Review: Mad Love by Suzanne Selfors.

Posted March 23, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 5 Comments

Main Character: Alice Amorous
Love Interest: Tony Lee
Series: None, that I know of.
Author: Website|Facebook|Twitter|Goodreads

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.

I received this book for review through the ARC Tours that Holly from Good Golly Miss Holly runs and I really enjoyed it. Alice Amorous has a lot going on in her life for a girl who’s only seventeen. Her Mom’s got a secret and it’s up to Alice to make sure that the secret stays just that…a secret. Alice’s Mom is Belinda Amorous and she is the Queen of Romance. She’s a romance novelist and image is important to her. She’s also in the hospital and doesn’t want anyone to know about it so while she’s in the hospital getting better, she left her entire world/life all in her seventeen year old daughter’s hands.

Alice does everything for her mother, she pays the bills, she holds off her mother’s publishing houses who want another book out of her mother and if they don’t get it, they’re going to stop all royalty payments and Belinda will have to pay back $100,000 that the publisher gave her. To put it bluntly, that’s a lot of crap to lie at the door of a seventeen year old.

Alice is trying to keep everything afloat while her mother is getting better in the hospital but then this crazy guy comes into her life and complicates her already complicated life. He’s got a story that she has to write and when she gets the crazy idea that she’s going to write that story for her mother to appease the publisher, crazy boy’s story becomes her story. Throw in another boy who she’s totally been eye stalking every day that he skates by her window and then sprinkle in some angry Gods and Goddesses and a dash of magic and you have the jist of this story.

This book entertained the socks right off of me and what I enjoyed most about it was getting to know all of the characters, even Alice. There were times that I wanted to smack Alice upside her teenage head but for the most part, I felt for her character. She had to worry about so many aspects of her Mom’s life, as well as take care of her Mom and then the added responsibility of trying to keep her Mother’s job for her was a bit much. But even with all of this going on, Selfors did a great job of sharing a story that was both interesting and charming.

Errol and the rest of the cast were wonderful additions to the story and I enjoyed getting to know Realm (or Lily, whatever) and the many people that made up Alice’s life. She had a great support group and they made the story just that much more enjoyable. This story made for an entertaining few hours and I would definitely recommend it. Also, Tony Lee rocked!

For all my Moms out there, I’d give this book a rating of: