When I first saw "Madly" (otherwise known as "The Potion Diaries") on Bookoutlet, I thought the cover was beautiful and the premise seemed interesting enough. The princess makes a love potion to make her best friend Zaine fall in love with her; she accidentally looks at herself in a reflection and falls in love with herself. Thus, it is the responsibility of potion makers to go on a Hunger Games-esque hunt for the ingredients for a cure.

I went into this book expecting it to be kind of a fun book, which it was! There's nothing wrong with reading for pure entertainment value. But for those who are looking for a book to make you feel things and think really hard, this isn't the book for you.

The book was set in a 21st-century world that was an odd mix of old-timey, medieval fantasy and technological advancements. I'm not saying that's the problem with it. My problem with it was that I was confused as to how the two sides of the world met. Why did they have a royal family in this society? What role did magic play in technology? There were some interesting worldbuilding questions that could've been answered but were mostly ignored as the protagonist went on her adventure to bring honor to her family by winning the trial.

There was also a weak aspect of the story where the main antagonists of the story weren't that threatening. Things would go wrong, but never in a deadly way. Even though there were other teams going against the protagonist, there was little to no competition or high stakes. It was one of those books where you want things to go right for the main character, but you still want them to go through a little more of a struggle to get there; a struggle that actually induces a character change.

Overall, this was a good book for entertainment value. I could see it being good for younger readers than myself!