My Thoughts: Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Lee

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.


I have read a number of Jodi Picoult's novels in my day. The first was The Pact a number of years ago- I loved that book. It had me in tears and completely stressed out. I barely slept when I read The Pact, it's one of those books that you have to finish, there are no such things as breaks.  This  has been my response while reading all of Jodi Picoult's novels. They totally stress me out and I have decided that I can only read them when I have a couple days of no work, no school, no responsibilities, so I can focus completely on what I am reading. It has been like that with every single on of her books that I have read, and I have loved it- even though I can only read one a year. Picoult's books stress me out to much.

In saying all that. I was expecting something intense with Between the Lines, Picoult's YA debut written with her teenage daughter Samantha Van Leer. Going into this novel I expected more of Picoult's trademark intensity, I expected the compelling story with a moral twist. Even with the book's blurb hinting at a lighter story I was still expecting some kind of crazy plot to blow me out of the water. But that did not happen with Between the Lines. There are no surprises in this story.

Once I got over the fact that Between the Lines was not going to be a thrilling Young Adult novel along the lines of Mara Dyer and If I Stay I was able to enjoy it for what it was. A fantastical tale with great writing and so, so characters.

I enjoyed this novel, however, I think it is definitely for a younger reader. It's a frilly story. The female protagonist Delilah was annoying and immature. She whined a lot and was pretty pessimistic, this kind of got on my nerves. I can't say I was crazy about her fairy tale love interest either- Oliver just didn't do it for me. He was to docile for me. Actually he was a little hopeless as well. They were both reminded me of spoiled teenagers when things weren't going the way they wanted them to.

The plot of the novel was interesting, and I enjoyed that. I enjoyed the concept of a reader falling for the 'prince charming' of a novel. I mean how many of us fall for the male protagonists in our books and wish they were real boys? I also liked how the two were trying figure out how to free Oliver from her fairy tale existence. This was really cute.

Over all, Between the Lines was an endearing novel that I believe it geared for younger readers. However, I believe us older readers can also enjoy this story, so long as we don't expect great things.

~Happy Reading Everyone!