Have you read Princess in the Spotlight yet? If not, you better go do that before you read this review because I’m going to break it wide open with all sorts of SPOILERS with my review of book three in the Princess Diaries series, Princess in Love. OK, you’ve been warned. Here we go….

If you already read Princess in the Spotlight you know that Mia’s mom and Mr. G got married and Mia is going to be a big sister. (wow, felt good finally letting that all out) You also know that Mia’s secret admirer is….drum roll please….Kenny! Oh.

Yep, Mia has a boyfriend and he’s her lab partner Kenny. That must be why the book is called Princess in Love, because Mia is in love with Kenny. Or is she? We all know that Mia has had a crush on someone else for some time now. While she spends a lot of time thinking about this other guy, she also has plenty of other things to worry about in this book. Really important things like finals and Christmas shopping and her trip to Genovia where she will be officially presented to the Genovian people as Her Royal Highness Princess Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo. Oh, and let’s not forget about French kissing.

Yes, even though Mia finally has a boyfriend, she still hasn’t entered the territory of French kissing and she’s quite concerned about it. She not only has no expertise in this area (thus the need for a well written how-to guide from the fabulous Tina Hakim Baba) but Mia is not even sure she wants to share her tongue with Kenny. She eventually does get to experience kissing of the French variety but you will have to read for yourself to find out who the lucky garcon is. I will tell you what Mia learns about the art of French kissing though:

“It isn’t gross if you’re in love with the guy.” *

Want to know what my rating is? Like you even have to ask! I give Princess in Love a Shrimp Coma Mrs. B all the way!

*or as I discovered in 1984, you’ve had a California Cooler or two.

Volume 2 of the Princess Diaries series, Princess in the Spotlight, starts up with some really big news, another huge life event that Mia has to get used to. I won’t tell you what it is but I’ll tell you this much: Mia takes the news a lot better than she did when she first found out she was a princess.

On the royal side, Mia is getting ready for her first big interview with Beverly Bellerieve on the prime time news show, “Twenty Four/Seven.” Unfortunately the interview doesn’t go very well. Mia ends up blurting out all sorts of information that makes life rather difficult for her.

Besides the interview there’s plenty of other fun things going on in the book. There’s sleepovers and weddings AND Mia starts getting notes from a secret admirer! He’s someone who professes to like Mia well before she became a princess. I know who you’re thinking…I thought it was that same person as well when I read the book the first time. I won’t spoil it for you now, but you better hurry up and read it because I’m going to break open this whole thing when I talk about book 3, Princess in Love.

It was during this second read of Princess in the Spotlight that I remembered why I love Grandmere so much. During the wedding scene (I won’t tell you who’s, you’ll have to read to find out) Mia gets a chance to show Grandmere how much she’s learned about being a princess in such a short time with this beautiful quote:

‘’”…a princess, no matter what kind of adversity she is facing, has to put on a brave face and not hide behind her wealth and privilege.”

There’s no question about the rating, of course. It get’s a Shrimp Coma Mrs. B all the way.