Review: Third Time Lucky by Meg Cabot

THIRD TIME LUCKY BY MEG CABOT

Publisher: Macmillan Childrens Books
Format: Kindle E-Book
Series: The Princess Diaries #3
Pages: 213
Date Finished: 13.08.15
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary:Sometimes I think I must be the luckiest girl in the world. I mean, really. Think about it: I may not be pretty, but I am not grossly disfigured; I live in New York City, the coolest place on the planet; I'm a princess; I have a boyfriend. What more can a girl ask for? Who am I kidding????

Mia's love life is a disaster - and being heir to the throne of Genovia sure doesn't help.

Because while Mia's finally got herself a boyfriend, he's SO not the right guy. The one she really wants is Michael, but he's not available right now he's going out with Judith, who clones fruit flies. Would Michael ever prefer Mia to the fruit-fly girl? As if!

I really, really love this series. I first read it when I was about eleven and out of the ones I've reread I think Third Time Lucky is my favourite in the series so far (though I seem to remember the books got a lot better as the series progressed).

“I usually know almost exactly how I feel. The problem is, I just can't tell anyone.”  

My favourite thing about Third Time Lucky is definitely Mia. I think she's just fantastic. The situations she gets herself into are hilarious if not a little over dramatic, but that's why I think the book is so fast paced and entertaining. The amount of drama in her life is on par with a character in Hollyoaks or something--she's in love with her best friends brother Michael but is dating a boy called Kenny, someone who she's too afraid to break up with even though she doesn't love him. She's also the princess of a small European country and her mother is married to and pregnant with the child of her teacher.

Oh, and she may also be failing algebra.

 I know how ridiculous it sounds but I don't care. These books are so close to perfect, this one in particular. Third Time Lucky made me feel a really nice, warm and fuzzy feeling. It's essentially a book version of the feeling you get spending a night in with a tub of ice cream watching Dirty Dancing. I laughed, I cringed, and I even got butterflies in my stomach.

Whilst this book was fast paced, at times I did crave more depth. The last ten pages were more of a narration telling us what happened rather than showing the reader--this same thing happened with the first two books in the series. I suppose it's Cabot's style, but I just want more.

“The way things are going, I wouldn't be surprised if pretty soon I start wearing ripped-up fishnet stockings and dyeing my hair black. Maybe I'll even start smoking and get my ears double-pierced or something. And then they'll make a TV movie about me and call it Royal Scandal. It will show me going up to Prince William and saying,'Who's the most popular young royal now, huh, punk?' and then headbutting him or something.”    

Another (very minor) problem is with Michael and Mia's relationship. A romance between a freshman and a senior struck me as a little unrealistic. It may just be me, but the gap between a fourteen year old and an eighteen year old is a big one. Even though I do ship them with all my heart, my brain keeps on jumping back to the age gap. Still, they are perfect for each other and do have a lot of chemistry. I suppose I ship them more than the age gap bothers me, but I thought it was worth a mention.
            
I mentioned it in my review of Take Two but I really do love the cast of characters, right from Mia's Grandmere to her best friend Lilly. They're all wonderfully diverse and each one brings something new to the table, even if they do come across as slightly exaggerated. Yet again I didn't care about that, not when they were so hilarious.

“Whatever. Boris, must you constantly breathe on me?”      

Third Time Lucky is just as hilarious as the first two. There are so many quotes that I wish I could share so all I'm going to say is that you just need to read it. I don't care how old you are, of if you read the Princess Diaries when you were younger (I promise you they're just as excellent the second time around). They're in the same vein as the Confessions of Georgia Nicholson series, though in my opinion Mia is definitely a superior protagonist. It's safe to say that I'm going to start the fourth book as soon as I can get my hands on it.