Royal Wedding: A Princess Diaries Novel (Princess Diaries, #11)

by Meg Cabot

The first adult installment of the Princess Diaries series "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"--Page 4 of cover.

For Princess Mia, the five years since college graduation have been a whirlwind of activity. Living in New York City, running her new teen community center, attending royal engagements. And speaking of engagements. Mia's 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! But now Mia has a scandal of majestic proportions to contend with: her grandmother's leaked 'fake' wedding plans to the press. And 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. Is Mia ready to wed-- and ready to rule as well?

• ISBN10: 0062379089
• ISBN13: 9780062379085
• Publish Date: 18 April 2023 (first published 2 June 2015)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

3,5 stars

"We might do things differently, but we still get things done." (Mia Thermopolis)

In Royal Wedding, Mia is 26 years old and has finally figured out how to deal with the whole 'being a princess thing'... well, kind of. There's A LOT that's going on in her life.

It's so awesome to see how much Mia has grown from an insecure and self-obsessed 14 year old who was trying to achieve self actualization in The Princess Diaries to a mature women who has stepped into her princess shoes, is more sure of herself and is trying to make the world a better place. That doesn't mean that Mia has completely changed. She's still snarky, witty and funny and her hypochondriac and neurotic tendencies have not disappeared. Her voice and personality is fantastic! Mia might be a princess, but the things that she goes through are extremely relatable.

It's also so cool to see what's been going on in the lives of The Princess Diaries characters. Lily and Tina are awesome best friends, Lana is hilarious and I didn't expect Boris to be so unlike Boris (He's given up the violin and is a pop star with a fan club that mostly consists of teenage girls). Grandmere is still scary, manipulative and offensive and Mia's brother, Rocky, is a 9 year old who is obsessed with dinosaurs and flatulence. However, while I love The Princess Diaries characters and their distinct personalities, their characterization is so flat in Royal Wedding. It's also weird that we don't hear much about Mia's college friends. Maybe they just didn't play as huge of a role in her life as her high school friends.

And of course, there's Michael Moscovitz, the love of Mia's life, who finally asks Mia to marry him. There are so many things that I love about Michael: His personality, - he's smart and practical, but he's also full of fun and mischief - his relationship with Mia and his emojis. I loved Michael in Ten Out of Ten, but I just like him in Royal Wedding. I remember loving Michael A LOT more.

Royal Wedding tries to do a lot of things plot wise and some CRAZY things happen. Aside from the whole engagement and wedding shenanigans, Mia finds out that she might have another sibling, Mia and Michael have a huge surprise and there's a side plot about Mia's internet troll and stalker, RoyalRabbleRouser. I love Olivia. She's smart, calm, perceptive and likable. I was also sad to find out that Mr Gianini passed away. However, I feel like the reason for his passing is so that Mia's mom and dad could back together and give their relationship a second chance. I was also extremely excited about Mia and Michael's unexpected surprise TWINS!!!. And, while the whole situation surrounding the identity of Mia's stalker is hilarious, the end result...just WHY?!

I experienced so much of nostalgia while rereading the The Princess Diaries series and reading Royal Wedding for the first time. It's so awesome to read about the engagement and wedding of one of my favourite teenage ships. What a perfect ending!

"I'm taking the road less traveled. It may not get me where I thought I was going, but it could take me somewhere even better." (Prince Phillipe)

[ellieroth]

quiero el emoji de pingüino

[Chelsea]

Still not the biggest fan of Mia and this series has only been ok for me. I did like this one a lot more than the others. It's nice to see Mia grown up and doing grown up things. I was a little disappointed that she was still as dramatic and childish as she was when she was younger though. But the story was cute and still fun to read.

[Katie King]

I grew up reading the Princess Diaries series. I remember sitting in the reading nook I had made in the corner of my bedroom and just devouring the first few books. It's when my love of reading first started picking up some steam.

I was pretty disappointed with this, and I'm kind of surprised by the amount of great reviews.

It's nice that we had the opportunity to grow with Mia. Looking back at the original series at my current age, I probably wouldn't like it as much. So I'm glad that this is a more adult novel so that I can fairly judge it.

The problem is that it isn't quite an adult story. Mia and everyone around her is definitely older, but they don't act any different. Everyone still seems exactly how they were in the original series and it bothered me. All the "adult stuff" that happens (ex. sex, getting engaged) feels so forced. Like Cabot took 14yo Mia and just layered awkward sexual conversations and adult life events on her, as if that would convince us that time has passed. Mia didn't sound or feel any different, as though she completely refused to mature or change in what, 8 years? I've aged, but she clearly hasn't at all. I'm a very similar age with similar life events going on, but I couldn't connect at all. That led me to the conclusion that I probably wouldn't enjoy rereading the original books back when she really was 14.

Ugh and then it's like Cabot couldn't decide what kind of twist to include so she dropped a bunch in all around the same time. Seriously, the sister, engagement, parents getting together, babies...there wasn't even any time to respond or reflect on each of the events because another twist would be dropped a few pages later. It was really gross.

[sarahjay]

This was pretty much exactly what I wanted it to be.

[Kelly]

http://www.divabooknerd.com/2015/07/royal-wedding-by-meg-cabot.html
Remember dorky, frizzy haired, goofy, monobrow Mia Thermopolis?



Mia is now twenty six, living life as a princess and dating childhood sweetheart Michael, who now owns his own multimillion dollar empire. The Genovian princess is stuck at the embassy, with rendezvous between her and Michael too few and far between. Political tensions are high, with neighbouring refugees trying to seek refuge within Genovia and a rival wanting to take the title of Prime Minister. Mia has never quite come to terms with the pressure of being a royal, and none more so when her father plunges her adopted nation into chaos. A nervous tick, a therapy journal and an overbearing grandmother later, Michael is about the pop the question. And about time.

Jet? He's hired a private jet? Who does he think he is all of a sudden, Christian Grey? I am not okay with this. I'm not some shy virginal student who only owns one shirt.

Mia is incredibly funny. Considering the chaos that surrounds the Genovians, her inner thoughts are still sharp, sarcastic and the same insecure and nerdy Mia that readers had fallen in love with. But a huge family secret throws a spanner in the works and Mia refuses to sweep it under the rug. In Royal Wedding, the wedding in fact plays a very small part to the storyline, but more so the secret her father has been keeping from everyone. And it's a doozy.

The storyline was a little thin in places, the political turmoil that faces Genovia felt more like filler sadly. Apart from a quick island getaway, the majority of Royal Wedding is set within the Genovian consulate. Fans have been waiting for the day Mia weds, but there was no pomp and pageantry which I was looking forward to reading. As much as I did enjoy it, I have a feeling it might have been an introduction to a new spin off series. I'd love to see it come to fruition, as sadly The princess Diaries seem to have run it's course.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a delight to see Mia as a young woman who is still the same dorky, goofy teen underneath her role as Princess. You don't need to have read the first ten installments in The Princess Diaries series, but it certainly helps if you've seen the first film adaptation The Princess Diaries to learn Mia's back story.

[Cocktails and Books]

3.5 Cocktails

Full review to come.

[girlinthepages]

*Many thanks to HarperCollins for this review copy!

This was one of my most anticipated books of 2015.

There were literally squeals of happiness when I found out I was getting more of Mia's story. And it did not disappoint. I was thrilled to have gotten an ARC of this at YALLWEST considering I was in the middle of an entire series re-read in preparation for the new installment. I was over the moon and rushed home and binge read the last few installments so I could get to this one. I had 100% faith in Meg Cabot that she'd do the transition from teen to adulthood for Mia flawlessly (unlike sometimes in tv shows when they try to jump ahead six years between seasons and it just feels chunky and disjointed). Royal Wedding had the charm of reading Mia's journals from her teen years while showing a much more mature (if still stressed-out) heir to the Genovian throne.

Character development was on point.

One of my favorite parts of reading the novel was seeing how the characters progressed several years later. From page 3 I was already completely shocked about some of the fates of the characters (this is so hard to talk about without spoilers!) Yet while some of the character's futures were shocking, they were also totally believable in a crazy Princess Diaries universe sort of way. Everyone's overbearing personality traits from the series really blossomed into the perfect (if crazy) career choices for them. There were also some long-awaited couplings that happened, along with the introduction of some very central characters to the plot, but they felt like they fit right in. I felt like I was visiting old friends who I had grown up with while reading this, and it felt so, so good.

Mia & Micheal's romance was swoon-worthy

I was probably the only person NOT sad when I first read Princess on the Brink to see Mia break up with Micheal and sever ties with a lot of toxic yet long standing relationships in her life. (Micheal was right, they both had a LOT of growing up to do). Now that I'm n my 20s, reading about Mia and Micheal's relationship in their 20s feels so right, and I love how truly in love you can still tell they are (Mia's occasional insecurities aside!) I love reading about their adult relationship, I love their inside jokes and Micheal's complete desiring of Mia, and I love how you can tell they're seamlessly a couple, truly with one ending where the other begins. To top it off, Michael is a mature, intelligent, responsible adult who is concerned with things like price per square footage and financial responsibility. I love YA but you never see guys like this deemed as the sexy love interests. It was so refreshing to have such a well-written swoon-inducing yet responsible and practical love interest.

I couldn't stop laughing.

The great thing about rereading The Princess Diaries series is all of the early 2000's pop culture references Meg Cabot is known for in her writing (and even pokes fun at herself by making Mia be criticized for doing the same thing by her English teacher). It's so much fun, and so nostalgia-inducing to read all of Mia's references to celebrity drama of the time, Lifetime movies, political scandals, etc. Royal Wedding had all sorts of pop culture references too, but the great thing is that they were current, and so, so funny.

Jet? He’s hired a private jet? Who does he think he is all of a sudden, Christian Grey? I am not okay with this. I'm not some shy virginal college student who only owns one shirt."

You see why this book had me in stitches the whole time?

Plot twists...well, kind of.

This book wins the "novel that kept me up all night " award for 2015. I could not stop reading! There were also some things that happened that I WAS NOT expecting going in (although I picked up on the clues pretty fast, but that may be because I'm so used to Mia's narration style after binge reading the first ten books and four novellas). Some of the things that happened would be a great reason for sequels...(Please, please, please make there be sequels!)

It was FUN to read!

It was bottom line just a really fun read. It was so interesting to see Mia as a public figure, using her royal status to impact the world and help causes, like she was always saying she was going to in high school. I loved getting a more in-depth look at the aspects of how Genovia's run, from the new democracy to the antics of the Royal Genovian Guard. I would LOVE a book set in Genovia from Mia's perspective.

There was something that slightly let me down though...

I went to bed at 5AM because of this book. I am so, so tired writing this right now (although this post is being per-scheduled for closer to it's release date, but still). There's no doubt that it had me hooked and I'll be sure to reread it. However, my one tiny complaint is that I wish some of the events had been described more in detail by Mia, rather than just the aftermath. That's all I can say without spoilers!

Overall: It's no secret that I grew up reading The Princess Diaries all though my pre-teen and teenage years, and the ability to continue Mia's story with her in her twenties while I'm in my twenties is an amazing experience. I loved the more adult storylines that still manage to capture the zany charm of the previous books, and I think Cabot pulled off aging all of her characters gracefully and believably. I will be hoping against hope for a sequel to this installment, because now that I've had a taste of an adult Princess Diaries book I'm hooked. I'll definitely be picking up Cabot's middle grade series set in the Princess Diaries universe, From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess. Until then, I'll have to continue to rave over this installment!
 

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[lindsey]

I received a copy of this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.

I was thrilled when I was approved to read the ARC of Royal Wedding. I have to admit that I haven't read every book in this series, but I have enjoyed all of the books by Meg Cabot that I have read. I don't believe it is necessary to have read all of the books in the "Princess Diaries" series in order to enjoy this one. It works pretty well as a standalone, even though I hope she continues to write books in this series!

As the title implies, Mia is engaged, and the book follows her as she plans her wedding, and deals with the everyday things that come with being Princess of Genovia. There are several major plot twists - two of which I figured out very early on, with the others coming as a complete surprise - so the book is filled with more than just wedding plans.

Royal Wedding was very well-written and highly amusing; I laughed out loud several times. I think fans of Meg Cabot and the Princess Diaries series will thoroughly enjoy this book, and I would highly recommend it!