Like many millennials of a certain age I grew up reading the OG Princess Diaries books and the film remains one of my favourite comfort films. I finally polished off the series in 2021 and was quite excited to check out the time jump release of Mia in adulthood, planning her wedding to Michael.

However, this still felt very much like a YA novel, just with more references to Mia & Michael's sex life. Mia and her friends all still feel very much like the same people they were at the end of the original series, and whilst Mia does have a joking aside about how she's only friends with people from school, it did feel like a bit of a missed opportunity to expand her circle a bit more. Her voice still feels like that of a teenager, as do some of the decisions that she makes through the novel. There's also a twist towards the end, that also results in a v frustrating time jump, which I could definitely see coming from the early pages.

From other reviews, I can see that this is largely considered a set up for Cabot's spin-off contemporary young reader series which makes sense, and there's still some fun capers in here - but it doesn't feel like a particularly needed instalment in the series.