Review: Royal Crown

* Book 4 in the From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess series *

Princess Olivia can't wait until the royal coronation of her sister Mia. She's excited to have time in the palace with her best friend Nishi. Unfortunately, she also has to spend time with her nemesis - her cousin Lady Luisa.

Another cousin's trying to take the throne away from Princess Mia and no one knows if the coronation with actually happen. Tensions are running high throughout the palace.

Olivia's struggling because Nishi wants to babysit the kids staying at the palace to make some money for a new phone. Both she and Luisa bond over their boyfriends and their periods making Olivia feel left over - especially once they learn that Olivia and Prince Khalil haven't kissed yet. Will everything come together?

My Thoughts: It's no surprise here that I adore this series. Of course, I love seeing my favorite characters from the Princess Dairies series, but I also love the new characters. Olivia struggles much like Mia - over boys, girl drama, and her dreams. I like the interactions between Olivia and Lady Luisa and how that all works out. I liked seeing all Olivia's friends together at the palace. I enjoyed Grandmere as usual. She makes me chuckle. Another fun read from Meg Cabot!

Cover Thoughts: Charming
Source: My Library
Library Recommendation: This series is a must have for school and public libraries.

Blog Tour: Royal Crush

Title: ROYAL CRUSH

Author: Meg Cabot

Pub. Date: August 1, 2017

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

Pages: 192

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook

Find it: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, TBD, Goodreads

Being the newest princess of Genovia is WAY more complicated than she expected, but Olivia Grace Clarisse Mignonette Harrison is getting used to it. She gets to live in an actual palace with two fabulous poodles, a pet iguana, her very own pony, and, best of all, a loving family to help her figure things out!

And right now Olivia, having finally admitted that she likes Prince Khalil as more than just a friend, could REALLY use some advice. What is a princess supposed to do once she's found a prince she likes? With her half-sister Mia busy enjoying her honeymoon, Olivia turns to Grandmere for help.

The third book in the middle-grade Princess Diaries spin-off series, written and illustrated by New York Times-bestselling author Meg Cabot.

 My Thoughts: I really adored this book, as I did the previous two books.  Cute illustrations too! I love seeing characters from the Princess Diaries books. I love how similar Olivia is to Mia and also how different she is. They both want everyone to like them. I like how Olivia also has a nemesis  and how she deals with her.  I like her interactions with Prince Khalil. I liked the bet she made with her best friend regarding Mia's baby names (even if it didn't work out the way she expected). I adored Grandmere as a chaperone, especially the Tupac scene. I loved the pop culture references. Olivia has a good heart and she wants to spread kindness, which is admirable. Excited to see what happens to her next!

Cover Thoughts: Love it!

Source: book sent for review

Library Recommendation: Get this one for your library! 

 

About Meg:

Meg Cabot is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of books for both adults and tweens/teens. There have been over 25 million copies of Meg’s nearly 80 published books sold in 38 countries. Her last name rhymes with habit, as in “her books can be habit forming.” She currently lives in Key West, Florida with her husband and various cats.

Website | Twitter |Facebook | Goodreads | Tumblr | Pinterest | Instagram

Follow the Tour:

Week One:

7/24/2017- YA Book Nerd- Review

7/25/2017- Bibliobakes- Review

7/26/2017- Margie's Must Reads- Review

7/27/2017- Never Too Many To Read- Review

7/28/2017- The Autumn Bookshelf- Review

Week Two:

7/31/2017- Little Miss Drama Queen- Review

8/1/2017- The Book Nut- Review

8/2/2017- Becky on Books- Review

8/3/2017- Pervy Ladies Books- Review

8/4/2017- YA Books Central- Spotlight

 Giveaway Details:

3 winners will receive a finished copy of ROYAL CRUSH, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mini Book Talks (1)

I'm off to the middle school this morning to talk books to a bunch of seventh graders. This is the second time book talking at the school and it's great. I love seeing all the kids. But I really love the format. There are three of us talking about our favorite books. We line up the books on book carts. We each pick one book to book talk and then we ask the students what books they want to know more about. It gets everyone talking about books, which is fantastic.  Here are some of the books I'm bringing to talk about.

Criminal Mastermind vows to take over the world - nope not the President. A 12 year old boy from Ireland. He's going to kidnap a fairy and demand ransom to bank role his plan.

 Best friends like spying on the neighborhood at night, until one night when they see a crime scene at their guidance counselor's home. No one believes them. The guidance counselor claims she was pickling beets. But she's lying about something the girls are determined to prove it.

 What would you do if one morning you woke up to discover that you were actually a Princess?

 Kaitlin's dreamed of becoming a figure skating champion, but after she throws a major hissy fit on the ice, both her coach and her skating club decide not to work with her anymore. No one will take her - except the worst skating club ever.But if she wants to follow her dream, she'll need to pick herself back up and get to work. 

 Tommy's dad dies in a fire. Tommy, his sister, and his mother must learn to live without him. Tommy becomes angry at the world and a little reckless both on and off the football field. His behavior makes people start asking questions - should he be on the field with all this rage? Tommy lives for football, but if he can't control himself, it just might be one more thing of the past. 

Upcoming Tween Tuesday Review: Royal Wedding

* Book 2 in the Middle School Princess series * 

Olivia can't wait for her sister Mia's wedding, but there's so much to do before the big day. She loves living in the palace with her new family, but what she doesn't love it all the drama surrounding the wedding.

Everyone seems to be arguing about the wedding details, Mia desires something, but Grandmere insists on something completely different. Will the wedding be a disaster? Not it Olivia can help it.

My Thoughts: I loved the second book in this series, it was perfection. Lots of drama from all sides of the family. Olivia's still trying to work out her place in her new world, but she has ideas and opinions of her own. Old friends and new friends to make. More fun drawings. A new school. Some not so nice people. Best intentions. Funny moments. I didn't want to put this one down!

Cover Thoughts: Fantastic
Source: ARC sent for Review
Release Date: May 10th

Final Thoughts: Another winner from Meg Cabot, this book has it all!

Blog Tour: From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess

What if you woke up one morning, planning to go about your humdrum, absolutely average life … and discovered you were really a princess?

If I became a Princess one morning and money were no object, I would:

1. Make sure libraries around the world were funded

2. Require YA Librarians be mandatory in all public libraries

3. Make school librarians also mandatory in all schools

4. Give proper funding to the YA departments in all public libraries  

5. Have all libraries host an awesome YA author at least one a year

6. Have an indie bookstore in every county 

7. which would also sell cupcakes and baked books

8. Make reading in schools super fun and not a chore

9. Require everyone to have a library card

10. Write my own book like Mia did

Did you miss my review of the book, check it out here.

Contest:

If you would like to win a copy of the book, add what you would do if you were a Prince/Princess in the comments. Drawing will be random.

* Contest ends 5/11/15 at 5 pm EST

From the Notebooks of Middle School Princess

Olivia hears a rumor in school that she's a Princess. It's also the same time a girl pushes her and threatens to beat her up after school. Except for her name, Olivia is an average girl.

Or so she thinks.

Everything changes that afternoon when school lets out. She's cornered by Annabelle. In the midst of a fight, Mia enters the courtyard and whisks Olivia away to meet her father.

When she meets the rest of the royal family, she's in for a shock - they want her to come live in Genovia. Could she give up her average life for something Royal?

My Thoughts: As I was writing up the review, I accidentally read most of the book again. Obviously I'm a HUGE Princess Diaries fan and I loved reading Olivia's story. 

I wasn't a fan of her family and felt really bad for her that grew up in that environment. I wonder if we're going to see more of them. 

I felt bad that Olivia found herself to be average - with maybe the exception of her drawings. I really liked getting to know her. She's sweet, nice, kind, and smart. I think she's going to make a great Princess. 

I was super happy to see more of Mia plus her father and Grandmere. I can't wait to see what happens next to Olivia, I'm sure its going to be fabulous.

I loved the illustrations drawn b Meg Cabot - especially the wild life pictures!!

Cover Thoughts: Perfect
Source: Sent for Review

If You Like:

If my dog found out he was a Prince - he would demand belly rubs all day long.