Book Review: Mad Love - Suzanne Selfors

"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."

Read Date - May 2024

Length - 336 pages

Genre - Romance, Mythology, and Slight Mystery

Rating - 7/10

Notes: i originally read this in 2017-2018 from the library and it was my first introduction to romance. After i started reading again this year, i decided i HAVE to pick it back up and reread it. it'd been seven years, and i was younger when i read it. on top of having autism, i'm also diagnosed with bipolar disorder so for me, its refreshing to see it characterized in a way that isn't glamorous. Her mothers life itself is glamorous, but her disorder isn't. at least, it isnt written in this manner at all. We're shown her mother to be very cationic at the moment, and stuck in a sort of haze. we're shown Alice's perspective of the disorder, which i believe is a very accurate depiction of a family member's struggle. Alice is left behind to deal with her mothers career as an author. I think this brings an interesting dynamic where her mother is famous, but only in a very specific niche. i LOVE how its vaguely alluded to most of the main characters in this book suffering from delusions of some kind. it makes you question every word you're reading, like you really want to know if its a genetic predisposition or not. If its real or not. it was written so well and i love how, even this book itself has a happy ending that isnt so happy, just like the book Alice is writing. I love how they end if off with the fund going towards cancer research to help Errol.