Mad Love

November 15, 2010
Alice's mother is the "Queen of Romance," the famous Belinda Amorous, author of countless romance novels like On Holiday with a Swarthy Scoundrel and Hunger of the Heart. But her mother has bipolar disorder and is hospitalized, leaving 16-year-old Alice to fend for herself, keep her mother's illness secret from a prying world, and somehow meet her mother's looming book deadline, too.
Enter Errol, "the original, one and only Cupid," who wants Alice to write his life story. Alice puts aside her disbelief and gets to work, hoping she can get Errol off her back and make her mother's deadline at the same time. While still squarely planted on the frothier side of paranormally inflected romance (much like Selfors's 2009 novel, Coffeehouse Angel), this story adeptly touches on mental illness and its effect on a family. Selfors's proclivity for giving characters quirky names (Reverend Ruttles, Mrs. Bobot, Archibald Wattles, and Alice Amorous, of course) adds to an overall feeling of whimsy, and things are further enlivened by a dash of real-life romantic interest and well-meaning neighbors for the lonely, stressed-out Alice. Ages 12–up.

November 15, 2010

The daughter of a bestselling romance novelist feels forced to keep a terrible secret when her mother is hospitalized with bipolar disorder in this unique, heartfelt and fantastical romance. When unpaid bills jeopardize her mother's care and her publisher threatens litigation surrounding her unfulfilled contract, 16-year-old Alice decides she must write the novel in question. By fateful coincidence, a strange boy named Errol appears on the scene and, claiming to be Cupid, is desperate to tell her the true story of his and Psyche's mythic love affair. Buoyed by wryly funny dialogue, this packs a lot into its pages—a love interest for Alice, her anguish over her mother's illness, Errol's tragic predicament and several well-executed subplots involving Alice's neighbors. While all of these balls are convincingly kept aloft until the very end, their resolution in a sort of epilogue seems somewhat too neat for all of the messy subject matter tackled in the story—but perhaps it is, as Alice suggests to Errol, "what the readers want...They want happily ever after." (Fantasy. 12 & up)

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February 1, 2011

Gr 8 Up-"What does a person do when confronted with a situation that is either madness or magic?" This is the very question that 16-year-old Alice Amorous asks herself. As the daughter of novelist Belinda Amorous, the Queen of Romance, things had been going so well. Then Belinda has a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized for bipolar disorder. Now not only must Alice fend for herself, but the publishing company is also threatening to take back the $100,000 advance unless a new romance novel appears before the August 31st deadline. Enter a pale boy named Errol who claims to be Cupid himself, insisting that Alice must pen the veritable version of the greatest love story ever told: his romance with Psyche. Alice may have just stumbled upon her mother's latest novel. Selfors is adept at making Alice a sympathetic and believable character. She keeps the pace going with the near-miss moments between Alice and her love interest, Tony. The story takes place in Seattle in the midst of a stifling, humid summer, which creates an atmosphere appropriate for Alice's situation. The story may seem like a lighthearted teen romance novel, but at moments it turns contemplative when dealing with Belinda's mental and Errol's physical illness. The author leaves readers wondering whether or not Errol is mad for believing that he is, in fact, Cupid or whether there is some magic in the world after all.-Kimberly Castle, Medina County District Library, OH

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