Dash & Lily's Book of Dares (Netflix Series Tie-In Edition)

By: Rachel Cohn, David Levithan

Narrated by: Ryan Gesell, Tara Sands

Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

A whirlwind romance from the New York Times best-selling authors of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, soon to be a Netflix original series starring Austin Abrams and Midori Francis!

Lily left a red notebook full of challenges on her favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. Dash, in a bad mood during the holidays, happens to be the first guy to pick up the notebook and rise to its challenges. What follows is a whirlwind romance as Dash and Lily trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations all across New York City. But can their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions, or will their scavenger hunt end in a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

©2010 Rachel Cohn and David Levithan (P)2010 Listening Library

Yearly Christmas Book

I don't know there's just something about Dash and Lily around the holiday season. I read this yearly.

Missed the Mark

This story was a cute idea poorly executed. Some passages of the writing were quite clever, while too many of them tried too hard with the cutsey/trying not to be cutsey New York too-clever-and-hip-for-you language. Also, I did not find it believable that the two main characters could be a couple: while the young man comes across as an intelligent and nice person (who may be open-minded to any number of possibilities) the girl just plain seems too young for him. Her maturity and (lack-of) experience just seems too far behind where he is in life. Through the notebook you do get the hint that they might indeed be compatible - only, in a few years after she's "grown up" a little more. To be more convincing, the female voice needed to sound just a little bit older. Also, I found the ending a bit anti-climactic. So, I regret to say this did not win me over.

Book Lovers Fun Read

Book of Dares keeps you so mesmerized and is so romantic too. I loved it.

Very good story

If you could sum up Dash & Lily's Book of Dares in three words, what would they be?

Fast paced and lovely

What other book might you compare Dash & Lily's Book of Dares to and why?

I would compare it to:
1) Just One Wish - Janette Rallison
2) Take me There - Susane Colasanti

because they were all good stories and fast paced events

What does Ryan Gesell, and Tara Sands bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

they perform the characters in such a way that I really liked .. The voice of dash was AMAZING

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

it make LAUGH ALOT

Any additional comments?

the book was so good and the ending was so great looking farward to read more from these authors

Heartwarming Young Adult Novel

Loved the innocence of this book. Engaging imagery. Performance was animated to hold the reader's attention but not seem hokey.

Not bad, but...

Not bad, but I think I actually liked the Netflix show better. To be fair I watched the show better I listened to the book and yes, the book was good, but I definitely think I enjoyed the plot and happenings of the show better.

Holiday Cheer

A festive and adorable tale of an unlikely couple !! Both the main charactors have so much depth!

Delightful

This novel was delightfully worded. I loved all of the vocabulary that was used.
The male narrator did an excellent job. He was very believable. Dash was an interesting character and I found myself liking him more than anyone else. The female narrator was way too enthusiastic and I didn't enjoy listening to her all that much. Lily acted more like an 11 year old than 16 year old, but overall the characters were realistic.
This story was fun and cute. I found myself laughing at times and being able to relate well at others.

Show was better :(

90% of the time, the book is better, but in this case I found that the Netflix show was much more enjoyable. The show took the characters and made them more believable and likable. For instance, Dash’s good friend Boomer is annoyingly stupid in the book, but the show makes him into a real human. The show also wrangles in Dash’s obnoxious and pretentious personality to make him more approachable. Lily comes off as too childish in the book and much more realistic in the show. Also, how the show deals with her childhood trama is much more relatable and heartbreaking.

The book was good in a goofy don’t take serious type of way, but the show caught all the cuteness of the book and developed it more believably and only cut the over the top scenes. The flow of the show was just better.

The narrators did a good job, but the way Ryan Gesell narrated Lily’s dialogue made me hate her. Tara Sands did a good job of Dash’s dialogue.

Overall, the book was enjoyable enough. I can’t decide if I will just wait for season two or listen to book two.

Girl Narrator Issues

Book was a cute Christmas young adult book which was easy to follow but interesting enough to keep me listening. My problem was with the girl narrator. While she did sound like a sassy teenage girl, I know myself as a teenager would not have appreciated the "valley girl" voice that the character was given. I waited patiently for the boy narrations so I could relax back into the story, the girl voice got on my nerves.