ARC REVIEW: Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha VanLeer

Pub. Date: June 26th 2012
Publisher: SimonPulse
Pages: 358
Readership: Young adult
Genres: fantasy, fairytales
Rating: ★ .5

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 hate not finishing books. It kills me not to finish a book, no matter how many issues I may have with it. That said, I could not stomach sitting through all of Between the Lines. I did not have it in me. I was so eager to read it, too. I love any take on fairytales. I love retellings, re-workings, anything. I love the television show Once Upon a Time. I. Love. Fairytales. When I saw that this was about fairytales, I was excited to read this book. A few chapters in, however, I knew it was going to be a daunting task to finish.

First of all, the different fonts that they use for different POV chapters is ridiculous. I've seen soup cans with better font choices. I hope it was changed to different fonts for the final product because it was terrible. It seemed like a third grader choose the different fonts that were used.

Then there is Oliver, our hero, our protagonist, our love-interest. He quite literally only has one flaw. One. He has no courage but apparently he is 100% perfect in every other way. I get it, Delilah, you think Oliver here is perfect. Wonderful. A-ma-zing. Handome. Hot. Etc. I lost track at how many times she described how attractive Oliver is. It was nauseating. He also had no depth. For a hero, he felt very flat. Everyone in this novel felt very flat and underwhelming to me. Though, a younger audience might not mind that he lacks depth and only has one flaw.

The story had potential. Really, it did. However, everything just felt so flat. If I had to pick one word to describe this book it would be that. Or fluffy. Despite all of that, it was still nicely written. Sometimes I thought that maybe this book wouldn't have been published at all if it wasn't for Jodi's name attached but for her first novel, Samantha did a decent job.

Maybe I'm too old for this book. That's something I never thought I would say. Especially since I love YA books. This book might be more suited for middle school children as opposed to the young adults it's aimed at. It's cute, it's fluffy, it's entertaining if you're not looking for much else and it's a fun, fast read; just what middle schoolers are probably looking for.