Royal Wedding Disaster: From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess (From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess, #2)

by Meg Cabot

[girlinthepages]

Pretty much immediately after finishing its predecessor, I picked up Royal Wedding Disaster because I am hooked on returning to the Princess Diaries world. The second book in the middle grade series following Mia's younger half sister was even more intriguing because it takes place completely in Genovia (if I remember correctly, Mia spend some time in Genovia in some of The Princess Diaries books, but not as a full time resident). I was excited to see how life for Olivia as a Genovian was going to go, from being a local and living in the palace to attending school at the Royal Genovian Academy.

As per its title, this novel focuses on the week leading up to Mia's wedding to Michael and the craziness that ensues. While I enjoyed these glimpses into Mia's life (her constant struggle with Grandmeré over wedding decisions, Boris P's performing at the wedding and its impact on Tina, etc.) some of the middle grade drama at times did become rather tedious (especially the romance, where Olivia finds herself the object of affection of an unpopular prince at school- which sort of parallels the whole Kenny/Mia debacle from Princess in the Spotlight and Princess in Love- I also loved when Olivia laments that Grandmeré never taught her what to do when someone you don't like likes you, as Mia did when she got all of the questions on Grandmeré's princess lessons test right with the exception of "What to say when a man says 'I Love You' to which she answered "Thank you, you are very kind." which turned out to be the wrong answer....don't ask me how I remember these things). I was also a little bored by the mean girl drama in this book (it seems to be a running theme in all of The Princess Diaries books, actually). Also, the drama with her friend Nishi is annoying- like hello, a friend should not be so snotty/bratty toward you (although again I think this was supposed to parallel Lily's freakout when she found out Mia was a princess). All in all though, despite some of the middle school annoyances, Olivia really grew and matured as a character in this book and it's fun to see her bonding with and finding her place in her royal family.

Overall: Loved seeing more of Genovia and spending more time in the palace with Mia and Grandmeré. Could've done without some of the middle school drama, however seeing as this IS a middle grade book and I am well out of the age range of the target audience, I know that is a personal issue for me. I can't wait to continue this series and see more of the Renaldos!This review was originally posted on Girl in the Pages