i've been told i was born to endure this kind of weather. (day 10)

sorry you didn't get a christmas craft related post yesterday, nor do you today (later this week, i promise). i was too hooked buy a book i was reading, one that i mentioned on the Christmas Reads post and here's my review on that.

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

Lily is about to spend her Christmas practically alone since her parents have flown to Fiji for their 25th anniversary and her grandfather is in Florida visiting his girlfriend. the only person to keep Lily company is his older brother Langston who is ignoring Lily to spend time with his boyfriend. though Langston has arranged something special for Lily, he has persuaded Lily to leave a red notebook to her favorite bookstore, a book of dares, so that when the right kind of person finds it, he will answer the dare and maybe Lily will finally get a boyfriend, and be out of Langston's hair.

Dash is also spending his Christmas alone, but by choice, he has tricked his divorced parents to be able to do so by telling his mother he is spending the Christmas with his father and vice versa. so with his mother out of town he has the whole place to himself. one day he stumbles upon a red notebook stuck between the books of his favorite author in his favorite bookstore, curious Dash can't resist the dare and so begins the treasure hunt and game of dares that takes Dash and Lily around New York city to places they never thought they'd go. like Macy's during the worst shopping season or a night club full of hipsters and a man dressed in drag as a bouncer. but is Dash the right guy to pick up the book of dares, could the treasure hunt and words in the notebook turn into something more.

Dash and Lily's Book of Dares is a book written by two authors, David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, David wrote Dash's parts and Rachel Lily's. this style of writing works in this book very well, both characters have their own explicit voice. both of the characters are very relatable, Lily is this very happy-go-lucky kind of girl and complete Christmas enthusiast where as Dash is cynical and doesn't care for the Holiday season. he is a word nerd who likes to use big words in his conversation. some may thing that makes him pretentious but i didn't see him that way.

one of the most enjoyable things in the book for me was the side characters, from Lily's brother and his boyfriend to Dash's friends. i also really liked the fact that there are quite a lot of characters of different sexual orientations that are introduced very casually and naturally which doesn't happen too often in books, something similar that i noticed in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, a movie based on a book written by these two authors, a book that's going on my to read list.

i really recommend this modern fairytale for Christmas read to everyone who doesn't shy from romance. this book is witty and smart and laugh out loud funny! a perfectly light holiday read.

“I was attempting to write the story of my life. It wasn't so much about plot. It was much more about character.”