Book Review: The Potion Diaries by Amy Alward

Title: The Potion Diaries
Author: Amy Alward
Published: 2nd July 2015
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Books

I had been excited for The Potion Diaries months before it had come out and when I saw an opportunity to review for Maximum Pop Books, I jumped at the chance and was over the moon when they said I had been selected as one of the reviewers.
I so adore the cover for The Potion Diaries. The picture and the mix of the colours just really makes me want to pick it up. It will have pride of place in my bookshelves. So not only do I love the cover, I fell in love with the story. This is the perfect combination of fantasy, fairytale and modern day. The baseline of the story is that the Princess of Nova creates a potion to make Zain fall in love with her, but it goes badly wrong and she ends up poisoning herself. The only way to save her is to find the cure. 
There is a great sense of adventure and you feel that pressure that Sam is under to get the potion ingredients in time before it's too late. Amy has thrown in loads of obstacles in Sam's way, an evil villain and a princess's life in danger. There is of course a little bit of magic as well which I loved and could not get enough of Sam putting all these clever potions together. Bits of it reminded me of Harry Potter which was a big bonus. I really could not ask for more from a book.
Amy has also undoubtedly created some fantastic characters as well. Sam is relatable and strong willed, not to mention brave. Her family history was also fascinating and gave her character depth and as I reader I found myself wanting to know more.
This was a super quick, really enjoyable read. It was also the perfect form of escapism. I am SO excited that there is a book two!