**This review contains spoilers for Between the Lines. All spoilers for Off the Page will be under spoiler tags** 
 Off the Page was a much slower read than Between the Lines. If you look at my status updates, I started reading Off the Page back in October and I read HALF of it, before putting it down. Sometimes, I do find that a book slows down in the middle, but more often than not, that's when it starts to pick up. So I was surprised that I was so disinterested in reading it, that I put it down right in the middle of a chapter. However, with nothing new to borrow at the library (how sad, I know), I picked up Off the Page again and sped through the last half of it last month. The second half definitely made up for the first, and because of this, I bumped up my rating from a 3.5 to 4, just shy of the rating I gave Between the Lines. 
 Just a note, in my opinion, Off the Page is sort of a necessary sequel and yet technically isn't. On one hand, everything is wrapped up nicely at the end of Between the Lines, except there is the question of how exactly can Oliver assimilate into the real world. This is answered in Off the Page, and we also get to see a lot more of him as before he was trapped in a book, so interactions were quite limited. So if you like to see more of Oliver, reading the second book is a must. For me, I was 100% delighted and glad that there was a second book. 
 There are a couple of things about the book that I want to mention in this review: 
 Pacing 
 Off the Page is quite slow throughout. It plods along at a relatively steady pace, and I think at the time, I might have been looking for a more fast-paced, exciting book. The few important things that happen are at the end and unless you were a fan of Between the Lines, Off the Page may not be worth the long journey. 
 Characters 
 I always liked the characters and this aspect was no different in Off the Page. We get to see Delilah and Oliver again as well as Edgar and Jules and the cast of characters in the fictional story Oliver came from. There is some great character development and some growth from a certain character's death, which I found quite unnecessary and used for shock value - at least that part had my eyes glued to the page. Oliver at first struggles to live in the real world which he has never had any experience at, and is many times overwhelmed by everything he sees and has to do (like go to high school), which is quite understandable. There are quite a few funny moments where Oliver, who has been brought up in a historical world, misinterprets meanings and actions and does the opposite of what he is meant to do. It was quite delightful to see how overjoyed he was at simple things, like getting rained on. 
 Where Oliver is kind and very light-hearted (which is why I like him), Delilah is a bit more serious and very relatable to me. Their relationship was very sweet (as it was in the first book) and it just grew more and more when they were able to see each other in real life. 
 One of the most interesting parts of this book was Edgar's perspective. When he learnt of Oliver's dilemma, he volunteered to take his role in the fairy tale, thus voiding his life in the real world. It was only time that Edgar would start to feel homesick and want to go home instead of being stuck in a book forever and his (view spoiler)[mum's illness (hide spoiler)] is the catalyst for that. I wasn't sure that I would like Edgar or his perspective, but I really warmed to him. He isn't the ignorant, self-absorbed gamer I thought he was, he was actually quite sweet and selfless. I do think he should have initially thought twice about giving his life up, but we all make mistakes and everything sorts itself out by the end. I also really liked the relationship between (view spoiler)[Edgar and Jules (hide spoiler)]. Even though the relationship didn't start until the middle of the book, I though they really suited each other and I was (view spoiler)[sad that they didn't quite end up together (hide spoiler)], though I will talk more about that later. 
 Seraphima, the princess from the fairy tale, actually became a whole lot more tolerable and even likable in this book, especially because she is eventually able to see how much (view spoiler)[Frump loves her (hide spoiler)] and how much (view spoiler)[she loves him (hide spoiler)]. 
 Writing 
 Again multiple POVs was effective in conveying the story - especially the introduction of Edgar's POV, as he became quite a main character in the story and he was able to keep the reader informed about what was happening in the book Oliver came from. Coloured text was again a nice reprieve from black text, which I noticed strains the eyes more when it's on white paper. 
 The writing, once again, is very fluent and simple. Each sentence flows into the next and makes reading quite easy. It didn't really help for pacing, sadly. 
 Another thing I wanted to mention was that these books have a very fairy tale atmosphere to them. I'm not sure if it's the writing or what, but, to me, I felt like I was reading a fairy tale, which is quite apt as the books are centralised around a magical fairy tale book. 
 Now to the parts which were lacklustre: 
 A certain amount of suspension of disbelief is required when reading this book, more so than with Between the Lines. There is the most obvious one; how are there talking characters in a book? This one is fine, as the plot couldn't work without it. But there are others too. Some quite significant, like how did Oliver cope with school and how did he get that SAT score right at the end? Others a little more minor, like how long it took for Delilah's mum to finally act on her suspicions. These issues are also linked with parts of the plot that are written in a certain way for sole convenience. These were problems that arise from how the plot goes that the authors had to fix abruptly so that they could continue the main plot. However, this meant that a lot of things were unrealistically dealt with out of convenience, e.g. Delilah manages to convince her mum that all along Seraphima was going to stay at their house as an exchange student. She never told her (of course) and the mum just goes along with it, even though Seraphima herself doesn't pass as a believable exchange student. If it was my parents or friends, they would be very suspicious, is all I'm saying. 
 Ending 
 I have mixed feelings about the ending. Mostly, they are of the satisfied, contented type, but there were some things I wasn't too happy about. I liked how (view spoiler)[Delilah and Oliver ended up together in the same world (hide spoiler)] though the HEA was a little predictable. I was actually worried for a second that everything would end sadly, but to my relief, that wasn't mostly the case. It would be a little bit of a stretch and even more predictable for everyone to have their happily ever after, but at that point I wanted it all just to work out. (view spoiler)[Jules and Edgar are separated, probably for forever. At the end, it was implied that Jules would now use the book to converse with Edgar, which I found quite ironic. I'm not really sure how to feel about it all though. I wanted the whole book thing to come to an end since it had gone on for a while now. (hide spoiler)] The other part of the ending was something I felt happened out of convenience once again. (view spoiler)[Edgar's mum becomes ill and only has a few months to live. He has the idea to move her into her own book and somehow manages to make the plan work. He goes back into the book, thereby taking Oliver's place rather conveniently, so he can live with his mother forever. His mother's illness happened out of the blue (but I suppose it does happen like that in real life). However, who wants to live their whole life in a fairy tale and be immortal? How does that even work? Won't they get sick of it like Edgar and Oliver did? Their lives now seem sort of fake, and I felt if this happened to me in real life, I wouldn't try and escape it and just accept that's how life goes and spend time with the dying person for whatever amount of time they have got, and make that their best time on earth. It feels like they cheated death, which didn't seem right to me. (hide spoiler)] 
 Overall, Off the Page is still worth the read, my being a fan of the first book and the whole concept. I think Picoult and Van Leer are very talented authors, but it doesn't seem like they collaborated on anything else. I might have a look at Picoult's other works, which I know are quite famous. They are in the adult genre, but I think they might be quite accessible to me at my age. Actually, after writing this review, I feel like bumping the rating down a little because I don't think this book quite matches up with other 4 star books I've rated, unfortunately. Maybe 3.5 or 3.75? I'll settle on 3.75 stars.