Review: Mad Love

Author: Suzanne Selfors
Pages: 336
Publisher: Walker Books for Young Readers
Source: Library
Synopsis: 

When you're the  daughter of the bestselling Queen of Romance, life should be pretty good. But 16-year-old Alice Amorous has been living a lie ever since her mother was secretly hospitalized for mental illness. After putting on a brave front for months, time is running out. The next book is overdue, and the Queen can't write it. Alice needs a story for her mother-and she needs one fast.

That's when she meets Errol, a strange boy who claims to be Cupid, who insists that Alice write about the greatest love story in history: his tragic relationship with Psyche. As Alice begins to hear Errol's voice in her head and see things she can't explain, she must face the truth-that she's either inherited her mother's madness, or Errol is for real.

Mad Love was a nice story but it left me a bit unsatisfied. I think it's because the premise of the Cupid and Psyche story was so original and interesting that I became excited and expected something different.

Since this book has Cupid who shoots love arrows, it would be considered a paranormal novel (or urban fantasy, I still don't understand the difference much) but I thought it felt more like a contemporary book. The Cupid and the Gods story line wasn't as major as the Queen of Romance or all the parts about Alice's mother. There were some parts that I felt made little logical sense. I'm not sure if Mad Love is a series because it read like a standalone but there were some story lines that dangled but were never fully explained.

I have to say, Errol is a brilliant name for Cupid. It's unique but close to Eros. Every time I read Errol, I'd giggle a bit. I don't hear the name much so I loved its use.

The characters had problems, faults and merits. I could see all that but I never really connected with any character. I still feel like I don't know some of them well. There was just something missing, the life in them, if you know what I mean.

I read on other blogs about the 50 page rule so while I finish everything I start, I check at 50 pages to see how I feel the story moved along. When I checked in Mad Love, I was surprised that not much happened. We were introduced to Alice's life and she first met Errol. The pacing could have been a bit faster, but the author was very thorough with what she explained.

Overall, Mad Love had fabulous potential but it wasn't the book for me. An nice romantic book, it gets 3 stars.

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