Forever Princess (Princess Diaries Series #10)

by Meg Cabot Narrated by Clea Lewis

Overview

Best-selling author Meg Cabot continues the story of Princess Mia in Forever Princess. After Mia reveals a document that proclaims Genovia a Democratic Monarchy, a bitter election ensues. Mia's father is running against a cousin who is using some questionable tactics. Meanwhile, Mia's novel-written under a pen name-is getting denied just as quickly as Princess Mia Thermopolis' college applications are getting accepted. What's a princess to do?

Editorial Reviews

As she awaits her high school graduation, Mia is almost bursting with expectation. Fresh from acing her senior project and receiving acceptances from her top-choice colleges, this winning princess is primed for the future. Unfortunately, the present keeps jutting in, pestering her with worries about ex-heartthrobs and her father's very personal political crisis. A dandy addiction to the ever-expanding Princess Diaries realm.

Twist

If girrrrl heroines are what you want, the hilarious Princess Diaries has a winner in sassy Mia.

Buffalo News

A hilarious read.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

A hilarious read.

Publishers Weekly

The Princess Diaries wraps up in a series finale certain to please the legions of Princess Mia fans. Cabot shows off her singular ability to retread her story lines while leaving audiences breathless to get to the last page: Mia will be certain that this time she's sunk, for real, and oblivious to what is writ large to everyone around her. Here she copes with the pressures of prom (J.P. hasn't asked her), graduation and college acceptances (she's lied through her teeth about them), not to mention her 18th birthday and a party orchestrated by the imposing Grandmère. And why doesn't anyone want to publish her pseudonymous romance novel, Ransom My Heart? (Brief excerpts are tossed in, and absolute devotees can polish off the entire work; see Fiction Reviews, p. 32.) When former boyfriend Michael returns from Japan with his revolutionary medical technology a complete success, Mia is where readers love her: insecure and self-deprecating. By now, however, she understands that being royal means "always being the bigger person, and being kind to others"-and she can act accordingly. A character like this deserves the happy ending Cabot virtually guarantees. Ages 12-up. (Jan.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"This is how NOT a princess I am. I am so NOT a princess that when my dad started telling me I was one, I totally started crying." Raised in a Greenwich Village loft in New York City by her flaky-but-loving artist mother, ninth grader Mia Thermopolis is shocked to learn from her father that she is now the heir apparent to Genovia, the tiny European kingdom he rules. Her paternal grandmother further disrupts Mia's life when she comes to town to mold the girl into a proper royal. Cabot's debut children's novel is essentially a classic makeover tale souped up on imperial steroids: a better haircut and an improved wardrobe garner Mia the attention of a hitherto unattainable boy. (Of course this boy isn't all he appears to be, and another boy--the true friend Mia mostly takes for granted--turns out to be Mr. Right.) A running gag involving sexual harassment (including a foot fetishist obsessed with Mia's best friend Lilly Moscovitz and a sidewalk groper dubbed the "Blind Guy") is more creepy than funny, and the portrayal of the self-conscious pseudo-zaniness of downtown life is over the top (Lilly's parents, both psychoanalysts, get Rolfed, practice t'ai chi and attend benefits for "the homosexual children of survivors of the Holocaust"). Though Mia's loopy narration has its charms and princess stories can be irresistible, a slapstick cartoonishness prevails here. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 7-9-Insecure Mia Thermopolis, 14, discovers that she is actually Princess Amelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldo of Genovia. In her diary entries, which cover almost a month, she writes about going to a private school in New York City and living in Greenwich Village with her avant-garde artist mother. She fights with her best friend, struggles to pass algebra, and worries that she is the only one without a date for the Cultural Diversity Dance. On top of that, her divorced mother begins dating her teacher; her father visits and reveals that she is his heir; her intimidating grandmother gives her "Princess lessons"; and she has to contend with the embarrassment of having a bodyguard and reporters who follow her everywhere. Readers will relate to Mia's bubbly, chatty voice and enjoy the humor of this unlikely fairy tale. More accessible than, though perhaps not as clever as, Louise Rennison's Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging (HarperCollins, 2000), this funny, fast-paced book should appeal to hip young women, including reluctant readers.-Debbie Stewart, Grand Rapids Public Library, MI Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

ALA Booklist

She wines; she gloats; she cheers, worries, rants, raves; reading her journal is like reading a note from your best friend.

Kirkus Reviews

The conclusion of the Princess Diaries saga. The tenth and (at) last diary of Mia Thermopolis, crown princess of Genovia and New York City teen, chronicles her anxieties about college, sex, lying and loyalty in the weeks leading up to her graduation from high school. Excerpts from Ransom My Heart, the romance novel Mia secretly wrote for her senior project and is pseudonymously shopping around to publishers, punctuate the journal. Poor "Daphne Delacroix" is plagued by a constant stream of rejection letters-although Avon apparently has no such compunction and will simultaneously publish the work, with proceeds to benefit Greenpeace (9780061700071, $13.95). Meanwhile, boyfriend J.P. is exasperatingly remote, her grandmother runs amok while planning her 18th birthday party and exboyfriend Michael unexpectedly returns from Japan. How Mia resolves her various conflicts with boys, friends and family will surprise no one, but the tidy ending will satisfy readers who have stuck with her through nine previous volumes. Cabot's skillful use of text messaging, slang and humor strike a breezy tone that makes this a quick, easy read. (Fiction. 12 & up)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170733613
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	02/13/2009
Series:	Princess Diaries Series
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

Tuesday, September 23

Sometimes it seems like all I ever do is lie.

My mom thinks I'm repressing my feelings about this. I say to her, “No, Mom, I'm not. I think it's really neat. As long as you're happy, I'm happy.”

Mom says, “I don't think you're being honest with me.”

Then she hands me this book. She tells me she wants me to write down my feelings in this book, since, she says, I obviously don't feel I can talk about them with her.

She wants me to write down my feelings? Okay, I'll write down my feelings:

I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE'S DOING THIS TO ME!

Like everybody doesn't already think I'm a freak. I'm practically the biggest freak in the entire school. I mean, let's face it: I'm five foot nine, flat-chested, and a freshman. How much more of a freak could I be?

If people at school find out about this, I'm dead. That's it. Dead.Oh, God, if you really do exist, please don't let them find out about this.

There are four million people in Manhattan, right? That makes about two million of them guys. So out of TWO MILLION guys, she has to go out with Mr. Gianini. She can't go out with some guy I don't know. She can't go out with some guy she met at D'Agostinos or wherever. Oh, no.

She has to go out with my Algebra teacher.

Thanks, Mom. Thanks a whole lot.

Wednesday, September 24, Fifth Period

Lilly's like, “Mr. Gianini's cool.”

Yeah, right. He's cool if you're Lilly Moscovitz. He's cool if you're good at Algebra, like Lilly Moscovitz. He's not so cool if you're flunking Algebra, like me.

He's not so cool if he makes you stay after school EVERY SINGLESOLITARY DAY from 2:30 to 3:30 to practice the FOIL method when you could be hanging out with all your friends. He's not so cool if he calls your mother in for a parent/teacher conference to talk about how you're flunking Algebra, then ASKS HER OUT.

And he's not so cool if he's sticking his tongue in your mom's mouth.

Not that I've actually seen them do this. They haven't even been on their first date yet. And I don't think my mom would let a guy put his tongue in her mouth on the first date.

At least, I hope not.

I saw Josh Richter stick his tongue in Lana Weinberger's mouth last week. I had this totally close-up view of it, since they were leaning up against Josh's locker, which is right next to mine. It kind of grossed me out.

Though I can't say I'd mind if Josh Richter kissed me like that. The other day Lilly and I were at Bigelows picking up some alpha hydroxy for Lilly's mom, and I noticed Josh waiting at the checkout counter. He saw me and he actually sort of smiled and said, “Hey.”

He was buying Drakkar Noir, a men's cologne. I got a free sample of it from the salesgirl. Now I can smell Josh whenever I want to, in the privacy of my own home.

Lilly says Josh's synapses were probably misfiring that day, due to heatstroke or something. She said he probably thought I looked familiar but couldn't place my face without the cement block walls of Albert Einstein High behind me. Why else, she asked, would the most popular senior in high school say hey to me, Mia Thermopolis, a lowly freshman?

But I know it wasn't heatstroke. The truth is, when he's away from Lana and all his jock friends, Josh is a totally different person. The kind of person who doesn't care if a girl is flat-chested or wears size-ten shoes. The kind of person who can see beyond all that into the depths of a girl's soul. I know because when I looked into his eyes that day at Bigelows, I saw the deeply sensitive person inside him, struggling to get out.

Lilly says I have an overactive imagination and a pathological need to invent drama in my life. She says the fact that I'm so upset about my mom and Mr. G is a classic example.

“If you're that upset about it, just tell your mom,” Lilly says.

“Tell her you don't want her going out with him. I don't understand you, Mia. You're always going around, lying about how you feel. Why don't you just assert yourself for a change? Your feelings have worth, you know.”

Oh, right. Like I'm going to bum my mom out like that. She's so totally happy about this date, it's enough to make me want to throw up. She goes around cooking all the time. I'm not even kidding. She made pasta for the first time last night in like months. I had already opened the Suzie's Chinese take-out menu, and she says, “Oh, no cold sesame noodles tonight, honey. I made pasta.”

Pasta! My mom made pasta!

She even observed my rights as a vegetarian and didn't put any meatballs in the sauce.

I don't understand any of this.

Things to do

1. Buy cat litter
2. Finish FOIL worksheet for Mr. G
3. Stop telling Lilly everything
4. Go to Pearl Paint: get soft lead pencils, spray mount, canvas stretchers (for Mom)
5. World Civ report on Iceland (5 pages, double space)
6. Stop thinking so much about Josh Richter
7. Drop off laundry
8. October rent (make sure Mom has deposited Dad's check!!!)
9. Be more assertive
10. Measure chest

Thursday, September 25

In Algebra today all I could think about was how Mr. Gianini might put his tongue in my mom's mouth tomorrow night during their date. I just sat there, staring at him. He asked me a really easy question--I swear, he saves all the easy ones for me, like he doesn't want me to feel left out or something--and I totally didn't even hear it. I was like, “What?”

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