For What It's Worth


Wednesday, November 30, 2016

review: the twelve days of dash and lily (dash & lily #2)


26258306Dash and Lily have had a tough year since they first fell in love among the shelves of their favorite bookstore. Lily’s beloved grandfather suffered a heart attack, and his difficult road to recovery has taken a major toll on her typically sunny disposition.

With only twelve days left until Christmas—Lily’s favorite time of the year—Dash, Lily’s brother Langston, and their closest friends must take Manhattan by storm to help Lily recapture the unique holiday magic of a glittering, snow-covered New York City in December. ~
Goodreads

Source: arc provided by the publisher via ALA16 in exchange for an honest review

Review: In the sequel to the beloved Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, we catch up with Dash and Lily one year after they first met and started dating.

I’m really curious to hear what fans of book #1 think of this one because the tone is so…sad. Not only for Dash and Lily as a couple but also because Lily has lost her Christmas spirit. A lot of that whimsy of two kids traipsing around NY and falling in love is gone.

The Twelve Days of Christmas is more of a story about growing up and family – not a fun bonus holiday sequel to Dash and Lily’s romance.

If you recall, Lily was a rather sheltered girl in the first book and even after one year dating Dash she’s much the same. Her grandfather has a heart attack and Lily’s rose colored world comes crashing down. As the family makes difficult decisions regarding her grandfather and try to move on with their own lives, they realize their over coddling of Lily has left her completely unprepared to deal with real life. Feeling as if she’s alone, Lily pushes everyone away.

Dash is left struggling and confused as to how to deal with her and tries to pull her out of her funk starting with his twist on the 12 days of Christmas with mixed results.

Lily and Dash keep trying to connect emotionally but keep missing the mark. Although Dash is going through some difficulty with his divorced parents – this is really Lily’s story. She has to learn to cope with life when it’s out of her control and still love the people around her even when they aren’t perfect. She could get pretty frustrating at times with her high expectations for everyone and pouty behavior but it’s something she needed to go through.

There are a few fun NY adventures that, at times, felt cheesy, implausible, and way over the top, but very Dash & Lily. And there was dialogue delivered by various characters that felt like a * very important life message* and came off very heavy handed. The supporting cast of characters were lots of fun though and helped provide some much needed levity.

This is very shitty review as far as encouraging you to read this lol but seriously, I liked it a lot – it’s just probably not what readers will be expecting or want. Or maybe I’m wrong on that. It has pretty mixed reviews on Goodreads for the reasons I mentioned but I would love to hear what you guys that of it if you've read it - or if you plan on reading it.

26 comments:

  1. Hmmm...I haven't picked this one up yet and I'm so afraid...I loved the first soooo much...

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    1. I really liked it! I just think you need to know what it is - and what it's not - going in. I was expecting a fun bonus/Christmas story and it wasn't that.

      But it was very good next stage of their romance/coming of age (for Lily) story.

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  2. Not a shitty review, I think you explained it pretty well and I'm still intrigued lol :)

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  3. I really need to read the first book. Now that it is time to deal with Christmas, I don't mind the theme. LOL AND you did a good review b/c you reminded me I want to try that first book as well.

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    1. The first one is very Christmasy so it's a good time to pick it up.

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  4. I'm glad you liked it! Sorry to hear it's a bit sad though...I still need to read the first book! Soon!

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    1. It's just not what I was expecting since Lily is SO in love with Christmas. The tone was pretty sad for most of the book. It was ok though. It's what she needed to go through - just like I said - not what I was expecting.

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  5. I read the first one and I wanted to fall in love with it but it just never happened for me. I think I'm one of few though. Never really had much interest in continuing with the second.

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    1. I did like the 1st but probably not as much as everyone else. I didn't even think they made a good couple lol but I liked the NYC setting.

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  6. Wow, sounds like this has a totally different feel from the first book. I read the first one a couple years ago and thought it was okay but didn't seem to love it like so many others do.

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    1. It is, even though it still very Dash & Lily. They both had some unresolved issues and it's dealt with in more detail here.

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  7. I admit that I have never read the 1st book, but that sounds like a sad book and I hate books with messages. But I can relate to not feeling the holiday spirit. I'm glad that it was like the other book, but I think that I will pass on it. lol

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    1. I'm surprised. I think you would really like both of them Julie!

      It's not a message book at all - there are just a few times where a character says something that seems like it's trying to drive home a point.

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  8. I'll breeze throough this if I get the chance to read it. It sounds heartfelt but still fun and light sort of.

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    1. I really enjoyed it once I got past what I thought it was lol It does have a light festive ending.

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  9. I'm glad to see you had some patience with Lily when she was going through her... moods, I guess you could call them? :) Sometimes, it's hard to look over stuff like that because you just want to shake the character sometimes! ;) I'm super duper happy to see that you're all in the Christmas spirit and getting some good books read! <3

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    1. I'm REALLY trying to get better about that! lol Some people take time to come around and lord knows I didn't have everything worked out at that age. Or now hehe

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  10. I picked this book up and didn't even know it was a sequel. This sounds like such a deep book, but it makes sense that it's a Christmas book - I feel like people are super introspective around this time of the year.

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    1. It is but it isn't if that makes sense.

      They're still maturing and growing up and Christmas is the catalyst.

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  11. it sounds like the fun characters helped balance out the heavy portion of the story. I do love seeing character growth in stories though.

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    1. They did! And they gave those necessary "smack upside the head" lectures when needed lol

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  12. I loved book one, those kind of spontaneous adventure romances but I've been hesitate whether or not to pick up a copy in case it ruins book one for me. It sounds like they might have tried a little too hard to recreate the same type of storyline, but more moody and drama filled. Ohhh, I still don't know Karen, although the character development has me excited. I might read it over the Christmas hiatus and hopefully able to enjoy it as much as you have. Wonderful review <3 <3

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    1. It wasn't ruined for me. I always felt that Lily needed to grow more so I thought it was nice to see. I was just stunned at how sad this was at times. I thought it was going to be super romantic now that they were together for the holidays lol

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