I enjoyed this book. I really loved the london setting. It was a read that def focused alot on lilly and dash and finding what they wanted in the their life. It was not a super fun read like the 1st one or even a book like all I want for christmas, but I loved seeing these characters again. I also liked that it did tackle harder issues like anxiety and depression for dash. I did like this book, but it was def not my favorite book in the series. ( )

I enjoyed this book. I really loved the london setting. It was a read that def focused alot on lilly and dash and finding what they wanted in the their life. It was not a super fun read like the 1st one or even a book like all I want for christmas, but I loved seeing these characters again. I also liked that it did tackle harder issues like anxiety and depression for dash. I did like this book, but it was def not my favorite book in the series. ( )

This is the first book series in a while where I would get so lost in it that I stopped analyzing specific things, and I’m so happy. I was happy to finally just enjoy the book just to enjoy it. My favorite will always be the first book in the series, I think, but this one I think is my second favorite. I loved the new setting, and as always, I love Dash. Dash is such a relatable character for me, and he will always be my favorite in this series. I think what I missed most in this book was the presence of Boomer. I hope if there are more books, he’ll be in them more. But overall, this series made me feel so happy. ( )

Always enjoyable to revisit these two characters at Christmas, particularly Lily, though this book did tend to circle the same ground over and over, the plot seeming stretched thin.

Many of the characters from the previous two books appear (albeit not at length) while adding a few more like Dash’s grandmother who to me wasn’t distinguishable enough from Mrs. Basil E.. Lily also makes a new friend in Azra who I liked very much and wished she’d had a larger role in the story.

As for that story it’s Dash and Lily in London a few days before Christmas trying to figure out their futures, for Dash going to Oxford isn’t everything he thought it would be and Lily’s being pressured to attend Barnard when she really wants a dog-related career. Ultimately Dash’s situation resolved too easily but I liked the process of Lily pulling away from her family a little to forge her own path and determining (with Dash’s help) how to go about building a solid future based on her love of dogs and crafting.

I did feel like this could have been more descriptive when it came to the London setting, their sight seeing was a little more glossed over than I would have preferred, I especially craved more detail from the Christmas market, but the grandeur of Claridges very much came across and for those here for the Christmas content there’s a decent amount of British traditions covered including the food.

While this book leaves the characters in a satisfying place and like I said there didn’t seem to be a ton of story mined here, still, I wouldn’t be mad at another book checking in on them during another holiday season somewhere down the road. ( )

Did I totally freak out last year when Netflix made a tv adaptation of Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares? Answer: yes. Did I subsequently get super annoyed that my library didn’t have the complete trilogy, and insisted that they order me the final book immediately? Also yes. And that brings us to today (ages and ages later), where we get to revisit the titular Dash and Lily as they journey overseas for a London adventure. The previous two Dash and Lily books were very New York-centric (perfectly so, of course), so it was refreshing to see the two lovebirds get to spread their wings and experience life outside of their microcosm - even if things (expectedly for readers, unexpectedly for D&L) go immediately awry… As we open the story, Dash is living his dream and has just completed his first semester of university at Oxford, studying (you guessed it) literature. Lily has stayed in New York to take a gap year to expand her dog-walking business and to help her family, but for Christmas she decides to surprise Dash by showing up in London. She’s planning on roping Dash into participating in a literary scavenger hunt that’s been organized by her cousin’s wife’s bookstore, so it looks like we’re going to get a classic Dash and Lily caper through London, exploring the various landmarks and finding moments of laughter, but thankfully the authors throw us a curveball and have the pair abandon the plan almost immediately. Do we need another treasure hunt through an epic city? Sure, we would enjoy it, but we’ve already done that in the first novel. Instead we’re given a book which showcases the challenges of young adolescence, as both Dash and Lily aren’t quite sure where they’re actually going (in life or in their relationship), and how they have to adventure apart to really make their lives work. There were definitely some moments of teenage angst (though less than the previous book), but I think both authors captured an authenticity of character while still making the book a pretty fun-filled romp. ( )