My mother, truly one of the most intelligent people I ever came across, could often be found indulging in brain-free Harlequin romance novels, “the kind the drugstore sells” as the song says. I asked her once why someone so smart reads something even my dumb self could write (if you’re smiling, let me remind you what you’re reading right this second…), her simple answer was that when your only escape from it all is through a book, you don’t go frolic with Kafka.

I don’t know if Harlequin books even exist anymore, but I found MY easy escape from it all with YA novels, especially those of Rachel Cohn and David Levithan, even better when written together. She has a unique knack for capturing inner dialog of angst and wonder, he has a knack for capturing my inner snark. So when I heard of this Netflix series, I was all Ho-Ho-Hos!

“I LOVE Christmas!” states 17-year-old girly-girl Lily in my favorite novel of theirs to read and re-read on a yearly basis, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares. The thing is, whenever I read this introductory line to the character, I always hear it in a very specific way in my mind; she’s bubbly, decided, confidant and childishly insecure at the same time. And in Netflix’s eight-part adaptation of the book, young actress Midori Francis Friggin. Nails. It. And jingle dang-it, now I love Christmas too!

The story follows young New Yorker Dashiell, a cynical teenager from a broken family who hates how Christmas makes him feel and prefers finding refuge in an independent — and snobbish — book store. There he finds by accident a red moleskin notebook in which feminine handwriting proposes him a series of dares to accomplish if he wishes to make a friend for the holidays. He, of course, turns the table on its author, the colorful Lily, who also will have to jump through hoops if she is to meet the boy who snarls a lot and have herself a Merry Little Christmas before her parents move the family to Fiji.

I have to admit I long ago stopped hoping in any way that TV or movie adaptations to books I love would be fateful. Reading a book is a journey unique to everyone, we all experience it in our own personal way, and no one can film what I see in my head. But even though elements of the story were changed and expanded, I watched every episode in sheer dumbfounded glee that producers Nick Jonas (yeah, that one…) and Shawn Levy managed to remain SO fateful to the way I experienced the story and characters, down to the addictive soundtrack. Dash looks, sounds and moves exactly the way I imagined he would, Lily makes me uncontrollably smile like only her written counterpart managed to (until now).

Also in need to be confessed: Even though I never set foot anywhere near New York, I constantly devour books by those authors in great part for how vibrantly they let you soak-in the feel of the city. They love this town the way the way Ghostbusters makes you wanna live in an abandoned firehouse or The Godfather makes you jones to eat cannoli after leaving the gun. And for once, you WELCOME the character’s inner-dialogue and narration, for it allows you to truly live their adventure through their eyes and mind.

I especially appreciate, GREATLY, that most of the cast consists in little-known faces or newcomers, save for a “hey, it’s THAT actor” support turn from the wonderful James Saito and Jodi Long. In a story of human connection so full of hope and cheer, it is a breath of fresh peppermint candy-cane to be enjoying the whole thing without baggage from a performer’s private life or previously overbearing role. I mean really, wouldn’t you love to watch a new Adam Driver movie without feeling the spectre of his Star Wars torso?

If I must bring out the Grinch and find an itch, I’d say I somewhat miss the improvisational nature of the novel. Levithan & Cohn crafted their book in mirroring their protagonists, one writing a chapter then sending it back for the other to pick up and continue. Each chapter became, ironically, a dare to follow-up on what the other just wrote. The more structured format of TV makes it different, but still not enough to make me diss the series as another failed attempt to capture the magic of the page.

Even though the characters now have three books of adventures, Netflix decided after adapting the first to leave it at that. And that makes me sad because I love these characters now-made-flesh SO much I don’t want our time together to end so quickly. Yet even with just a single season I promise you that Netflix’s Dash & Lily will have, in a year of war and torment, the effect of a hot-chocolate mug with melting marshmallows while watching an open fire spit sparks that make the cat jump 10 feet high. This isn’t a House of Cards kind of cerebral series, and that may be one of the many reasons why I loved it, and I hope you will too.