Royal Wedding | Bibliotica

About the book Royal Wedding

• Print Length: 448 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (June 2, 2015)

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Princess Diaries series, comes the very first adult installment, which follows Princess Mia and her Prince Charming as they plan their fairy tale wedding—but a few poisoned apples could turn this happily-ever-after into a royal nightmare.

For Princess Mia, the past five years since college graduation have been a whirlwind of activity, what with living in New York City, running her new teen community center, being madly in love, and attending royal engagements. And speaking of engagements. Mia’s gorgeous longtime boyfriend Michael managed to clear both their schedules just long enough for an exotic (and very private) Caribbean island interlude where he popped the question! Of course Mia didn’t need to consult her diary to know that her answer was a royaloui.

But now Mia has a scandal of majestic proportions to contend with: Her grandmother’s leaked “fake” wedding plans to the press that could cause even normally calm Michael to become a runaway groom. Worse, a scheming politico is trying to force Mia’s father from the throne, all because of a royal secret that could leave Genovia without a monarch. Can Mia prove to everyone—especially herself—that she’s not only ready to wed, but ready to rule as well?

Buy, read, and discuss Royal Wedding

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About the author, Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot was born in Bloomington, Indiana. In addition to her adult contemporary fiction, she is the author of the bestselling young adult fiction series, The Princess Diaries. More than 25 million copies of her novels for children and adults have sold worldwide. Meg lives in Key West, Florida, with her husband.

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My Thoughts

It’s been a really long time since I indulged in a visit with Princess Mia. It’s been long enough, in fact, that I’d forgotten how much the Princess Diaries movies diverge from the novels. Even so, this last weekend was one that required a fun, fresh read, and sitting down with Royal Wedding was just the thing. My review was based on a digital ARC, and the formatting was kind of funky in places, but that in no way distracted from my enjoyment of the story.

In this novel, Princess Mia is twenty-five, and is faced with two major upheavals in her life: succeeding her father on the throne, and getting married. Of course, nothing in her life is ever simple, so there are disasters great and small that come up, all of which serve to increase the level of hilarity from a ten (where the novel begins) to about a 95 at the height of the action. Within the funny moments, though, are moments of candid honesty and poignant emotion, and it’s those sharp turns – from humor to pathos and back – that Meg Cabot writes so well.

I’ve often said that some of the most interesting and provocative contemporary fiction comes from titles labeled “Young Adult” or “New Adult,” and Royal Wedding is no exception. It uses a structure that mixes journal entries, email, phone calls, and text messages (as well as tweets and facebook status offerings) to appeal to a generation of readers who grew up in the Age of the Soundbite, but is still meaty enough for old-school fans, like me.

I also like that the novel is sometimes self-referential, often meta, and exists in a world where the pop culture we all know and love actually exists. Specifically, Mia comments that an unusually high percentage of her friends are high school classmates, and that an unusually high percentage of them stayed with/married their high school partners. Later, she references a specific episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that she’s watching (on Netflix, of course.)

We’ve already seen Mia come of age in these novels. In Royal Wedding she comes into her own power, accepting her abilities and her flaws, and truly embracing her future. I can’t tell if this is the last volume in the Princess Diaries saga, or if there are still more stories coming, but either way, Meg Cabot has delivered a satisfying story with some great moments and a good balance of old characters and new ones.

Goes well with a couple of Butterfingers and a shot of (stolen) 100-year-old brandy.