Ah yes, the long awaited return of Mia Thermopolis of Genovia. Or maybe not so much long awaited but a fun surprise! Much like Royal Wedding, Mia’s story ended nicely with her tenth diary but it is such a delight to see the familiar cast of characters and how they’ve grown especially in the most trying of times. The COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s been two years since the royal wedding and Mia has gotten in the swing of ruling, not so much in dealing with her twins’ terrible twos. But then that little flu in China turns into an international disaster and she closes Genovia’s borders for everyone’s safety since Mia’s hypochondria and tendency to overresearch has made her hyper aware of the danger.

Of course, not everyone appreciates her attempts to curb the virus with the biggest protester being her douche of a cousin, Rene. Worse, her husband is in quarentine and later, busy with work making a life saving vaccine. . . and Grandmere is getting married!?

It’s all fun yet relatable as Mia reaccounts the too close for comfort cabin fever of being stuck with your relatives 24/7, the helplessness and confusion with the new and scary information about the virus and whether or not it will end, the aggravation of those like Rene who only care about their comfort to not wear a mask, and the loneliness of isolating.

There is a bit of a ridiculous side plot where Mia briefly freaks out that Michael is cheating on her with his high school ex who he’s working on the vaccine with. It feels a bit regressive for Mia as she’s in her late 20s, has been in therapy, and Michael is clearly the most loyal guy ever, to be so worried about Michael cheating and return to her clingy, insecure high school self. But I guess I could excuse it as part of the stress of trying to rule when half the population is trying to bend the rules, fear of COVID-19 spreading, and not being able to be with her husband who usually grounds her.

But I can excuse that for all the fun stuff it had like Grandmere finding her “soul mate” in a 19 year old Floridian who wears board shorts. Also the return of Mia, Lily and Tina’s top 10 COVID shows to watch. The shocking Tina and Boris break up. Plus Lana’s oblivious shallowness. I just loved seeing everyone again and their varied reactions to the pandemic and quarentine. Each in character yet showing some growth from the high school years. Even Rene gets a tiny bit of development but who knows how long that’ll stick.

A delightful read for when you’re in quarentine or (thankfully) having a summer vacay on the beach now that things are normal.