Princess in Love (The Princess Diaries, Vol. 3)

It would seem that 14-year-old Mia Thermopolis ("five foot nine inches tall, with no visible breasts, feet the size of snowshoes") has the kind of life every Manhattan teenager could only dream of: She is, in her spare time, the princess of the European country of Genovia. Alas, the Royal Privilege is more like a Predicament. Not only does she have to endure daily princess lessons from her critical Grandmère ("It isn't as if I'm going to show up at the castle and start hurling olives at the ladies-in-waiting"), but her new stepfather is also her algebra teacher, her mother is pregnant and vomiting, she doesn't like her boyfriend very much, and she's convinced the real love of her life--her best friend's older brother--thinks of her as a kid.

Written in diary form like Louise Rennison's award-winning Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging, Meg Cabot's endearing and often hilarious novel Princess in Love--third in the series after The Princess Diaries and Princess in the Spotlight--is sure to appeal to teen readers who will be able to relate to Mia--a young woman who would like people to know that "behind this mutant facade beats the heart of a person who is striving, just like everybody else in this world, to find self-actualization." (Ages 12 and older) --Karin Snelson