Party Princess is a Royal Treat

by Movie Editor Courtney Bowerman

The Princess Diaries Volume VII: Party Princess by Meg Cabot is the newest installment in the popular series about a teenager who has discovered she is the future ruler of a small European country. Most may be familiar with the Disney movie of the same name, but if you’ve read the books, you’ll know that Disney changed many parts of the story: it’s location ( New York in the books, San Francisco in the movie), the character’s personality and names, and took even more liberties with the love interest in its sequel. The books also happen to be much edgier than the sugary-sweet movie, and this new book is no exception.

For those who haven’t seen the movie or read the books, here’s a brief recap of the premise of the series: Mia Thermopolis has accepted her life as a so-called loser in her high school, until her parents—who are not married—reveal that her father is the prince of Genovia. Since recent cancer treatments have made her father sterile, Mia is now the sole heir to the throne. Others girls would think this would be a dream come true.

Mia, however, is not one of them. Now she has to cope not only with ordinary high school woes, but has to endure unwanted press attention and “princess lessons” with her tyrannical paternal grandmother. Yet in spite of each new crisis that rears its ugly head, Mia is determined to put her new authority to good use in her personal life and for the country she will someday rule.

In Party Princess, Mia faces new responsibilities as her school’s new student body president. The problem is that she’s already messed up by inadvertently causing the school to run out of money. To make things worse, her grandmother plans to “help” raise money by organizing a musical about Mia’s ancestress Rosagunde, the first princess of Genovia. Mia is horrified to learn that she’s been cast in the lead, but has no choice to go along with it when her grandmother threatens to expose her mistake to a certain, scary-looking member of the senior class.

Mia also faces problems with her college freshman boyfriend, Michael (also her best friend Lilly’s brother). She constantly worries that he will dump her for someone closer to his age because she isn’t quite ready to take their relationship to the next level. Upon learning that he is throwing a party in his dorm, she is convinced that he wants more of a “party girl.” She tries to act like someone who “wants to have fun” with humiliating results.

There are other things that happen in the book, but I can’t go into much detail without giving it away. Like the other Princess Diaries, this one is filled with witty humor and numerous pop culture references. Some may find dismiss Cabot’s writing as fluff, but I found it to be charmingly realistic. After all what else do teenagers talk about aside from their own lives? The girls on my high school’s newspaper staff, for example, never shut up about the O.C.

Perhaps the most admirable thing about the series is that Cabot is unafraid to write about real-life issues, namely sex. I know that she got a lot of flack from parents for something one of her characters did in Ready or Not: An All American Girl Book. Nevertheless, her writing is an honest portrayal of how teens act, even if situations like Mia’s are unlikely to happen in real life.

In general, Party Princess is the best Princess Diaries book yet, filled with humor, edginess, and plot twists. Like any good series, it seems as though each book is better than the last. One can only eager wait to find out what happens to Mia next.