Royal Wedding (The Princess Diaries #11)

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Princess Diaries series, comes the very first adult installment, which follows Princess Mia and her Prince Charming as they plan their fairy tale wedding--but a few poisoned apples could turn this happily-ever-after into a royal nightmare. For Princess Mia, the past five years since college graduation have been a whirlwind of activity, what with living in New York City, running her new teen community center, being madly in love, and attending royal engagements. And speaking of engagements. Mia's gorgeous longtime boyfriend Michael managed to clear both their schedules just long enough for an exotic (and very private) Caribbean island interlude where he popped the question! Of course Mia didn't need to consult her diary to know that her answer was a royal oui. But now Mia has a scandal of majestic proportions to contend with: Her grandmother's leaked "fake" wedding plans to the press that could cause even normally calm Michael to become a runaway groom. Worse, a scheming politico is trying to force Mia's father from the throne, all because of a royal secret that could leave Genovia without a monarch. Can Mia prove to everyone--especially herself--that she's not only ready to wed, but ready to rule as well?

PROS

I loved the experience of reading this. There were literally some points during my reading that I was grinning so hard, I was getting a face cramp. And I couldn't help but literally laugh out loud a few times. I was really happy to be back in this world especially since I've grown up since the last book and so have they.

I was thrown off by the baby story line. Usually I can see twists like this from a mile away before we are even given the first hint. But not this time. Not to mention that Mia is pregnant with twins!

And the vague mentions of Mia and Michael's adventurous sex life, anyone?

The introduction of Mia's biracial half-sister, Olivia Grace! Apparently, right around the time Mia found out she was a princess, her unlucky in love dad fell in love with this black woman whose occupation has something to do with planes. Apparently they are "hot and heavy for a while" until she ended things because she (like Mia's mom) didn't want to be a princess. Then she, sadly, died and Olivia grew up Harry Potter/A Cinderella Story style with her aunt and family stealing her child support money all for themselves. So when Mia finds out about her, she (of course) decides she has to help her some how... which results in the whole world discovering Prince Philippe's second love child. 

I loved Olivia's interactions and different reactions to the same situation Mia found herself in all those years ago in the first book. Olivia was so interesting, she helped solve (a little conveniently, might I add) 

(Who I picture Olivia Grace to look like.)

And Mia's parents got back together! Which was kind of random although you could tell because everybody and they mama was hinting at it. Turns out Prince Philippe wouldn't be acting half his age and whatnot if he could find a woman worth his time to settle down with him. However, who wants to marry a prince who still lives with his mom?

No one, that's who. Not Olivia Grace's mom and not Mia's either which is what Mia tells him. So he decides to separate from Grandmere, give up his Genovian political position and he and Mia's mom decide to get married and take Olivia Grace and Rocky and raise their blended family in a Genovian palace.

CONS

Michael and Mia's relationship seemed a little too perfect in the novel. Not only did they never argue once (even over something small and insignificant) but there was no mentions of previous fights either. That seemed too unrealistic as two grown adults especially who are about to get married and have kids. 

I wish we had a lot more of in-person interactions with all the people of old. There were only a small amount of scenes with Lilly and Tina and the rest of their interactions (not excluding Lana and Trisha and others) were limited to text messages or through other people. Not to mention one of the interactions I was most looking forward to was Rocky and Mia. Sadly I was limited to only one and he barely spoke more than five times.

Boris apparently became a famous pop star with groupies and everything. So he and Tina broke up once this blogger releases pictures after she and Boris have slept together. Tina believes he cheated on her (but conveniently HAS NEVER SEEN THE PICTURES) although Boris has claimed that they were photo-shopped. 

Mia, however, has seen the pictures and there's a part of Boris she recognizes that can't be photo-shopped so she doesn't believe him, although Michael does. Ironically, Micheal even brings up how people lie about her in the press all the time, but she still doesn't doubt the truth. This subplot seemed highly unrealistic/unconvincing to me. I felt like Boris and Tina were just broken up so they could happily get back together in the end. Which did happen.

Mia tells us in the beginning of this book that she has this internet stalker. He talks about how she is lame and a feminist and a ho and a slut and the downfall of her country with her feminist wiles. Turns out that he's her loser ex-boyfriend, J.P. who is probably all butt-hurt that she dumped him for Michael and Michael is gonna be a prince and (according to the tabloids) is the world's greatest lover) and Mia hasn't looked back ever since. 

Anyway, conveniently, Michael and J.P. get into a fight and somehow Michael gets to look at his phone and realizes that J.P. is Mia's evil internet stalker. We don't learn this til (essentially) the epilogue of the book. We also learn that somehow J.P. has been exiled to some foreign country and that's the anti-climatic end of that.

MIA IS FOR GMO's?!?!! I felt so betrayed! Mia, how could you? I don't care how much drought resistant orange crops your GMO seeds can create, GMO's are always bad no matter what in the long term! I was soooo shocked that Mia would be for something that is so humans fucking around with Nature. 

The ending felt rushed. Like super rushed. One chapter, Mia and Michael are telling Mia's parents that they are pregnant (side note: I did read one review where the reviewer felt like Mr. G was only killed off to force Mia's parents to get back together. I can kind of see that.) and in the next we get a Jane-Eyre-esque (literally) ending where Mia is all, "Reader, I married him." 

So even though the book is CALLED Royal Wedding we don't get to see any of the wedding scenes. 

• The dress Mia settles on (since she is now pregnant), 
• if she publicly releases her pregnancy or not at this time, 
• bonding with her sister, 
• her bachelorette party, if and what her something old/new/borrowed/blue are or any of that stuff. 

I was extremely disappointed about that. 

Anyway, I enjoy the experience of reading this book although I did have some issues with some parts. Don't let my review fool you, I loved a majority of it until the rushed ending. Anyway, don't take my world for it; go enjoy it for yourself! 

The One & Only (Emily Giffin)

Thirty-three-year-old Shea Rigsby has spent her entire life in Walker, Texas—a small college town that lives and dies by football, a passion she unabashedly shares. Raised alongside her best friend, Lucy, the daughter of Walker’s legendary head coach, Clive Carr, Shea was too devoted to her hometown team to leave. Instead she stayed in Walker for college, even taking a job in the university athletic department after graduation, where she has remained for more than a decade. But when an unexpected tragedy strikes the tight-knit Walker community, Shea’s comfortable world is upended, and she begins to wonder if the life she’s chosen is really enough for her. As she finally gives up her safety net to set out on an unexpected path, Shea discovers unsettling truths about the people and things she has always trusted most—and is forced to confront her deepest desires, fears, and secrets.

BEFORE READING
Just reading the reviews and seeing the others who hated all the Texas and football in this book makes me want to read it. I'm from Texas and in the South, football is like a second religion. A reviewer seemed pissed off by the books point that no one cares if you've been raped if the guy plays football, and sadly this really does occur in high school, college and pro-ball. The summary intrigued me but so did the other readers opinions. I can't wait to get my hands on this book.

AFTER READING
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I don't really run into books that talk about football in the Texas setting so much. And usually when you see girls like Shea, they don't seem 100% authentic. Girls like Shea who are that into football are usually in romance novels that have a little more emphasis on sex and seem only as a plot device to intense the male lead. However, Shea doesn't seem like that at all. Overall, I'm not sure how I felt about her as a character. Mainly it was her crush on her best friend's coach that got me. I really was psycho-analyzing her reasons for have feelings for Coach.

I figured it was because of her complicated relationship with her father. He is the impiety of guys who don't know what they want. He cheated on his first wife with Shea's mom, married her, had a kid with her then turned around and decided he wanted his first wife and daughter and left them. Coach was the only kind of father-figure in Shea's life so I figured that's why she liked him. I didn't expect for him to return her feelings and I definitely wasn't expecting for them to be together. Especially in light of how The One & Only begins. Lucy's mom and Coach's wife has just lost her battle to cancer and passed away as the novel opens. And this awakens something in Shea as she realizes she's going nowhere in life.

She stayed in town and went to Walker U, (the university that Coach coaches at, and the fictional rival of the University of Texas-Austin) works at Walker.

She's dating this boring but well-meaning loser, Miller and is doing nothing with her life. The funeral at the beginning serves as a catalyst to Shea questioning what she's done with her life and (annoyingly so) it's Coach who actually motivates a change. She quits her job at Walker U and starts working as a sports journalist at the Dallas Morning Post. She breaks up with Miller and starts dating the Dallas Cowboys (fictional) quarterback and Walker alum, Ryan James. Whoo! No more Tony Romo!

Anyway, he seemed nice enough in the beginning. Against her reservations, Shea sleeps over (haha, but doesn't sleep over) the night of their first date. Then pretty soon they're having sex. I was concerned because Ryan just ended a marriage and is keeping in touch with his wife. However, he's not cheating and if anyone is hiding their relationship, it's Shea. She doesn't want to be in the spotlight and she doesn't want Coach to know.

If there was any doubts about Coach and Shea's relationship in the beginning, Giffin did a good job of taking Shea's unrequited crush into genuine love between both characters. She actually developed a relationship past the platonic one that existed before between Shea and Coach that was real and legitimate. One of the things I really liked about this book is that Giffin has no problem breaking Shea's hero worship of Coach. Despite her argument against my (and her father's thoughts) that her feelings for Coach were just due to his role as a father figure in her life, her feelings for him weren't just because of him being who he was. However, it isn't because he's a stand-in father figure that she likes him, but Shea worships him a pure, sinless football god. For the two to truly be able to move forward in their relationship this has to be broken and Shea has to see him as a person.

I had a bunch of questions about the relationship. For a long time, I assumed that Coach wasn't going to return Shea's feelings and she'd end her relationship with Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Ryan Jame and end up alone. However, that's not what happened. So when I saw the direction the novel was going I started wondering how exactly this relationship would work. But Shea insisted that she didn't want kids. But I still wondered if Coach wanted to marry her one day, how exactly would that work? Being her best friends stepmom?

Which reminds me of another aspect about their relationship I kept wondering about: Lucy. Lucy's reaction to Shea and Coach's relationship was valid to me.

a) She was closer to her mother
b) and her mother has recently died
c) not to mention, Lucy can't picture her dad with anyone but her mother
d) ...let alone her own best friend
e) ...who already has a relationship with her father that Lucy's jealous of.

No wonder she was mad! No matter what Shea says, Coach was not a good father to Lucy. She didn't want to have anything to do with his football world and he didn't try to meet her on another level like she tried to with him. Throughout the entire novel this doesn't change. Lucy keeps trying and Coach doesn't care. He tries in his relationship with Shea and Lucy even allows the two to be together in the end. But in the last glimpse we see of them, Coach still isn't trying to create a better relationship with Lucy. He even forgets Lucy's birthday and hilariously enough, his granddaughter called him out on it.

I died!

I will admit, yes there's a lot of football in this book. Maybe a little too much for Giffin's target audience without some kind of glossary or clues. However, I only found myself skimming over one scene that had too much football for me.

One complaint I do have is the alleged rape is dealt very off-handedly and like an afterthought in the story. I still don't understand why Coach decided to bring it up especially since it wasn't really dealt with. It actually kind of pissed me off how Shea and Coach were so sure to dismiss the victim's story because they "'can't believe Ryan would even rape someone."

Are you serious? Do you know how many mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, friends, siblings and co-workers insisted that alleged rapists weren't rapists when they actually are. You weren't in the room therefore you don't know. Did she not remember just earlier in the book that she didn't think Ryan would ever grab on her and hurt her? Talk about Too Stupid To Live. That really pissed me off. That was some true ignorance that I don't know if the author meant to include in the story or not.

Otherwise this was a very interesting read and I enjoyed seeing my home (properly and realistically) portrayed in literature.