Princess Mia is back. I binged on the two preceding books to catch up: Book 10, Forever Princess, which is set when Mia is still in high school and felt very superficial (or was it me?!) as well as a little harsh towards Mia’s Grandmere and Book 11, Royal Wedding, which takes place five years after Mia has graduated from college and shows a Mia who is growing up, getting married, and all that, but also whitewashes the death of Mia’s step-father, which felt completely brusque. I did like this entry more than the previous one though.
Now, Mia reigning princess of Genovia must deal with the pandemic, ornery cousins, toddlers, and house crashers in The Quarantine Princess Diaries. Let’s take a look.
Blurb: Mia Thermopolis knows just what to do in a crisis: Rule.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, a section of the diary of Princess Mia Thermopolis of Genovia fell into the hands of Meg Cabot, the Princess’s royal biographer.
As reported in media outlets such as Entertainment Weekly, The Mary Sue, Refinery 29, Bustle, and more, from March until June of 2020, sixteen entries of the princess’s diary were leaked onto Ms. Cabot’s blog, to the delight of over a million fans.
In these entries, titled The Coronavirus Princess Diaries, the princess recorded her most heartfelt emotions while dealing with her husband’s quarantine after exposure to the virus; her personal (and political) battles while imposing health restrictions on her small European nation; life during lockdown (even in as idyllic a location as a palace on the Riviera); and of course, dealing with her demanding royal family, especially her grandmother.
Since then, readers have been clamoring for more chapters of Mia’s coronavirus diary . . . and here they are at last: The Quarantine Princess Diaries include not only the previously released entries (now edited and updated with new content), but two hundred more pages of entirely original, never-before-seen entries, including the princess’s worries over a possible royal affair; a showdown between Mia and Grandmère over the latter’s intended nuptials; the eventual development and distribution of a groundbreaking intranasal vaccine for every citizen in Genovia; and, as always, a royally happy ending.
After all we’ve been through, what could be more comforting for any lover of royal romance than snuggling up with a brand new installment of the diary of Mia Thermopolis, the princess who started it all?
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Here we are with Book 12 of the Princess Diaries with Mia facing the pandemic with her brilliant scientist husband, Michael, mother, father, and grandmother at her side–or sometimes in her way in The Quarantine Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot.
If you’re a fan of the series, you will most likely love this entry , which shows Mia trying to battle individuals regarding life over economy, social distancing, and isolating. (And, yes, it does feel very familiar.) Cabot, of course, has the benefit of hindsight, allowing Mia to make choices based on what did and didn’t work. A lot of the awfulness of the time is not in this book and shouldn’t be because that is not what this series is about. This is a feel good series. If, unfortunately, our princess heroine is shown to sometimes not have moved beyond her jealous high school self, this shows her insecurity and, I suppose, humanizes her. I would rather she accepted that Michael loves her fully, which would have shown growth and maturity, but there you go.
Obviously, this is a book about how fictional “haves” survived the pandemic, frequently with Mia downing wine at 11 am, predicting that the next book will probably be called: Rehab Princess. I was sad that Princess Mia had given up being a vegetarian/pescatarian because that seemed like an ideal she should have maintained and such an easy one to keep. But she does keep her friends and realizes just how important family and friends are. And maybe that’s the most important conclusion that the pandemic brought to us all.
A must for Princess Diaries aficionados, a maybe for all others.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
