Publisher: Simon PulsePublished: June 26, 2012Pages: 358Received: from Simon & Schuster CanadaBuy Now: Amazon | Book DepositoryWhat 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.
I was surprised to see this magically
in my mailbox one day from Simon & Schuster Canada. I was pretty
excited to receive such a great book without having to beg
ask for a review copy. I really didn't know a lot about the book, but
I loved the cover right away and had heard a lot of bloggers chatting
about it. To be honest, I've never read a Picoult book, so I had
nothing to compare this to, which is probably a really good thing
since her regular novels are not really written for young adults and
are not about fairy tales. I think it's probably best to have come
into this book with no expectations about the authors, then my review
will be unbiased.
So the biggest thing that I loved about
this book is that it has multiple point of views – the story
playing out as if the reader is reading a fairy tale, then Oliver's
actual point of view and finally we hear Delilah's side of the story.
I found it unique to tell the story in this way.
I think I identified with Delilah a
lot, because as a tween/teen I spent a lot of time reading and
dreaming of other worlds. Wanting so much more. I believed in so much
and felt that anything was possible.
“No one ever asks a kid for her opinion, but it seems to me that growing up means you stop hoping for the best, and start expecting the worst. So how do you tell an adult that maybe everything wrong in the world stems from the fact that she's stopped believing the impossible can happen?”
The story idea is of being able to have
contact with a character in a book was so interesting. Can you
imagine reading a book and suddenly one of the characters turns his
head and looks at you and says “Hello.” I'm sure it would
shocking to say the least, but also completely incredible. I'd want
to know everything – what's it's like being inside the book, what
happens after the book closes, and why don't all books work this way.
Honestly, the love story that begins to
unfold between Delilah and Prince Oliver is sweet and innocent. They
develop this kind of need for each other and are only happiest when
in each others presence (you know when the book is open). I actually
looked forward to the different attempts at getting Oliver out of the
book, because you know when you are in love that anything seems
possible.
There are a few twists and turns in
this book that I did not see coming, but it was left open for the
possibility of a sequel, but still works as a lovely standalone read.
It was a sweet story and very quick read that I could recommend to to
tweens, teens and adults.
About the authors:
Glad you mostly liked it. I feel like the younger crowd would probably enjoy it a lot more than me. I mean I probably would have loved it when I was a younger teenager, but now it felt a bit simplistic to me... I started reading it, but I just couldn't get into it, so I set it aside and I haven't really looked at it again. :/
ReplyDeleteI can see that actually. :)
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