Where I got it: LibraryRating: 3.5 stars
Cover Rating: 5 stars (I love everything about this cover! I love the names on the signs and I love the dusting of snow. Completely perfect!)
Genre: Young Adult
Publication Date: October 26, 2010
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Page Count: 260 p.
Lily's brother decides she needs to find that special someone this Christmas. So he concocts a notebook, which they leave at the Strand. Dash, has decide to be alone this Christmas, and tells each of his divorced parents that he is staying with the other one. So, alone in the days before Christmas, he heads to his favorite place, the bookstore. While perusing his favorite author's section, he comes across the notebook. He decides to accept the challenge, but make some rules of his own. So what was bound to be a boring Christmas for Dash & Lily turns into something so much more than either of them could have anticipated.
Let's start off by saying that I loved Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist [book and movie(Michael Cera!)] but have not yet read Naomi & Ely's No Kiss List. So, I was very interested in this one and could not resist the cover. Though I am not one who loves Christmas, I thought it might make my heart warm a little towards it if I read a fantastic Christmas tale. This was a cute story, though sometimes the characters were a bit over the top in their pseudo-intellectualism. Not that they were stupid, but sometimes it was a little overwhelming how clever the characters seemed to try and be. Also, I don't know if it was Rachel Cohn's writing in this novel or just Lily herself, but I just couldn't really like her. Sometimes I felt okay, but most of the time I just wanted to smack her. Maybe it was because of how naive and reckless she was at times, or something else, but Lily just bleh. All in all though I did enjoy this novel, it made me long for a Christmas tree and snow covered sidewalks.
First Lines:
"Imagine this:
You're in your favorite bookstore, scanning the shelves. You get to the section where your favorite author's books reside, and there, nestled in comfortably between the incredibly familiar spines, sits a red notebook."
Favorite Line:
"Somebody who wouldn't judge another for the prepositions they dangle, or their run-on sentences, and who in turn wouldn't be judged for the snobbery of their language etymology inclinations."
I have yet to read any books by these authors. I'm not really sure about this one, but I might pick up Nick & Norah which I have yet to read or even see. I really like the first lines of the book, though.
ReplyDeleteI felt the same way about the characters ("[they] were a bit over the top in their pseudo-intellectualism"), but you expressed it better than I did. And I wanted to smack Lily, too. So much so that I couldn't finish the book.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the review!