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

Book: Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer
Published by Simon Pulse; June 2012
358 pages
Format: hardcover
Genres: YA/Fantasy/Fairytales
I got this book from the library

Synopsis via Goodreads: 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.

I don’t normally read books by Jodi Picoult; I find them very, very sad and I’m not only an ugly crier but I remain emotional about books for days. It doesn’t end well usually. However, when this book came into the library, my co-worker suggested that I give it a go because I like fairy tales and why not, right? (I have the best co-workers). 

I’m not really sure what I was expecting from this book in the beginning, even though the synopsis did have me intrigued. I still don’t know how I feel about Delilah. At times I almost liked her but I didn’t relate to her at all. (Aside from the fact that she escapes into books). 

I felt that Oliver was the more fleshed out character. He wants to be part of the real world but is trapped in a fairy tale. He’s clever and resourceful, and I love that he wants more than what is expected of him. Conversely, I really liked the snippets of what the characters in the fairy tale were doing when the book was closed. I loved that they had their own little lives and dramas going on behind the scenes, just to rush to their proper places when the book was opened.

Though I liked the book over all, to me there were some flaws. I don’t understand the semantics of all the plans of trying to get Oliver out of the book. Some things were meant to sound very logical but really didn’t make sense to me. There seemed to be a lot of loop holes in the logic. I liked the ending, but also don’t understand how things worked out the way they did. But I probably would have been disappointed had it ended any other way.

SPOILER: The biggie for me was when Deliah shows up at the authors house and the author not only lets her come in for a chat but let’s her stay the night and interact with her son. That just seemed far too weird for me to buy into. END SPOILER.

This review is all over the place, but the bottom line is that though the book is flawed in some spots, it’s brilliant in others and well worth the read. It’s almost like two stories in one and one of them is a fairy tale and who doesn’t like those? If you love fairy tales or are looking for a somewhat light read with a little bit of a love story this book would be worth the shot.