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

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Non-series

Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
ISBN-10: 0-375-86659-0
ISBN-13: 978-0-375-86659-3
Publication Date: October, 2010
List Price: $16.99

Review: Romantic! Epic! A twist in every chapter! Dash & Lily's Book of Dares is a must read if you are into romantic, funny, heart-warming, clever and witty novels. The book is a heart-touching romance between a boy and a girl, (Dash and Lily) that are at first complete strangers that meet through a red journal Lily purposely leaves behind at a favorite store of hers. This is a brilliant book written by too fantastic authors, Rachel Cohn (author of Lily's chapters) and David Levithan (author of Dash's chapters.) This story isn't continued in another book, but there is a series of other similar stories by the same authors, such as Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist .

The novel consists of two main characters, Dash and Lily, your average16 year olds. During a time period of 10 days, the two clever teenagers exchange a red notebook notebook containing information on their own lives, and other stories and adventures, never revealing who they are, until Lily panics and accidently takes the book home with her, leaving Dash with no possible way of finding her - so she thought. Unsuspectedly on December 27th while Lily's about to dive into her first kiss with Edgar Theobald, out of the corner of her eye, she sees a young man who identifies himself as Dash, walk into her unclear drunken vision. They meet up in a park, a few days after their first encounter. One event leads to another and before they know it they are in the back of a squad car being taken downtown. After being released from jail on New Year's Eve, they go onto an adventure in the Strand, (a book store) and find themselves locked in the storage room, in a basement trapped together for the rest of the night.

This book is definitely a book suited for mature readers; curses and other inappropriate sayings or words are commonly used in the text. But the book is still entertaining, clever, and easy to read. The characters of Lily and Dash have a lot and common and are the perfect match for each other. They have great chemistry and click easily. The book leaves you wanting more and lets you into the lives that these two adventurous teens live and fulfill. The voices and narrations of Dash and Lily fit there personalities perfectly; the authors do a great job describing them and their own life styles, so the book makes more sense to the readers. Some things that I liked about the book were how there are two different narrators to keep the book interesting and upbeat, and under every chapter title was the date which shows the progress and time of the two characters' lives. The book was hard to put down and one of my favorite books. I recommend it to everyone.

Review written by Samantha (6th grade student).

We would like to thank Random House for providing a copy of Dash & Lily's Book of Dares for this review.

Have you read Dash & Lily's Book of Dares? How would you rate it?