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

Dash 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.