Between the Lines Review

Title: Between the Lines
Authors: Jodi Picoult & Samantha Van Leer
Release Date: June 26th 2012
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Source: ARC for review
Rating: 3.5

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.

Review:

Having only heard of Jodi Picoults books briefly before I didn't know really what to expect in Between the Lines, the concept of the book really interested me though. I loved the mix of fairytale with reality and the alternating chapters spilt into 3 sections;  Delilahs point of view, Oliver's point of view and the actual fairytale story that Oliver lives in.

If you think other book you've read previously have a forbidden romance you have to check out the one in Between the Lines, can't get more forbidden then falling in love with a guy who lives in a book and not even in your world. Although the concept of falling for a guy who is a "fiction"character may seem a bit odd, I enjoyed it and it made the book unique in its own way. Jodi Picoult and her daughter, Samantha Van Leer worked very well together and I couldn't tell where one began and where one ended, it was seemless.

The characters in Between the Lines (the fictional book Oliver lives in) are controlled to act out the story as readers read it, when I discovered this while reading I was entralled, that just sounds so awesome and made me think does that happen when I read a book. I wish! Each of the characters has a life outside of the role they play in the book, it's like characters that we read about are actual people, awesome!

This book did seem though that it's written more for pre-teens are younger teens, or die hard fairytale fans. Throughout the book there are little drawings on the side of the pages that go along with what's happening in the book. They made the book really cute and detailed, I can't wait to see what they look like in the finished copy.

Between the Lines is a great book written by a mother, daughter duo. Blends reality with fiction seemlessly and incorporates a forbidden romance that takes place in 2 worlds. Between the Lines is a pysically detailed piece of literature that should not be missed based  on it's unqiness. If you love fun, cute reads and fairytales, this is the book for you.

Enchanted Review

Title: Enchanted
Author: Alethea Kontis
Publisher: Harcourt Childrens Books
Release Date: May 8th 2012
Source: ARC for Review
Buy: Amazon

Summary:

It isn't easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true.

When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises.

The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past - and hers?

Review:

Enchanted is a very captivating fairy tale retelling. It really has the feel of your traditional fairy tales, that we all grew up loving. For me it brought back some memories from my childhood. As you can tell from the cover and the summary this is a retelling of the princess and the frog, that's just the tip of the ice berg. There are so many fairy tales incorporated into Enchanted that I couldn't even begin to tell you how many. Some that are pretty well known and others that aren't, or at least I didn't know about them.

Just to name a few: the princess and the frog, Jack and the bean stalk, cinderella, and Repunzel. There are many, many more but I really don't feel like listing them all, you will just have to pick up the book to see what else is in store for you.

Enchanted is beatifully written, reading this book was a really great experience. All the different fairy tales were entertwined very well and made a new fairy tales in its own. I would totally recommend this book to people who love fairy tale retelling and fantasy books, you will really enjoy Enchanted it's a great debut novel.

The only things I can say against Enchanted are that I found it to be a bit too fast paced in the beginning, I would have been fine if it were extended into a few more chapters. I started loving this book in the beginning but towards the end I got a bit detached from the story and characters because there was a lot going on and I got a bit confused with the characters and their background story from a fairy tale.