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

When Dash finds a mysterious red notebook at a bookstore, it leads into a series of dares and scavenger hunts with Lily, an effervescent girl who is also intrigued with the boy on the other side of the notebook.

I was horribly bookish, to the point of coming right out and saying it, which I knew was not socially acceptable.  I particularly loved the adjective bookish, which I found other people used about as often as ramrod or chum or teetotaler.  --Dash p.3

I've always resented Hermione, because I anted to be her so badly and she never seemed to appreciate as much as I thought she should that she got to be her.  She got to live at Hogwarts and be friends with Harry and kiss Ron, which was supposed to happen to me.   --Lily  p.77

If I has to review this book in one word it would be Charming.  This is a lovely, hilarious, and charming holiday story.  I wasn't sure, at first, how I felt about Dash.  He annoyed me a bit at the beginning.  It was not love at first sight, but I grew to love him and Lily, too, of course.  I really liked her.  She was so sweet and perky and I liked how she was trying to become more mature yet was so very innocent at the same time.  And by end I was enamoured of both and happy with how things turned out for them.

In a way, Dash and Lily is the happier, more Christmasy version of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist though the only thing stories have in common is the movement of the characters.  They never really stay still, always go from one dare to the other.  But, while Nick and Norah were together most of their book, Dash and Lily only know each other through the red notebook the majority of this book.  It's not a new idea, two characters communicating but never meeting, but it comes off as fresh in the Book of Dares.  There are some genuinely laugh out loud moments that had me laughing in public and it is a very sweet, fun book and a great addition to a YA Christmas collection.

Hogwarts: Charms
Holiday Reading