This is actually a rather cute book. Surprising enough, I read it rather quickly. I would have liked to have given it three and a half stars, but since I can't, I gave it four instead. The idea for the story was rather cute, and I myself can't deny having thought of something similar before--about having a character come to life and what not! All in all, I found it really cute and rather funny (having had a hard time not giggling out loud in the uni library). I'm pretty sure I'd recommend this if you're looking for something cute and also a really quick read. :) ( )

Okay, so I actually really enjoyed this book. I'm not sure what my problem was, but this book (for me) took me ages to read.

It wasn't the characters. Delilah & Oliver are adorable. Socks, Frump & even Jules were great supporting cast. you even have fairies, wizards, dragons, mermaids, talking dog - EVEN Unicorns. It was just a very interesting story and great idea.

There was so much to love.

maybe it was the timing, maybe it was the pace - I just couldn't seem to really immerse myself into the story. althought, after about 200 pages, I didn't want to put the book down - I wanted to get my HEA.

and seriously, Go Edgar! LOL ( )

Imagine this. The characters in the book you are reading have a life of their own, beyond what is written for their characters. And they do what they want to every time you close the book, only to be pulled back in their roles when you reopen the book. Unbelievable, right? Goes without saying then that I've never read a story like this before! That doesn't necessarily mean that I loved it. But the concept is mind-blowing for sure.

Delilah, a fifteen year old introverted bookworm, is shocked to discover something new appear in the illustrations of her latest favourite read, a fairy tale about a cowardly prince who uses his wits rather than his valour to fulfill his royal duties. Soon, she realises that the protagonist, Prince Oliver, can actually talk to her, that he dreams of getting out of his routine and predictable "plotlife", and that the book world has a life of its own. Can Delilah help Oliver escape his two-dimensional fairy tale?

Jodi Picoult fans need to keep in mind that this is unlike her typical work, which is much darker thematically. As she has co-authored this with her teenage daughter, the plot is distinctly YA in flow and content. So you need to realign your expectations accordingly. You will find Jodi's usual twists and turns, and you will also find her favourite style of writing from multiple perspectives (which works wonderfully in this book.) What you won't get is emotional or moral dilemmas, something that is omnipresent in her books.

I found the plot quite intriguing, though not foolproof. There are a few loopholes in the book character's breaking of the fourth wall. I tried hard to keep the logical side of my brain turned off but sadly, it turned out to be stronger than my romantic side, which is long past its expiry date! ( )

Loved it of course! ( )

Magical story for book lovers

Best YA story I have ever read. Mind-stretching, wonderful romp that breaks through the theatrical fourth wall to bring reader and author together in the magic of storytelling. ( )

Magical story for book lovers

Best YA story I have ever read. Mind-stretching, wonderful romp that breaks through the theatrical fourth wall to bring reader and author together in the magic of storytelling. ( )

Super idea, barely adequate writing. I did LOVE the illustrations and would like to see more YA and adult books with hand drawn or photographic illustrations. ( )

This was such a fun, light-hearted and feel-good story. It carries Jodi Picoult's name as its author, but it was actually written by her young daughter and was probably intended for younger than the YA age group that its advertised for. Delilah seems like your typical teenage girl who happens to love a certain fairytale. Yet when she reads the fairy tale, she notices that certain things are changing within the fairy tale itself. The characters are very different within the fairy tale itself, and they have roles that they are intended to play withing the story they are a part of in the book. They're lives are very different. Then we find that Delilah and Oliver can communicate with each other. At first Delilah think she is losing her mind but soon learns that Oliver wants to get out of the book. As Delilah and Oliver try to find different ideas to accomplish this, they find that none of them are working out very well. I won't go any further with the plot because it will ruin the outcome for anyone that may read it. ( )

Loved the concept(and the illustrations); didn't love the execution. All in all, I found it okay, but lacking something crucial, which turned the book into one that isn't overly impressive. ( )

A beautiful and addicting story that reads like a fairytale. ( )

Have you ever wished your favourite book characters were real? Have you ever considered that they want to be part of the real world as much as you want them to?

Delilah is obsessed with a children’s fairy tale book — maybe an unhealthy amount. The true love, the happy ending, the hero who uses his wits to solve every problem that gets thrown at him, and that line at the beginning about how hard it is to grow up without a dad. But as much as she wishes Prince Oliver could be real, she never expected that one day he would start talking to her! It turns out the characters are not quite the same as the story portrays them, and Oliver wants more than the limited world he exists in. Together, he and Delilah try to find a way to bring Oliver out of the book … easier said than done.

This is a self-indulgent teen booklover’s dream, but it’s also a really interesting concept that touches on themes of destiny, free will, love and loss. The book switches between Delilah’s and Oliver’s perspectives interspersed with chapters of the actual fairy tale story that Oliver is a part of, including the illustrations. Like I said, booklover’s dream! ( )

Awesome!!!!!!! ( )

While the book had an interesting premise, I kept waiting for the main character to end up sick or in court or something since that's what usually happens in Picoult's stories. The book was alright with kind of a sappy ending but I think that was the point. ( )

Awesome!!!!!!! ( )

I thought this book was highly enjoyable, I think I read it in one sitting. However, it obviously wasn't memorable, because I read it, and within a couple days, I'd forgotten it existed in the first place.

SETTING

Okay, so I absolutely LOVED the setting of this. Delilah lives in the real world, but Oliver lives in a book.
He's a fictional character, and the basic premise is that all of the characters from the book are alive, and whenever no one is reading the book, they're just going along living their lives, and then someone opens the book, and it's like their acting in a play. Only... they HAVE to do it.

I thought this was SUCH a unique premise, and I completely adored it!

PLOT

The plot of this was basically that Oliver was tired of being stuck in a book. He wanted out. And then he realizes he's able to talk with Delilah, and it was just super interesting.

The plot was well done, and it left me wanting to know what happens in the next book.
I don't really have much more to say.

CHARACTERS

I quite liked the characters in this... they weren't anything special, but they were well developed, and likeable.

-Oliver was okay. He wasn't by any means my favourite character, but he was very well developed, and felt very human.

-Delilah was sort of great. She was a bookworm, and it always makes me so happy to see a character in a book who loves to read. She was a tiny bit more obsessed with a children's book than was reasonable perhaps, but... once the character in it started talking to her, I understand completely.

-Jules was Delilah's best friend, and she was wonderful. She was probably my favourite character. Delilah was a terrible friend to her, but Jules was seriously amazing. She got pretty mad at Delilah, because Delilah was completely ignoring her, and just over all being an awful friend, but she was still there for her. She was an amazing friend, and I love her.

There was also a bunch of side characters that were awesome, but whose names I no longer remember, because I read this almost a month ago. Whatever their names were though, the supporting cast of characters was amazing.

OVER ALL

Aside from being completely unmemorable, this book was very good. I highly enjoyed it, and I'd really like to read the sequel now.
There was also a lot of cool pictures, and stuff inside, which was fun. This wasn't my favourite book ever, but I would still highly recommend it. ( )

I was given Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer by the PR company in England who is promoting it in exchange for an honest review.

The book is written by the best selling author Jodi Picoult and her teenage daughter Samantha Van Leer. The idea for this book was actually Van Leer's, and what a fantastic idea it was!

What happens after you close a book? What happens to the characters in the book? What if they actually had their own lives which went on after a book was closed?

Oliver is a character in a children's fairy tale. However, he wonders if there's something more out there. He wants to escape into the Otherworld which is the reader's world. He is sick of being stuck in a fairy tale doing the same things over and over with the same people.

Delilah is a 15 year old girl who just doesn't fit in. She daydreams about falling in love with her prince charming. However, her prince charming is a character in a children's fairy tale.

To sum up the plot, Delilah and Oliver try to find a way to get Oliver out of his fairy tale book. You are shown the struggles of which they try to do this. Will Delilah ever get to be with her prince?

I loved this book. Everything about it was great. The plot was well thought out and very original. I actually felt like I was part of the story. What also makes it great is it kind of feels like you are getting two stories for the price of one. The reader is told the actual fairy tale for the most part as well as the actual story.

The actual story is told from Oliver and Delilah's point of view which I love! That way you can get how each character is feeling.

Also, the other character is this book are very well thought out and say some amazing things! My favourite supporting character was the trusty steed Socks. He was always worrying about how he looked and would come out with some funny lines!

One other thing I enjoyed about this book was the illustrations. They are beautifully drawn, and I believe it makes this book that much more interesting.

If you are looking for something a bit different to read, don't pass up this book. It is amazing, and you won't be disappointed.

I give it a 5 out of 5.

(This review is also posted on my blog). ( )

I've never read any of Jodi Picoult's work before, though a quick look at a Books-A-Million the other day showed me that I'd be willing to at least give them a shot. So when Between the Lines and its sequel Off the Page started showing up in my BookTube world, I didn't quite know what to expect. But since it's about falling in love with characters in a book, and it's a mother/daughter co-written story, I was excited to pick it up.

It did not disappoint.

Is this book great literary fiction? No, it's really not. The plot is predictable, the characters are expected, and nothing really surprises necessarily. But to be honest, I wouldn't have wanted this book any other way.

Delilah is a high school girl who is absolutely obsessed with one particular fairy tale she found at the library. Reading wouldn't make her an outcast, per se, but reading something this far out of her grade level certainly will. Her mother thinks it's strange, her best friend Jules thinks it's strange...but there's a very good reason why Delilah is so entranced by this book.

See, not only is the hero of the story--Prince Oliver--handsome and wonderful and true, but...he can talk to her. And when she opens that book, Oliver comes alive. And much like her, he doesn't feel like he fits in with his story, and longs to make his way through the world of the Reader--Delilah's world. As Delilah longs to be in the world of the story, they try to understand each other and over time, begin to fall in love. Now Delilah needs to find a way to get the boy of her dreams out of the pages of his fairy tale and into her arms...before someone takes the book away for good.

I feel for Delilah and Oliver. I was an outcast in high school, with my very small group of friends, and I always dreamed for bigger shores. I still do, to some extent. I've never quite found where I properly fit in, and Lord knows I've fallen in love with my fair share of book characters. And I know what it's like to feel like you're doing something strange by reading out of your age range. Some of my favorite books are YA novels. I'm 27. Do I care? Not in the least. The characters are no less "real" to me because they're younger, or written for a younger audience. And if I found out that the illustrations of one of my beloved protagonists could talk to me? Yes, you'd probably want to send me to the funny farm. There would be no taking me away from that book--ESPECIALLY when I was Delilah's age. I wanted nothing more than to be far away from where I was, in the arms of a valiant savior.

The story swaps perspective from Delilah, to Oliver, to Oliver's original story (also aptly titled Between the Lines), and to good effect. Especially as they have to live their separate lives in their different worlds, it's good to see both sides of the coin. I love the concept of Oliver's original tale and who the prince was meant to be as well. The belief that characters can be something other than what the story tells them once the pages are closed...well, let's just say I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who's ever thought about that. Being able to see who these characters become is a lot of fun, and very well put together.

The book is charming and fun, with all the right dashes of young love, adventure, and heartbreak. The ending is beautiful, and makes me excited to read what happens next in Off the Page...because I know something is going to go down. It has to. And I like that set up.

Rating: **** - Recommended ( )

Magical story for book lovers

Best YA story I have ever read. Mind-stretching, wonderful romp that breaks through the theatrical fourth wall to bring reader and author together in the magic of storytelling. ( )

This book was okay. It took me a while to read it. I thought the ending was crap. I was expecting more from the ending and it just left me flat. The whole story was all over the place. I think I would rather read the book that inside the book. It sounded more interesting than this story was. ( )

Delilah is a teenage loner who loves to read books. She is particularly fond of a children's fairy tale called Between the Lines. It so happens that the character named Oliver is a prince in the book and he actually speaks to Delilah. She tries to hide this from everyone because she is sure they won't believe her. Through their conversations she finds that Oliver is not happy in his book life so he and Delilah try to find a way for him to escape his story.

It would be a fun book for a young teen to read. There is romance and there are princes and there is the hope of a happily ever after ending. The theme is both fantastical and charming. My rating of three stars is for its probable appeal to the anticipated audience. ( )

STORY:

"This was why there was music, he realized. There were some feelings that just didn't have words big enough to describe them" (pg 230).

In Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and her daughter, Samantha Van Leer (352 pages), Deliah Mcphee is a total social outcast and only finds solace in her favorite kids' fairytale Between the Lines. On the other side of reality, in that very book, Prince Oliver knows there's more to life than rehearsing the lines of his book. Deliah wants a new life and Oliver wants out of his book, and, of course, chaos ensues.

If I am to be perfectly honest, the book started off corny. However, the concept of self-aware fairytale characters was intriguing and managed to capture my interest early on.

"Brightening, I smile at her. 'Look at how much we already have in common.'

"She smirks. 'Yeah. Like, for example, I'm talking to a book, and you think you're alive. We're both insane' (pg 53).

I wasn't enthusiastic about Deliah's narrative because she was so boring. I've just seen the "misunderstood high school girl" too many times to not have anything special added to her. Also, I don't know why but I found the real life references cringy, like "Cinderella in Starbucks."

"It hits me with the force of a blow: the understanding that I'd rather die than know I might never have a chance to truly, finally, kiss Deliah Mcphee" (pg 86).

This story had plenty of corny moments, like all fairytales, but they generally elicited the desired effects, an "aww" or an eye-roll.

But I loved the illustrations and the colorful fonts because it truly gave a storybook feel. I enjoyed the grueling process it took to get Oliver out the book. It definitely wasn't easy, and something unexpected happened!

To me, the long-awaited kiss scene was pretty lackluster! I don't know... Considering the book's recommended for 12 and up (honestly, nothing in the book was bad enough to garner that rating; it was innocent), I expected the kiss to be more detailed. It had all the intensity of a grandma kiss.


CHARACTERS:

I like normal girl characters (everyone can't have magic, superpowers, or super abilities) but Deliah was boring. This is not to say I wasn't sympathetic to her horrid school life.

There's not much to say about Oliver. He's just our male lead.

Jules was cool! I just wished Deliah hadn't ignored her only friend so much, but it added need tension I guess. This was one chill girl and a decent female friend, which is sometimes lacking in YA fiction.

I liked Edgar the most even though he was only there for like five to six chapters.

All the kids at Deliah's school fit the perfect American high school typecasts: jock, snobby popular girl, rebellious punk rocker, geek kids, etc. I didn't like any of them.

Also, the mermaids in Oliver's world were not what I would call feminists but that's how they were labeled, which might ruffle some feathers.

OVERALL:

Eh, I found Between the Lines a bit lackluster yet I will definitely be reading the sequel. Hopefully, I will like the next book better because that's when the real story starts.

Thanks for reading! You can find more of my book reviews here ( )

This review was originally posted on Melissa's Midnight Musings on February 18, 2013.

As some of you may know, I'm a big Jodi Picoult fan. I have read several of her books. This one was a lot different than her usual fare, and we have her daughter to thank for that.

Instead of court battles and medical and family dramas, we're presented with a modern day fairy tale of sorts. Delilah and Oliver are both kids who've grown up without their dads, and that's part of the reason why she's so drawn to this fairy tale. She feels that she can relate to Oliver through that shared fact.

That's what we all look for in books, I think. We're constantly looking for ways to relate to the characters. There are certain characters that we like over others, because we feel a sort of kinship with them through shared experiences. You know how people are always talking about having book boyfriends/girlfriends? I think the opposite is true here. It's almost like Oliver has fallen in love with Delilah, so he has a "reader girlfriend"

It's very sweet to see how much he cares for her, and all the different lengths that he's willing to go through to be with her. At one point in the story, Oliver writes Delilah into his world. While she does enjoy being with him, she learns an important lesson when she realizes just how much she misses her mom: You never know what you've got til it's gone.

There are also more interesting methods of integration of life lessons into the story. For example, Socks, Olivers' trusty steed in the fairy tale seems to have body image issues, always thinking that he's fat or talking about low hay carb diets. It was a very unique way of incorporating real life issues into a story.

One thing I didn't really care for was that some of the details were very exaggerated, like the fact that in the beginning of the story Oliver claims to have spent his days learning 17 languages. A few languages, I would have believed, but 17 is just too many, even for a fairy tale character.

I enjoyed all the little details put into this book like the small drawings on the pages, and the different color fonts to differentiate between characters in the story. I haven't read any stories written by multiple authors in a while, so it was nice to read this story. In the introduction it's noted that they took turns writing lines, but I wonder just how much of Van Leer's contributions were polished by Picoult and/or editors.

Overall, I would recommend this story to anyone who's looking for a nice read, and of course to all Jodi Picoult fans. ( )

So am I the only one who thinks this is a poor knock off of "The Great Good Thing"?
Also I'm halfway through the book and find a glaring error- at the beginning Delilah explains that she is hugely unpopular because during gym she swung a bat and accidentally broke the knee of a popular cheerleader. Her best friend Jules moved into town the next week and became her best friend because she thought it was funny and was the only one who would speak to Delilah. Now halfway through, Jules is asking why Delilah is neglecting their friendship and she says when Delilah accidentally tripped the cheerleader during the hundred meter dash during field day and broke her knee, Jules was the first to know and talk her out off running away to Mexico. Whaaaaat? I hate errors in punctuation and grammar, but errors such as the characters not even knowing their own back story is just laziness by the authors and editors and contempt for the reader.
Just found another one- Oliver earlier in the book mentions that the Dragon has new red bands on his braces during downtime from the story. Later on he says the Dragon's braces disappear every time the book is closed.
While I'm at it, another thing that bugs me is everyone's insistence that it is abnormal for a teenage girl to read fairytales. Yeah, right. So then why are YA fairytale retellings so popular? I read the complete works of Hans Christian Anderson and the Grimm Brothers several times through in high school. Those are two LARGE books to lug around, let me tell you.
Still, I might read the sequel just to see how they work it out. Hopefully the editing will have gotten better? Maybe? ( )

Fun story concept! ( )

This is a book about a girl who lives with her young mother in Germany who goes to an Island in Scotland to visit her grandmother for the summer vacation. She loves books, so when she finds out her families secret about being able to book jump she discovers a whole new world where her family and another ancient family is able to ump into literature and save the book world. This book does bring up some difficult topics such as death and other things that some people who have delicate sensibilities want to avoid.