Review: Royal Wedding (The Princess Diaries #11) by Meg Cabot

Royal Wedding (The Princess Diaries #11)  by Meg Cabot 
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Publication Date: June 2nd 2015
My rating: 5 stars. 

For Princess Mia, the past five years since college graduation have been a whirlwind of activity: 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 royal oui. But now Mia has a scandal of majestic proportions to contend with: her grandmother has 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?

Wow Mia has certainly come a long way from the young teen who was told she would one day take charge of a place called Genovia to the mature (well maturish) adult that she now is today. I do love stories which follow characters through their life, I practically grew up with my face in the Princess Diaries series, so was thrilled when Meg decided to give us more of this character so full of life and fun.

Mia at 25 years old is still the same Mia that I’ve come to know and love, she’s still constantly stressing about medical conditions that she may be suffering with and of course meddling with things she’s been told to back away from, but honestly I wouldn’t want Mia to be any other way. She’s back to jotting things down in her diary and although now she has more serious things to concentrate on than when she was a teenager, I’m glad that Mia doesn’t take things too seriously. She’s still the same Mia whose known to make mistakes, sometimes really cringe worthy, but she’s also always been a lot of fun. I loved getting to know about what antics she had been up to this time. A lot of changes had taken place since we were last with Mia, but I’m glad to see that old faces weren’t forgotten even though it was way back in 2009 when I’d last turned the last page in what I’d thought, would be my last Princess Diaries book, it felt like it was only yesterday that I’d said goodbye to this great set of characters, to Mia’s annoying Grandmere who liked meddling with Mia’s life, to Mia’s best friends Tina and Lily. And I’m glad that these characters hadn’t changed one bit at all Tina (like me) still swooned over her romance novels and Lily was the clever in your face Lily as always. And then we had Lars, I don’t think I’ve ever loved him as much, there were some great scenes where he really stood out, he took delight in protecting Mia to the fullest possible, seriously this guy brought many laugh out loud moments (a lot of my highlighted scenes in my kindle belonged to him) . And then we had sweet funny Michael, he still had the inner geek within him; always inventing cool new emoji’s that I certainly think we need to have! But he also brought the swoon, Michael was always a favourite of mine in the Princess Diaries series, but I think with Royal Wedding I’ve fallen for him even more, he really is every girl’s dream guy. He was always looking out for Mia even though she had constant security and of course the formidable Lars, he was prepared to give upon so many things that were required for him to marry Mia and like I mentioned before he was absolutely the sweetest guy. I think I must have highlighted everything that came out of Michael’s mouth I was literally a puddle of goo!

Having so many great characters back, made me realise why I had cherished this series and characters as a youngster. They’re charming and quirky in their own little ways and characters who like friends in real life end up leaving the biggest impressions with you. These are characters I won’t forget for a long time to come! These characters were also great in relieving stressful situations, Mia had an awful lot of stress to deal with in this book, when certain people were lax in their decision making Mia had to step forward and take charge. I really admired her for this, as it seemed like as soon as something good came her way, another bomb shell was have dropped on her. So having these friends and family around really helped Mia, but also made you smile with her farfetched ideas or overwhelmingness to help Mia anyway possible. We had characters drawing up contracts when they were still in a law school, bust doors down and write dystopian novels with love triangles (this last one was a favourite of mine, I loved how Meg introduced this into the story and her many other references that she poked fun at). Like I said there was a lot of serious issues that had to be dealt with in Royal Wedding, but the never ending escapades of Mia and her friends and funny humour we were able to experience was one I greatly appreciated.

Royal Wedding was one of my longest anticipated reads, but I can safely say fans of Meg and her Princess Diaries series will not be disappointed. Meg goes all out with this latest instalment; she will have fan screaming in delight, close to tears, but most of all truly proud of how far our little Mia has come.