Review: Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer

Title:  Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer

Published: June 26^th, 2012 by Simon Pulse

Format: Audio book

Source: Library

Challenge(s): Support Local Library

Grade rate:  C+

  

What happens when happily ever after... isn’t?
Delilah is a bit of a loner who prefers spending her time in the school library with her head in a book—one book in particular. Between the Lines may be a fairy tale, but it feels real. Prince Oliver is brave, adventurous, and loving. He really speaks to Delilah.And then one day Oliver actually speaks to her. Turns out, Oliver is more than a one-dimensional storybook prince. He’s a restless teen who feels trapped by his literary existence and hates that his entire life is predetermined. He’s sure there’s more for him out there in the real world, and Delilah might just be his key to freedom.Delilah and Oliver work together to attempt to get Oliver out of his book, a challenging task that forces them to examine their perceptions of fate, the world, and their places in it. And as their attraction to each other grows along the way, a romance blossoms that is anything but a fairy tale.

My Review

This is such a cute story.  It makes me think of, happy endings, fairies, fluffy clouds, pastel colors and hearts.  Do you know what I mean?  That ‘floating on air’ kind of feeling that goes hand in hand with first love.

The format of the book (and therefore, of the audio book) has alternating points of view and narrators.  Oliver and Delilah talk in the first person and then, there is the narrator which is reading the actual book that Oliver is stuck in (titled “Between the Lines”).  Are you with me so far?

Delilah has is having a really hard time in school.  She is not popular due to a series of ‘freak’ accidents, her parents are divorced and she is a loner.  To top it all, she becomes obsessed with a children fairy tale and that has her mom really worried.  Oliver is sort of perfect, he is caring, realistic and really brave;  I identified more with him that with Delilah. 

The story is original and really cute.  Most of the time Delilah and Oliver are coming up with different plans to get Oliver out of the book and it gets really complicated (maybe too much).  The writing flows really easily and the fact that one of the authors is a teenager shows.   I just felt like the book could have been longer and less complicated.  I didn’t like the ending, I mean, I did, but it was too open for me.

Overall, Between the Lines tastes like a fairy tale and it’s a short and enjoyable read.

About the cover:  I like the cover, it portraits Deliliah with Between the Lines on her hands and a castle in the background.  I listen to this book, but I did check it out at the bookstore and it is really pretty, with illustrations and different color ink.