⭐⭐⭐✨ (3.5/5)

I read this novel after watching and enjoying the Netflix series (which I would recommend).

The novel is set in New York and follows Dash and Lily over the Christmas Period. At the start of the novel, Dash finds a red notebook (left by Lily) in a bookshop and begins to complete the tasks laid out in its pages. This soon turns into a back and forth exchange between Dash and Lily via the notebook and we follow the dares that they complete and the lessons that they learn along the way.

Overall, this was a good read and I did like it, but because I had enjoyed the series, I think I was making a lot of comparisons.

Whilst I enjoyed Dash’s development in the series, it was Lily’s growth that I liked to see in the novel. There was a real sense of her beginning to find her own way and decide how she wanted her life to be. I actually found Dash a bit more pretentious in the novel and it took me a while to get used to his character.

However, as I continued to read the novel I got gradually more invested. Plot wise, it was fairly different to the series which was nice in that I didn’t necessarily know what would happen.

The ending of the novel was a bit disappointing for me, and I definitely preferred how things wrapped up in the series.

Although I liked this novel, I think perhaps I would have liked it more as a teenager as it is more fitting to the kind of books I used to read. That said, it was still enjoyable and still a good book.