Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot

Title: Royal Wedding (The Princess Diaries #11)

Author: Meg Cabot

Publisher: William Morrow & Company

Release Date: June 2, 2015

Source: ARC from Publisher

Buy the Book: Amazon / Book Depository / Indigo

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 has 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 royal oui.

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?

Meg Cabot is one of two authors who are responsible for me reading YA. And even after all these years, the Princess Diaries series still remains one of my all time favourites. When I found out that a new book would be coming out in the series, I was a whole new kind of excited. Having now read, Royal Wedding, I can say that my excitement was more than justified.

Mia has spent the five years since she graduated from college doing her duty as the Royal Princess of Genovia and running her teen community center. And being in love with Michael of course. But with her twenty-sixth birthday right around the corner, everything is threatening to fall apart. Her father is arrested for reckless driving, protesters are camping out in front of the Genevan Consulate, and paparazzi are constantly hounding Mia. The only bright spot is Michael, the love of her life. Except the tabloids are trying to ruin that too by publishing story after story about why Michael won’t marry Mia. But that all changes when Michael proposes on an exotic romantic getaway and Mia couldn’t be more excited to say yes. Until they return to the city and find out Mia’s grandmother has leaked the proposal to story to the press in the hope of hiding another royal secret. With everything being close to falling apart once again, Mia has to step up and prove to everyone that she’s ready not just to marry Michael, but to become the ruling Princess of Genovia.

Here’s something you might not know about me. Meg Cabot is one of my all-time favourite authors and I’ve been reading her books since I was 12 years old. So I’ve spent literally half of my life reading her books. I can still remember when I picked up the first book in the Princess Diaries and immediately got hooked. And then I read all the ones that were out, until I hit the point where I had to wait for the next one to be published. The last time I read a Princess Diaries book was my senior year of high school. And I hadn’t realized until I started reading Royal Wedding, just how much I had missed reading these books, and Meg Cabot stories in general. Royal Wedding was exactly what I had hoped it would be. I loved being thrown back into the Princess Diaries world, with all the characters I had grown to love over the course of the previous ten books. Honestly, the story could have been about anything and I would have read it, just to be back with all these people. As it was, the story made me so incredibly happy. I’m pretty sure I had a goofy smile on my face the whole time I was reading. There were even moments when I couldn’t help but full on laugh out loud (thankfully, I was home and not somewhere I would be getting weird looks) because that’s just how awesome, and obviously funny, the story was. And there were even a few times when I found myself to be tearing up because things were happening that made me emotional in the best way possible. Before I started, I had no doubt that I would love Royal Wedding, but I’m so incredibly happy that I loved it as much as I did.

Reading a new story about Mia, Michael, Lilly and everyone else was like being reunited with old friends. It took no time at all for me to get reacquainted with them all. Mia was still her adorably quirky and slightly nutty and hypochondria self and I loved reading her diary once again. And she was just like I remembered her. Just the grown up version. Which, obviously, because it’s been 6 years since the last book. And much like Mia was just like I remembered her, so were the other people in this story. Her grandmother is just as crazy as ever, if not even slightly crazier. Michael is still adorable and totally willing to do whatever for Mia. Tina is just as obsessed with romance novels as she’s always been. And Lilly was still her outspoken, take no bullshit from anyone self. So yeah, it was just like old times with the whole gang back together. And honestly, that’s what I loved most about Royal Wedding. The fact that I got to spend a short amount of time with these characters that I spent so many years reading about. And it felt like no time had gone by at all. 

If you are a fan of Meg Cabot and the original Princess Diaries books, then Royal Wedding is an absolutely must-read. It was just like the books you read all those years ago, just with more references to sex and drinking. And it was absolutely amazing.