The Princess Diaries (The Princess Diaries #1) by Meg Cabot

She's just a New York City girl living with her artist mom...

News Flash: Dad is prince of Genovia. (So that's why a limo meets her at the airport!)

Downer: Dad can't have any more kids. (So no heir to the throne.)

Shock of the Century: Like it or not, Mia Thermopolis is prime princess material.

Mia must take princess lessons from her dreaded grandmére, the dowager princess of Genovia, who thinks Mia has a thing or two to learn before she steps up to the throne.

Well, her father can lecture her until he's royal-blue in the face about her princessly duty—no way is she moving to Genovia and leaving Manhattan behind. But what's a girl to do when her name is Princess Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo?

“Lilly says I have an overactive imagination and a pathological need to invent drama in my life.”
― Meg Cabot, The Princess Diaries

After rewatching Disney's film adaptation of Meg Cabot's The Princess Diaries a few weeks ago, I had this strong urge to give the books a try. And I'm glad I did. I had always wanted to read the books that inspired the movies, but just had never gotten around to it.

Meg Cabot takes us into the world of fourteen year old, high school freshman Mia Thermopolis. Written as Mia's diary entries, the reader really gets to know Mia, and get into her mind; a mind that is full of amusing thoughts. I found myself laughing a lot while reading this book; partly because some of the things going on was ridculous, but largely due to Mia's personality. She tended to freak out about things quite a lot. Which, is understandable when you think about it. I mean, how would you react if you had just found out you were the heir to the throne of a small European country?

Mia doesn't believe she is princess material. She doesn't believe she has the beauty or the brains to pull off the job. Unfortunately, no one seems to care what she wants, which is to live out a normal (as normal as possible for her) life. Her Grandmere, however, won't take no for an answer. Since her father became sterile after heavy doses of chemotherapy to get rid of his testicular cancer, Mia is the only heir to the throne.

I really love the characters of the story. Mia is just so entertaining, though a bit extreme sometimes. I think she tends to overreact at times, but once again, she is going through a difficult time in her life. Not only did she find out she was heir to Genovia, but her mother is also dating her Algebra teacher (a class she is failing miserably in), and her Grandmere is rather scary. Grandmere is nothing like Julie Andrew's character in the movies. It took me awhile to adjust to the major differences. Of course, I expected differences, but I was still shocked, but also grateful the amazingly talented Julie Andrews did not have to portray the horrid woman in the book. In the book, Grandmere shaves her eyebrows and paints them on, and also has eyeliner tatooed to her eye-lids. Does that sound freaky or what?

I loved the diary entries and how Mia would write down notes in her diary. Most of them were math formulas. It was actually pretty funny: one of the formulas she wrote down was something I was currently learning in my College Algebra class, so when I read it, I was like, "That's so cool! Now I don't have to study!"

Overall, this book was a light, fun read. Definitely what I needed, what with college being so stressful; it was nice to sit back and enjoy this book. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of the movies, but would tell them to be sure to seperate the books from the movies because they are completely different.