Book Review: The Quarantine Princess Diaries: A Novel

"Everything is going to be okay. Everything is going to be fine" (3)

Book Title: The Quarantine Princess Diaries: A Novel
Author: Meg Cabot
Paperback
Amount of Pages: 330 
Release Date: March 7, 2023
Publisher: Avon
From: Bought
I was not paid for this review

Summary (From back of the Book): 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' 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 Rivera); 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 includes 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 Grandmere over the latter's intended nuptials; the eventual development and distribution of a groundbreaking intranasal vaccine for every citizen of Geovia; and, as always, a royally happy ending. 

Wdebo's Review: I have been a huge fan of the Princess Diaries series since I first started reading it in Elementary School. So, of course I would jump at the opportunity to pre-order and read the book when it first came out. 

The first half of the book was likely the pre-published blog entrees that Meg Cabot had written on her blog. They were ok, it did go pretty formulastically along with what was happening in the US at that time. However, when it came to the entrees that were the new content I enjoyed that part of the story much more. It just flowed much better and was more enticing. 

Mia's voice in the diaries was very reminiscent of her writing from the beginning of the series, just very stream of conscious and kind of all over the place. I was hoping Mia's voice would have matured a little since she is supposedly now a 30 something year old Princess, but she still sounds like how she did when she was a high schooler. There were lots of pop culture references that really felt forced into the story and could have been edited to make it flow a little better. 

However, I did enjoy revisiting all of these characters from my childhood and of course coo over the relationship of Mia and Michael which my younger self really did enjoy. 

Is this the best Princess Diaries book I have ever read? Definitely not. But it was very nice to revisit the setting, the characters and their lives once more to reminisce about a story my younger self truly adored. 

Cafe Cover Chit Chat: Ahh, it's a cute masked cartoon but not very eye catching (C) 

All in all, a treat for Princess Diaries fans but does really stand alone as a wonderful story. 

Grade: B- 

Wdebo :)