Review: Mad Love - Suzanne Selfors

Where I got it: Library

Rating: 3.5 stars  

Cover Rating: 4.5 stars (Cutesy, quite similar to the cover of Rhonda Stapleton's bind up, Struck.)
Genre: Young Adult

Publication Date: January 17, 2012

Publisher: Walker Childrens

Page Count: 329 p.

Buy it: Book Depository / Amazon

Alice's mom is on a bit of a mental vacation, "researching her next book", overseas...really she's in a mental hospital. The famous Belinda Amorous had bipolar disorder but she doesn't want anyone to find out, especially her publisher. So Alice is tasked with taking care of the house and finances and keeping her mothers treatment hush-hush. Soon Alice is forging her mom's signature on checks, letters and copies of her novels. Then Alice meets Errol. He is convinced that he is Cupid and that it is Alice's destiny to write his story. He claims that the story of Cupid and Psyche has been mistold and he wants the real, true story written down. Alice feels she has enough on her plate already, without this weird boy trying to get her to write some strange love story but she might be convinced otherwise. Somehow she has to juggle all these things plus a crush and try not to go crazy herself.

This was an interesting story. It wasn't a cute love story like one might expect from the paperback cover, it was a whirlwind of emotion. The love part comes in to play mostly from Cupid. I mean...it's Cupid, love and what not. Anyways, there is a budding crush in Alice's life but her life is a car wreck, so it's hard for her to stay focused on the task at hand. Alice was really all over the place. She clearly has taken on way more than she, personally, can handle. Some kids are in Alice's situation and can handle things okay, but it does really seem like too much all at once for Alice. Errol/Cupid was such a creep. He just seems like the sketchiest person alive. Even though I feel a little bad for him, I still would cross the street if I saw him. This was a really interesting story though. I liked the premise that maybe Cupid's love story wasn't happily ever after and that was just an ending that the gods liked better.  I wish there was more to do with the mythology, and maybe less story plots altogether. There was so much going on in this book Suzanne Selfors handle it well and it was never confusing, but so much just seemed to be happening in just a few days, that it was a little bit hard to picture the story taking place in less than a week. I think the memories made it feel longer too, because it broke up the timeline. I did love the characters though, I could picture them all in their funky little apartment building. Some parts of this book were hilarious and then others were somber, which made the balance of emotion work out quite nicely. I think Archibald was my favorite character. He wasn't really involved with the drama of everything and just was very down to earth. Plus he was a bit sassy and gave fantastic advice. This is not a great read to put you in a lovey mood, but it was a pretty great read for itself.

First Line:
"When you're sixteen, summer is supposed to spread before you like a magic carpet, waiting to carry you to new, exciting places."

Favorite Line:
"We followed her from the church, a rumble of distant thunder accompanying our exit."