When I saw the cover of this book, I knew I HAD to read it. HAD TO. It’s stunning.
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’m still unsure how I felt about this book. I loved the idea of it and I loved the illustrations and the cover and the look of the book. It was, truly, a beautiful book.
And the idea of a misfit teenager being obsessed with one book and with a character in the book and having that character be obsessed back is fun and speaks to something in every readers soul.
On the other hand, Delilah felt so young to me. In a juvenile way. Despite having many similarities on the surface I couldn’t connect with her at all. And I was a pretty shy teenager and I loved reading but, well, I still had more than one friend and more than one book. You know?
I loved the story and the characters in the book. Some of them were also a little one dimensional but it fit them. They only ever lived the story. And when the story wasn’t being read they were confined to this one place waiting for the story to be read again. Getting confused between who they actually were and the part they had to play over and over again.
Oliver’s story is largely, I feel, the struggle to not be a one dimensional character.
The ending of the book made little to no sense to me. I liked the result but felt it took a short cut getting there and was more of a Deus ex Machina than the characters figuring something out. And it was over so quickly.
If you’re curious about this book, I suggest getting it from the library first. It is a beautiful book and if you like it enough to buy it after reading it, do. But I didn’t like it enough to recommend buying it.