Rachel Cohn

A cute, fun read! Although Dash was a little (okay, very, and almost annoyingly so) pretentious, and I got some weird and eye-rolling "I'm not like OtHeR gIrLs, I'm QuIrKy!!!" vibes from Lily, I found myself grinning at their communications to each other and overall invested in the story.
I think the writing, particularly in Dash's chapters, was solid and had a distinct style to it. The setting is in NYC, and while I feel like that could easily fall into cliche writing, I think the authors did a good job of establishing the bustling, festive, sometimes grimy atmosphere that is NYC during December.

My least favorite part of this book had to be the fact that all these teens had a very "easy" time doing what they did. Dash has somehow convinced both his parents (divorced) that he is spending the holidays at the other parents house. I get that this is fiction, but sometimes these circumstances that YA main characters get into are super convenient and fairly unbelievable. Lily happens to have this HUGE family spread all across NYC, and they all have jobs in, again, very convenient places that make the plot a little too easy for my liking. The family also all 'happens' to be on vacation/distracted with something else/very wealthy, which makes it super easy for Lily to get away with a lot of what she does and where she goes.

Again, all in all, it was an entertaining read, and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a feel-good YA romance with a little city adventure thrown in. I think I would read another book with these two characters!… (mere)

First of all, one of my all-time biggest pet peeves is girls who call each other "bitch" like it's a cute nickname, as in "Okay, bitch. Love you!" (which is a direct quote from this book). Ugh.

I must be getting old because reading this book made me think, Do 18 year olds really talk like this? The dialogue was kind of like Dawson's Creek: a little too clever and contrived.

I thought I was going to like this, but I mostly didn't. The characters weren't likable, but angsty in a boring way. They wax poetic and they get all dramatic and I'm thinking, There are many reasons I never want to be a teenager again. Gross.

As with so many other hot YA books, I see the teen appeal in a detached librarian way, but I was personally disappointed. I only really read N&NIP because Michael Cera is playing Nick in the movie. I don't know how he's going to pull it off because his other roles have been on a totally different wavelength.… (mere)

Every now and then, when I come off the back of something really heavy and adult, I want a little light YA fiction to cleanse my palate.
Levithan (always want to type Leviathan when I see that) and Cohen are firm favourites for me in this respect. Occupying the land somewhere between Nick at Night, John Hughes and Gregg Araki, their books are a source of incredible comfort and simplicity.

Don't we all miss the times when all you had to do was flunk out of school and care about records and these were the most important things in the world?
The times when you were genuinely massively excited about what your whole life held for you and all the new experiences that were waiting?

This is what that is. with a slight edge.

As in Nick & Norah's and Dash & Lily's the story is set in NYC and references a bunch of bands that you love (and guys, I once read a Tao Lin book because he mentioned Jawbreaker once) This book isn't going to change your life, but I don't think that makes it any less valid.

As for all the people saying that the characters are unlikeable, hi guys! I'm not sure if you noticed this about yourselves, but most people in their late teens/early 20s are horrible, self centred idiots. It's who you are before you figure out how to be awesome, eh?

I didn't love this book as much as the other two, but it completely satisfies that Paula Danzinger craving that I sometimes get. If you're at the right age to read it, it's probably ace.… (mere)