars.

If Cohn and Levithan’s first collaboration, Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, was a fantasy of teenagers in love, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares is a full on fairytale, complete with Cinderella’s lost shoe. Whether or not you’ll appreciate this book depends on a number of factors. I’ve provided a small graphic to help you decide:



As a former high school nerd with a superiority complex, (it’s not that I lacked social skill More...

"Imagine this:
You're in your favorite bookstore, scanning the shelves. You get to the section where a favorite author's books reside, and there,nestled in comfortably between the incredibly familiar spines, sits a red notebook." I was going to save this book for Christmastime (the time during which this book takes place) but I was going through a bad case of "book block" and was making frequent trips to my basement "library" to scan my books and watching book videos on YouTube, trying to get so More...

WARNING: The following "review" will make no sense whatsoever. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!

As you could probably tell by the cover (or maybe the synopsis) this book takes place around Christmas time. This book was just so awesome that I completely thought that is was Christmas time (as in winter break, since it would have been obvious that it wasn't Christmas. Even though there are Christmas trees in my living room...in October). But the point is, I THOUGHT IT WAS CHRISTMAS TIME!! And I forgot it was a More...

Eh. It was cute. But really, that's about all it was. If your looking for a sweet and simple read, Dash Lily's Book of Dares is, without a doubt, the book for you. If not, I'd suggest trying something else.

I don't know why but, I expected something more from David Levithan and Rachel Cohn. Because you know, it's so not right to have certain expectations for an author that also works as an editor. Stupid, stupid me. I should have learned my lesson long ago.



But maybe I'm being a bit too harsh. Th More...

More of my reviews can be found at Flipping Through the Pages!

What can I say about this? Oh, I have such a hard time writing reviews for contemporary books (Brodie, I know what you're going to say, but I won't say this review is dodgy... for your sake), I just don't find them as easy to review as fantasy or paranormal because not only have I only just started reading contemporary, but most of the time, I feel I can seriously relate in one way or the other.

A snarly boy named Dash finds a red mole More...

What a fantastic read! Here's what I thought:
1. It didn't feel short at all. There's so much that happens within these 260 pages.
2. The characters are amazing. Great voices and personalities; very relatable, I saw myself in both Dash and Lily.
3. It was an interesting storyline, with many sub-plots happening along with the main idea.
4. A bit slow at times. Full pages of no dialogue, just descriptions of things. Some of these things readers may know about, some they may not. For the times I had no More...

Dash just isn’t a Christmas person. This year, he’s managed to take advantage of his parents’ divorce by telling each of them he’s spending the holidays with the other, so he can be alone. Among the bookshelves of the Strand in New York, Dash finds a red moleskine notebook challenging him to a series of dares. Lily, the owner of the notebook, loves everything Christmas and even organized her own choir group. The notebook was her brother’s idea, in efforts to find her the perfect guy. As Dash and More...