The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Unlike my other book reviews where I do one book at a time, I am including the reviews for all three books.

Book One:

Title: Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares

Series: Dash and Lily #1

Author: Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Holiday

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

After Dash finds a red notebook with a dare challenging him in it, a correspondence starts between Dash and Lily. This takes place over Christmastime, in New York City. Dash hates Christmas and loves being alone, while Lily lives for Christmas and is surrounded by a huge family. As they travel across the city, alternating between Dash and Lily’s point of views, New York comes alive.

I read this book last year and loved it. Upon rereading it this year, I still loved it, but it wasn’t as great I remembered it.

I love both the main characters and the supporting characters, as well as the antics that take place throughout the story. This is the most fun book in the series.

I particularly love how story revolves around the dares that take them around the city. My favorite scene was probably the Crimson Alert and the subsequent park scene. This had me laughing out loud.

Book Two:

Title: The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily

Series: Dash and Lily #2

Author: Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Holiday

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

Dash and Lily have been together for a year and it hasn’t been easy. After Lily’s grandfather had a heart attack, she has been nursing him back to help, which has caused her to grow distant. Dash realizes he needs to do something to get Lily back to her normal self. Here comes another Christmas adventure.

I really liked the sequel; there were so many funny parts and some emotional ones as well.

I loved the duel scene and the ice-skating misadventure. These were the most entertaining moments, and I was laughing out loud!

This book does deal with heavier topics than in the previous book. However, in some regards I feel like these topics were a little glossed over; they seemed to always go back to the romance between Dash and Lily.

Quotes:

“Be sad. Be happy. Be thrilled. Be despondent. But don’t lose sight of everyone else. Not when you’re happy, and not when you’re sad”

Book Three:

Title: Mind the Gap, Dash and Lily

Series: Dash and Lily #3

Author: Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance, Holiday

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

Dash and Lily have graduated high school. Dash is going to college in London, while Lily is taking a gap year, working on her business. However, Dash doesn’t like Cambridge as much as he thought he would, and Lily doesn’t know if she wants to go to college at all. So, Lily comes to London to meet Dash for Christmas break, though it soon spirals out of control.

This book took place in London and there was something missing because of it. I missed many of the characters and New York City.

I did enjoy the story overall. It was fun and cute, while dealing with some heavy things.

It touched upon mental health issues, but it wasn’t dealt with in great detail, which I didn’t love. In the beginning of the book, I thought the direction would go towards that college isn’t for everyone, but it didn’t do that. I would have liked for this book to have that.

Overall, I really enjoyed this series. There were some really fun scenes that cause you to laugh out loud. Some of the heavier topics were glazed over a bit, and the series did get progressively more serious. This series is perfect for people looking for a cute holiday adventure.