It’s been a few month but I finally got my hands on the next three volumes in the series and wow, lots of things are happening as Mia enters the new year with her new boyfriend. Unfortunately, they’re spending the winter break away from each other and it gives Mia lots of time to anxiously worry about the state of it when she gets back.

So Princess in Waiting is quite the apt title for Mia is waiting to get back home to her boyfriend (how she loves saying the word), waiting to see if he returns her affection, waiting for the other shoe to drop. For a big part of this story is all about how to keep a guy interested. Mia thinks she’s being a good girlfriend by calling every day and berates herself that she’s missing his birthday because she has to do princess duties but Grandmere advises the opposite. She must keep him wanting more and play hard to get.

Really, Mia is getting love advice from a myriad of sources like Jane Eyre, her best friends Lily and Tina as well as her own troubled heart. Which is only more troubled when she believes that Michael’s interest is going to wane since she isn’t good at anything. He’s so smart and mature and she’s so not. She doesn’t have any talent and it throws her self-esteem completely down the drain.

This part was really relatable amidst all of Mia’s overdramatics as who hasn’t felt the sting of being uncool, untalented and stupid when everyone else is winning at life.

But most of it is quite fun and frothy from Mia seeing the Disney movie version of her life (and wishing it was as true as that) and how worried Mia gets about her relationship when it’s clear that Michael is absolutely non-pulsed about Mia’s attempts to be the perfect girlfriend. Plus her own mothering tendencies over her mother and future baby siblings. Also I just really enjoy the other random diary details like the girls’ ranking top 10 fictional guys, commenting on best reality shows etc.

Princess in Pink continues Mia’s tumulteous love life drama as she tries to figure out how to get anti-establishment Michael to agree to prom to her. But that might not be the biggest difficulty when Grandmere brings her dog to Mia’s birthday dinner, causing chaos and getting a poor busboy, Jangbu fired. Thus sparks a protest led by Mia’s best friend Lily to support Jangbu while Grandmere refuses to admit any wrongdoing. Which also threatens the location of prom and everyone is looking at Mia to blame.

The book also has one of the most memorable moments when Boris drops a globe on his head after Lily hooks up with Jangbu. Just the drama and the dark humor is great.

Plus Mia gets some needed character development as she takes the reins with standing up for what she believes in (and against Grandmere) instead of the constant pity.

Princess in Training continues the trend as Mia is thrust into the spotlight once more with her act of “eco terrorism” that sends Genovia’s tourism business haywire and Lily nominates her for class president. But that’s not her biggest concern. She’s worried about the next step in her relationship with Michael as Lana snarkily tells her that college boys expect one thing from their girlfriends and Michael’s insensitive response only confirms it!

The spotlight moment when Mia finds her voice at platform was a really triumphant moment for her and I found Grandmere’s story about whom Mia is named for to be sweet. Weird but the intention was sweet which was unusual from Grandmere. I forgot how cruel and snobbish she can be.

Lily is still a bit annoying but I get her use as a plot device and I think I’ve adjusted to her constant soapbox, and other characters like Shameeka, playboy cousin Raul and others just add more excitment and hilarity to Mia’s world.

As usual, it’s a really fun series and Cabot even gets to clapback at her critics in the form of Mia’s new English teacher that derides her constant pop culture references as nonessential when entertainment is essential and uplifting option to the dreariness and cynicism of our times. Somethings never change.