Dash & Lily’s book of dares by David Levithan & Rachel Cohn

When Lily’s parents announce they are going on holiday over the Christmas period leaving her in New York with her older brother in charge, she’s not happy. Delaying Christmas Day until New Years Day is not a popular idea, but furthermore without family around Lily knows it won’t be a proper Christmas and so despite being a lover of it, she can’t wait for this one to be over.

Dash is also alone for Christmas, but as someone who can’t stand the festivities or spending time getting excited, his time alone is planned. With his divorced parents both away and both thinking he’s spending time with each other, Dash has no plans whatsoever to celebrate and instead embraces the freedom.

With her big brother Langston distracted by his new boyfriend and keen to keep her occupied, Lily is given a project to keep her busy over the festive period. As Langston plants a red notebook filled with clues in The Strand bookshop, all she has to do is wait for someone to respond to the dares. With a number of relatives in on the plan, the idea is for the notebook to go back and forth between Lily & a stranger with each of them responding to the dares and creating new ones.

When Dash needs time to think or has any time at all, he spends his days walking among the many shelves of what he considers to be the best place ever invented - The Strand book shop. But when on one of his usual perusals of the shelves he spots a red notebook nestled among other books, he’s intrigued when he reads the first couple of pages & decides to take on the challenge set before him.

As both Lily & Dash set each other up with dares and share their inner most feelings and thoughts, they both find themselves opening up to each other in a way that they would never have done if they didn’t have the notebook. But can two strangers really get to know each other when the only connection they have is a notebook?

This novel was a great read which kept me interested all the way through. Although I’m older than the target audience, I enjoy reading young adult novels to gain an insight into them as I would like to in the future become an author of this genre and this one in my opinion is a great read. I felt myself next to the characters as they made their way across New York setting and completing dares and could feel the cold against my cheeks and hands as the writing made the story come alive.

This book is definitely one I’m glad I’ve read and one which I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.