Dash and Lily's Book of Dares is written in alternating chapters by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. The book begins with Dash, written by David Levithan, finding a red notebook hidden on a shelf between two of his favorite books in his favorite bookstore. The book sends him on a scavenger hunt around the store. Dash, a lover of the written word, enjoys the game and decides to add to it. Besides finding the clues around the store, he creates a dare for Lily the girl who left the notebook. Dash, whose mother thinks he is spending Christmas with his father and whose father thinks he is spending Christmas with this mother, has plenty of time to come up with fun dares for Lily.
Lily, whose chapters are written by Rachel Cohn, is sad because her parents have gone on a 25th anniversary trip and left her at home with only her older brother Langston with whom to spend Christmas. Langston has a new boyfriend, so he comes up with the idea of the book of dares to keep Lily occupied during the holidays. Lily has never had a real boyfriend and immediately becomes impressed by Dash. However, more than Dash, Lily discovers a lot about herself through how she deals with the various dares. She has been very sheltered by her extended family, so when Dash dares her to go to a club at 2:00 a.m. she cannot even imagine fallowing through, but she does and surprised even herself.
I liked Nick an Norah's Infinite Playlist which is also by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, but I liked Dash and Lily even better. I found Lily to be delightfully strange and a great character and while Dash was a bit arrogant and pretentious, I enjoyed reading about him too. I really like books with interesting characters and I enjoyed their adventures combined with the gently developing romance between the two.
