Princess in Pink

In the fifth Princess Diaries book, Mia is desperate to go to prom with her boyfriend, Michael, but also desperately doesn't want to be the one to ask him. Also, a cascade of events at Mia's birthday dinner leads to a massive strike in the New York hospitality industry.

Meg Cabot will always crack me up and this book is no exception. Is the plot of this one thin and relatively fluffy? Yes. But it made for the perfect distracting read during a very full week.

This isn’t a bad entry—I had fun with a lot of book five, and there is a sense of Mia growing up and getting out of her shell a bit in this. That said, I do have a lot of problems that start in this book; mainly, Mia and Grandmere’s characterization. While I can accept Grandmere being an exaggeration of royalty—used to getting what she wants, ignoring the demands of others—the whole subplot of her triggering a city-wide restaurant workers’ strike really feels too over-the-top and only serves as Mia’s solution at the end of the book. (And is also never directly resolved, which I have a huge problem with.) Speaking of, I’m not a fan of Mia’s motivation to get to prom with Michael. Throughout the first half, leading up to show more Mia’s birthday, we see Michael being an awesome boyfriend (why, yes, he was my fictional crush in high school, why do you ask?) going out of his way to do something special for his girlfriend, and Mia’s reaction boils down to “Aww, so sweet. WHY DIDN’T I GET A PROM TICKET?” It kinda lessens the ending of this book, as it’s all about what Mia wants, and not her boyfriend’s. Still, I did enjoy the book, despite my issues with it—I liked Mia being able to stand up and becoming a little more confident in herself, I liked Tina’s development in this book, and it serves as a good closure to the “freshman” books. show less

Princess Mia is dreaming about the prom - and contending with a hotel workers' strike - in the fifth, supremely hilarious episode of Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries. This time, Mia's in the pink about the upcoming Albert Einstein H.S. prom, and she's crossing her fingers that Michael will ask her to go. (They're in love, so why wouldn't he ask her, right?) But during Seven Minutes in Heaven at her b-day party, Mia learns that Michael is not the prom-going type. Good grief, what's a princess to do?
To make matters worse, Grandmere has gotten a busboy fired due to a mishap with her pooch, Rommel, at a swanky restaurant, so when all of the city's busboys go on strike, it causes a chain of events that result in Grandmere crashing at Mia's mom's show more place, her pal Lilly Moscovitz picking up a picket sign, and the prom being brought to a screeching halt.
Thankfully, staunch yet boy-wise Grandmere has a plan to change Michael's mind and put everything back on track, making Mia the happiest "prom princess" on this side of the Atlantic - and readers more starry-eyed than Molly Ringwald in her prettiest pink frock. show less

The prom! The prom! The prom! No one cares about the prom, Mia!!!

I swear to goodness, Mia is by far the character I identify with most out of any book ever written, but we differ so greatly on the topic of the prom. My friends had to drag me to junior prom and I flat out skipped senior prom for a debate convention because hello, I'm a nerd, priorities! And Mia is over here planning her entire life around this one night that she thinks she'll treasure forever and I just don't get it. But hey, by book 10 she'll be over it and I'll relate again.

The audiobook reread continues. I've finally gotten over narrator's voice.

alors oui tout le drama avec le bal c'est too much mais en même temps Mia a 14/15 ans...
J'ai beaucoup aimé les autres thèmes abordés autour des serveurs, de l'égalité, des salaires, de la place de la femme etc.
Tina est toujours un des meilleurs persos Je suis très shook par Lilly et je me demande à chaque fois comment elle et Mia peuvent être amies. Clairement elles ne sont pas du tout supportives l'une envers l'autre, sont assez moralisatrices entre elles et assez égocentriques.
Hâte de voir comment la relation avec Boris va évoluer.

I loved that Mia hates Andie's prom dress in "Pretty in Pink". I always thought that dress was seriously ugly for something that was supposed to be the height of fashion. I also loved that Mia grows as a person in this book. Some authors keep their characters in a maturity stasis of sorts, and no matter how much you like the character to begin with, a lack of growth and change is a deal killer for me.

I feel like all of the reviews for these books are starting to sound the same but again I really enjoyed this one. I still love that these are in the diary format, they are so easy to read and I love hearing the inner turmoil of Mia's thought process.

Mia is still her sarcastic, panic-ridden self and this time it is about the prom. Michael hasn't asked her yet and it is coming up very soon. To make matters worse, her grandmother continues to 'ruin' her life but being a very entitled woman and not understanding how a teenager's life works.

The messes that Mia's grandmother makes are hilarious and so over the top I love them. I think that the movie did us a great displeasure by making the grandmother likable. Had they kept to the books, I show more think it would have been far more funny to witness Mia get so flustered about her as she learns to be a princess.

These books fall one after the other and pick up where the last one ended so they are really just a continuation of Mia's diaries and so you don't miss a minute of her new life as both a teen and a princess with duties. I hope to grab the next one soon. show less