Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
"“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?"- summary from Amazon

To start off, this is probably the best Cohn and Levithan book to date. I loved their previous two endeavors to bits, but this one just had such a great premise that was executed really well and both Dash and Lily were great characters to read about.

It's such a compelling read because I wanted to know what dares would come up next, what Dash or Lily would write in the notebook they passed back and forth, their eventual meeting in person- it's a thrilling ride. There's also tons of great secondary characters, including quite a few gay ones. My favorite secondary character was probably Lily's brother Langston (a gay one- surprise!) because he was pretty funny. Also vying for that title was Dash's friend Boomer, who is just such a fun, endearing but crazy character.

I did have a couple pet peeves, but nothing that really put me off. In Lily's sections (the book alternates between Dash and Lily), most characters seemed to describe Dash as snarly, which didn't really seem to fit my perspective of him. Snarly seems more mean to me; I'd probably describe him as more of a smart aleck. Another thing was the dialogue- while I did enjoy the dialogue for the most part and laughed a lot (I feel like this is probably their funniest book yet too), at times I would think to myself "These characters are way too quick-witted and eloquent." and it threw off the realism for me. But these are just minor quibbles and more personal preference than anything else.

Overall though, this is a great addition to the Cohn/Levithan collection and I hope they continue to write books together.

FTC: Recieved ARC via Around the World tours. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.