Book News: Meg Cabot Announces Return of Two Well-Loved Series in 2015

Bri Lockhart

10 years ago

Author Meg Cabot is well known and celebrated in the world of young adult literature. She has quite the extensive, well-loved backlist under her belt—the Princess Diaries series alone spans fifteen books (ten books, four “and-a-half” books, and one romance novel by protagonist Amelia Thermopolis) and spawned two Disney films. Along with Harry Potter and the Jessica Darling books, the Princess Diaries is a one of the series I hold dearest; I’ve read the first few books so often, they have fallen apart. Cabot made my week by announcing that she is bringing two of her best young adult series up to the world of adult books.

The Princess Diaries series follows fourteen-year-old Mia Thermopolis, a normal, geeky teenager from Manhattan who finds out she’s the heir to the throne of a small European principality called Genovia. Throughout the series Mia deals with Princess lessons, being in love with her best friend Lilly’s brother Michael, and her lack of math skills. The characters are memorable and loveable, even the Gitanes-smoking, sidecar-swilling Grandmere (nothing like Julie Andrews’s character in the movie). The books are full of pop culture references (from midnight showings of Rocky Horror to Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the Donnas) and embarrassing coming-of-age situations that anyone can relate to—even us non-royals.

After taking a five year break (with occasional blog posts from Her Royal Highness), Cabot is bringing us more of Mia’s story in Princess Diaries Volume XI: Royal Wedding next summer! Here’s the synopsis from Cabot’s blog:

In ROYAL WEDDING (William Morrow), Princess Diaries XI, Princess Mia’s planned nuptials to longtime love Michael Moscovitz are in jeopardy when the paparazzi uncover a startling secret: Mia has a long lost younger sister.

Now a scheming politico is using the royal scandal to force Mia’s father from the throne, leaving Genovia without a monarch . . . unless Mia can prove to everyone—especially herself—that she’s finally fit to rule.

ROYAL WEDDING will be the first ever adult installment of the Princess Diaries, published by the adult division of HarperCollins, the company that brought you the YA books in the series.

Key takeaway: “Princess Mia’s planned nuptials to longtime love Michael Moscovitz.”

In addition to continuing Mia’s story, Cabot is bringing the Princess Diaries world to younger readers. The first installment of her new middle grade series, From the Notes of a Middle School Princess, will follow Mia’s long lost half-sister, Olivia Grace (mentioned above). According to her blog, this is the first time that Cabot will be illustrating one of her books, despite her original dream of becoming an illustrator.

If all of this awesome news about Genovia and our favorite fictional princess isn’t enough, Cabot also dropped some news about another past young adult series. The Mediator follows Suze Simon, a teen who must stop her ability to see ghosts from wrecking her high school career and any chance at a normal social life. Add in staving off her growing affection for Jesse de Silva, the hot ghost living in her bedroom, and Suze has her hands full.

Cabot is continuing Suze and Jesse’s story in the seventh book and first adult installment of the Mediator series, Remembrance (spoiler alert for the original series):

In REMEMBRANCE (William Morrow), the seventh installment of the Mediator series, all Susannah Simon wants is to make a good impression at her first job since graduating from college (and becoming engaged to Dr. Jesse de Silva).

But when she stumbles across an ancient murder, old ghosts—and ex-boyfriends—aren’t all that come back to haunt her.
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REMEMBRANCE will be the first ever adult installment of the Mediator, published by the adult division of HarperCollins, the company that brought you the YA books in the series.

Remembrance will also be out in the summer of 2015! That’s three separate books—The Princess Diaries, Volume XI: Royal Wedding, the first installment of From the Notes of a Middle School Princess, and The Mediator, Volume VII: Remembrance—from two different publishers in one season. Happy 15^th birthday to both series, indeed!

So best secret projects ever or best secret projects ever? Were you a Princess Diaries or Mediator fan? Will you be reading the adult installments in each series or the middle grade spin off? I know I’ll be!