Our two main characters are ostensibly polar opposites. Dash is a pessimistic young man damaged by his parents' nasty break up and lack of familial connection. He's snarky and bookish and proud of it: "I was a Decemberist, a Bolshevik, a career criminal, a philatelist trapped by unknowable anguish--whatever everyone else was not, I was willing to be."
Lily is naive and starry-eyed and loveable--the much-adored and overprotected baby of her extended, close-knit family. Lily loves Christmas with all the trimmings--she's the kind of person who organizes caroling societies and bakes six kinds of spritz cookies at four in the morning. With her parents out of town this Christmas on a silver anniversary vacation, Lily is bored and lonely until her older brother Langston creates "the notebook"--a beautiful red notebook full of clues that will lead a prospective boyfriend to Lily. Langston leaves the notebook at the famous bookstore The Strand where Dash discovers it and thus, the adventure begins.
The romance unfolds like a giddy summer camp scavenger hunt in famous locations around New York City with a cast of quirky secondary characters that add to the merriment. For me it was the best kind of romantic comedy where the chemistry is palpable, the dialogue is crisp and smart, and the ending is not a foregone conclusion. Like Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (also by Levithan and Cohn), it looks like Dash and Lily may get made into a movie as it currently has a screenwriter and producer attached to the project. Here's hoping they do these likeable characters justice.
