Off the Page by Jodi Picoult (2015-05-19)

This book is a mixed bag. The concept at the heart of it was original and brilliant, but the execution of the concept was subpar at best, and it doesn't remain faithful to the style of the fairy tales that it takes a page from. I don't recommend reading it.(This review contains significant spoilers for the preceding book, and moderate ones for this one.)As the description says, this is the sequel to the story about a girl who falls in love with a prince who is a character in a book, yet somehow alive. Her discovery of this and the "falling in love" part was mostly dealt with in the first book (Between the Lines), which I think was better than this was, but still not that great. We know that Prince Oliver (and all the other characters in said book) were "alive" in the sense that they can think and communicate, but they don't have blood and they can't leave the book, a source of much frustration to Delilah, who obviously wants to be with Oliver. As the reader, we aren't told too much about the physics of this: Since the author of the book Prince Oliver comes out of doesn't seem to know that Oliver is actually alive, so how did he get that way? How is Prince Oliver allowed to "trick" the book in order to escape, but then it wants him back? It's almost as if the book is sentient, too. None of this is ever explained, and aside from some of the more major Deus ex Machinas that save the plot from going nowhere, it's almost possible to put it on the back burner.Some other reviewers have commented about the scenes between Oliver and Delilah as being "nauseating", but aside from some cliches, they're pretty decent.The main part I take issue with is that the majority of the trouble Prince Oliver has in fitting into high school is about the relationships, and not about the coursework. He just arrived on Earth out of a fairy-tale kingdom and picks up how to use computers and graphing calculators in a few months? He doesn't have any more trouble in chemistry than Delilah? He gets a perfect score of 2400 on the SAT?! I get A grades for the most part, but I had to take the SAT four times to get a score I thought was pretty good. There's no indication Oliver had so much as an algebra class in the fairytale kingdom he's from. The only part of Oliver's interactions at school that makes sense is him being a wizard at acting Shakespeare – which I commend the authors for writing in. Very clever.I'll refrain from spoiling too much, but it doesn't get better from there, sadly. Some more of the characters from the book comes out into the real world, and one of them dies, the fairytale physics of which are never explained (since nobody can die inside the book, and the fairytale characters that come out of the book don't have human blood). The book continues to fall to pieces and attempts to persuade Oliver to go back into it. The sequence of events that happens after this makes very little sense, includes a love triangle, and results in the author of the book Prince Oliver is from cheating death (from disease) by going into the book to live... forever? That's not explained either. Oh, and Edgar (Oliver's lookalike from Earth, the author's son) decides to go with her, sacrificing his love life (eternally!) so that Oliver and Delilah can have theirs (temporarily!). Which essentially alienates most teenage boys reading the book, as Edgar is the one they probably relate to the best.Perhaps if the fairytale physics of this were explained better, I might like this book more. But they aren't, so instead, I finished the book quite frustrated. Yes, true love requires sacrifice. But doesn't it require sacrifice *on the part of the people in love*? Why is Edgar so willing to sacrifice his love life for Oliver and Delilah? If the authors were trying to make a point about sacrifice, why is it that they allow Edgar's mother to escape death by entering the fairytale world? None of this was explained, and I'm not sure there even is a good explanation possible. So as it is, it's not exactly possible to like this book.

3.5/5 Off the Page is a cute, light-hearted and adorable read. It’s a companion story to Between the Lines, which I, unfortunately, haven’t read. Despite that, this book is still enjoyable. If you love light-hearted reads full of romance and unbelievable situations, this is the book for you! The entirety of this book is all romance and family and relationship struggles. It’s about Delilah, an outcast who always has her nose stuck in a book, and how her life is once Oliver -a prince in a book that she was able to bring into the real world- becomes a real, daily part of her world. This book is full of her hope and insecurities over the relationship and his feelings, as well as how she copes when he unknowingly becomes popular and has hordes of girls vying for his attention. The best part of this book, I found, was Oliver’s struggles to understand Delilah’s world, the inner workings and unsaid rules, the popularity and driving, and what he should or shouldn’t do. This book was made more light-hearted by Oliver’s utter adoration and love for Delilah, and how he made a fool of himself at times whenever he made a mistake; which, I admit, made me laugh slightly. Oliver and Delilah are not the only couple though! Nope, there was another couple that had connections to Oliver and Delilah. Unfortunately, this couple and their love was instant, apparently unavoidable, and not all that amazing. Without the build-up and tension, and the hope and connection to their romance, there was no fire. I found that I didn’t care, because they kissed in the few hours they met without any real reason other than physical attraction, proclaimed their love/intense emotions for each other not long after, and there was a love triangle. Thankfully, that only made an appearance near the end of the book. Or at least, close to it. The book as a whole was hard to connect to. None of the romances stood out to me (granted, Oliver and Delilah have a whole other book dedicated to how their romance formed, so that’s on me and not the authors) and there were some incredibly unbelievable scenes that I just couldn’t picture or wrap my head around. The plot is repetitive. People switch so a book character can live in the real world, everything seems perfect and lovely, something goes wrong, another pair switch, everything’s fine, something goes wrong, more switch, and so on. It’s not bad. It fits the story and makes it more interesting, especially as we get to see how each character thrives in or just explores their new surroundings. However, I do feel the book could’ve been solved a lot earlier had there been less switches. The mystery was there, but only a hint of it. If the mystery had been a real part of the book, it would’ve been more adventure and less light-hearted, gushy romance. Either way though, this book was still enjoyable. Overall, Off the Page is full of cutesy relationships, fantastical situations, and utter adoration/love that proves just how far someone will got to be with the one they love.