"Royal Crown: From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess" by Meg Cabot

*Note: There are spoilers in this review. If you haven't read the first three books in the series or Royal Wedding, read at your own risk.

Olivia Grace Clarisse Mignonette Harrison should be having fun. Her best friend is visiting from America, her sister’s royal coronation is only three days away (the first coronation of a female ruler in two centuries), and she’s even got a new boyfriend who is actually a very smart and charming prince!

But it’s hard to celebrate when her royal cousins are scheming to take over the throne. And with everyone running around, Olivia and her friends have been saddled with royal babysitting duties. Then, to make matters worse, Olivia's snobby cousin Luisa insists on gossiping about her, especially about things that should be personal . . . it's none of her business whether Prince Khalil and Olivia have kissed or not!

When did growing up royal get so complicated?!?

I would have to say that my obsession with books by Meg Cabot runs deep. I am not certain just how many times I have re-read The Princess Diaries series (it's September and I have read Royal Wedding twice this year, but we're not going to talk about that). I've reached a point in my life where shelf space is becoming precious and as I don't have as much time to re-read books like I used to, I don't buy nearly as many physical books as I once did, but Cabot's books tend to find room within that limited shelf space. So of course I had to read Royal Crown as soon as it came out.

To get you caught up, Olivia Grace Clarisse Mignonette Harrison Renaldi is Princess Mia's recently discovered sister. Olivia grew up with her aunt after her mother passed away and like Mia, she didn't know that she was a princess. To get the whole story, you'll naturally have to begin at the beginning with From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess. In this particular volume, we meet up with Olivia in the days before Princess Mia's coronation. A lot has been going between the new royal twins, Prince René contesting Mia's right to rule, and Olivia's guests; her best friend and her cousin Luisa. On top of that, Olivia is dealing with having her first "boy that's a friend" and the fun that comes with being a teenage girl.

If I'm being honest, I'm not the biggest fan of this series. There's nothing wrong with it, it just doesn't appeal to me the same way as the original series. I also find that I am more interested in what is going on in Mia and Michael's lives instead of Olivia's. As a character, she is fine and I think she's a great role model for young girls, I just don't find her plots as compelling. I get the impression that Cabot's strength is in writing for teens and adults and her crossover to children's literature is somewhat out of the comfort zone. I didn't really get into the Allie Finkle series either. However, I am glad that this series offers a starting place for younger readers and that it provides them with their own princess to look up to.

Happy Reading!

-Melly

"The Princess Diaries" by Meg Cabot

I just re-read The Princess Diaries series for the umpteenth time.  I never get sick of these books!  They are very high on my list of favorite series.   

Mia Thermopolis is a really tall, really flat-chested freshmen.  She is barely scraping by in Algebra, her mom has an upcoming date with said Algebra teacher, she is not very popular.  Oh yeah, she just found out that she is a princess. A princess. Of an entire country.  Okay, a small county, but still a country!  Now on top of everything else, she has to learn how to someday rule said country under the watchful eye of her Grandmère.  And you thought your life was stressful.  Throughout the series, we follow Mia all the way to her high school graduation, through romances and break-ups, from the school newspaper to her first novel and through many diary entries that are written in women's restrooms.  Mia is funny, obsessed with all things pop-culture, and might just be my all time favorite heroine.  

Because the books are written like actual diaries, they also contain notes from Mia's classes, notes passed in class between her and her friends, newspaper articles and the like.  It really reads like someone's diary.  They are certainly a book that will appeal more to girls (I have yet to meet a guy that has read these books) and probably only to a certain set of girls.  There is a lot of girly talk and gossip, a decent about of fashion, and only one explosion.  I don't recommend these books to just anyone but if you like girly books and haven't read this series yet, you are so missing out!

Read them all!

The Princess Diaries
The Princess Diaries, Volume II: Princess in the Spotligh
The Princess Diaries, Volume III: Princess in Love
The Princess Diaries, Volume IV: Princess in Waiting

The Princess Diaries, Volume IV and 1/4: Valentine Princess
The Princess Diaries, Volume IV and 1/2: Project Princess
The Princess Diaries, Volume V: Princess in Pink
The Princess Diaries, Volume VI: Princess in Training
The Princess Diaries, Volume VI and 1/2: The Princess Present
The Princess Diaries, Volume VII: Party Princess
The Princess Diaries, Volume VII and 1/2: Sweet Sixteen Princess
The Princess Diaries, Volume VIII: Princess on the Brink
The Princess Diaries, Volume IX: Princess Mia
The Princess Diaries, Volume X: Forever Princess

Happy Reading!
-Melly

In Honor of "One Day" with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, Based on the Book by David Nicholls

One Day

So I saw the movie based on David Nicholls' book last night with the crew of The Void Zone Podcast (will post a link to the review soon!) and really enjoyed it. I plan on reading the book as soon as a copy is available at my library again (I'm second in line to check-it out, so hopefully soon) and will attempt to do a movie/book comparison review. However, in the mean time, I highly recommend the movie!

In honor of One Day, here are some Anne Hathaway movie recommendations (and of course, these movies are based on books).

The Princess Diaries

Even though this movie is very loosely based on Meg Cabot's AMAZING series, I still enjoyed the movie. And can you blame me? Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews? Of course I liked it. Despite some major changes (for instance, Mia's father is still alive in the books) and some rather minor ones (it doesn't matter too much plot wise that the location changed from New York City to San Francisco, at least in my opinion. Though, that's what this blog is, my opinion) I feel like it's a fun movie that is easy to watch either alone or with friends, and it's not the type of movie you have to pay attention every second to remember what is going on with the plot.

On the other hand, I am not a huge fan of the sequel. I did see it twice in theaters (a rarity for me) and own the DVD, but overall it's low on my list of likes. I didn't care much for the repeat of jokes from the first movie, “thank you culinary people” and my favorite line from the trailer was cut as well (“Grandma said shut-up? Shut-up!”). Plus, I was always the one holding out for Mia and Michael to get back together. Overall, that was one book deviation I really wasn't okay with. But I will still occasionally pop it in the DVD on a lazy afternoon of watching movies.

As a whole, I enjoy these movies quite a bit. I have a tendency to like movies based on books far more if I see the movie before I read the book. If I have already read the book, I tend to be more attached to the characters and plot and be unhappy when things are changed. Thankfully at the time of the first movie's release, I did not realize it was based on a book and I'm sure this is part of why I enjoy it so much. If you haven't seen it yet and are in need of a fun chick flick, grab both movies and set your self up for a fun marathon.

Check out the amazing Meg Cabot on Facebook and Twitter!

The Devil Wears Prada

I guess I am a bit of an Anne Hathaway fan. I don't make it point to see all of her movies, but I've seen many and enjoyed most. (How did Jane Austen fans feel about Becoming Jane? I'm sad to say I was bored during it, though I am willing to give it another try.). I immediately wanted to see The Devil Wears Prada the first time I saw the trailer. I loved it then (though I was the one in the theater overly upset that Meryl Streep's daughters now had copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I did not) and it is still in heavy rotation in my DVD player (how I love unintentional puns). I didn't realize immediately that this movie was based on a book. That happens to me often with adult fiction (I have a habit of heading directly to the Young Adult books, checking out of the kids fiction and picture books, making a stop in the biography section, then discovering that I am about to buy more books than I should and leave without ever making it to the rest of the bookstore-or library) so I often miss out on those sort of things. But I found Lauren Weisberger's book (I believe on display at WalMart), immediately bought it and began to read.

I am fairly certain that had I read this book without seeing the movie I would have enjoyed it. But reading it after the movie, I felt a little let down (another case of liking a movie better if I see the movie first). I was especially disappointed with the book's ending. Good for book-Andy to take financial responsibility and get rid of clothes she didn't need to pay off her loans. But I prefer that movie version of Andy giving the clothes she received in Paris to Emily. I liked seeing this character I already loved, doing the selfless thing to benefit someone who was never really nice, but who deep down I think wanted to be.

The book has fun characters that were sadly cut from the movie, but for time and such, these cuts made sense. Overall, I absolutely love the movie and the book will always have a spot on my shelves. It's likely that the book will receive several re-reads from me as well. This is another fun movie for a group of women to watch together (and for a marathon, team it with Confessions of a Shopaholic, and I recommend both Sophie Kinsella's book and the movie in this case!).

I hope I've given you some useful movie ideas.  As always, read the books and make your own opinion.  If you like books I didn't that's fine.  And if you disagree with my opinion, that's okay too.  

Happy Reading!

-Melly