WinterHaven Sleigh Tour Review and Giveaway: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Today, YA Novelties is excited to join the WinterHaven Sleigh Tour hosted by WinterHaven Books. This week, we are posting our choice of a Winter Book Review. To see who else is on the sleigh, go to WinterHaven Sleigh Tour  for a list of participating blogs.

As part of the festivities, WinterHaven Books is hosting an international giveaway that will include a copy of Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Signed by Levithan and Cohn) and a copy of Let it Snow to four lucky winners. Good luck and happy holidays!

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
By Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Published: October 26, 2010
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Paperback, 272 pages

“I’ve left some clues for you.

If you want them, turn the page.

If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the New York Times bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Rachel Cohn and David Levithan have written a love story that will have readers perusing bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.

--Goodreads

4.5 Stars

Review

It turns out there are actually a limited amount of good Christmas books, which makes absolutely no sense to me because who wants to read a bad book over Christmas? Thankfully, Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares is a thoroughly enjoyable and amusing read and goes really well with a cup of hot chocolate with exactly two large marshmallows.

The book alternates the point of view every chapter; Levithan writes Dash’s chapters and Cohn writes Lily’s. Dash is slightly pessimistic and cynical, and is most often described by other characters as “snarly”. This is mostly a result of his parents’ terrible divorce. At the beginning of the story, he is at home alone, having told his mother he was going on vacation with his dad and his dad that he would be with his mother. He is also highly intelligent, and Levithan writes a little too intellectually and philosophically for the reader to actually believe it’s being written by a fifteen year-old. It’s the worst in the first few chapters; he dumbs down to the level of a normal super-smart teenager as the story goes on.

Lily, by contrast, is incredibly optimistic about everything (she goes caroling during Christmas time) and she comes from a large, incredibly loving family. Her brother Langston and his boyfriend Benny write some dares in a red notebook which they leave in the Strand in hopes that it will help Lily get a boyfriend. The notebook is picked up by Dash and he writes his own dares and leaves it for her. Most of the book follows each of them finding the book and carrying out the dares before writing their own. Neither of them meet each other until later on in the book.

The book would not be nearly as good without Lily’s many relatives and Dash’s friend Boomer, who are all very strange but lovable people. All in all, this is a great read for Christmas break and for anytime when you just want to relax with a happy book.

Purchase this book here: Amazon/ B&N/ TBD

Giveaway Time: As part of the festivities, WinterHaven Books is hosting an international give-away that will include a copy of Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Signed by Levithan and Cohn) and a copy of Let it Snow to four lucky winners. Good luck and happy holidays!

a Rafflecopter giveaway