Royally Jacked
Niki Burnham
Then her mother announces that (1) she’s gay, and (2) she’s leaving Valerie’s dad for her girlfriend. Just when Valerie is getting over this bombshell, her father tells her he’s got a new job working for the royal family of some obscure European country.
Valerie’s world has come unglued. She can either stay in Virginia with her mom and her über-organized, veggie-burger-eating girlfriend, or go with her dad, leaving everything she knows for some place she’s never heard of. Valerie opts to go, and quickly discovers that it was a mistake — until she meets the prince, and all bets are off!
From School Library Journal
Grade 6-9-Fifteen-year-old Valerie’s life gets turned upside down when her mother announces that she has fallen in love with another woman and is going to live with her. Then, as Valerie is trying to process this bombshell, her father’s boss, the very conservative President of the U.S., decides to ship her father off to tiny Schwerinborg to serve as protocol chief to the royal family (in order to avoid a scandal at the White House). Valerie is left with two choices: live with Mom and her vegan girlfriend in a new school district or go with Dad to an obscure country where she doesn’t speak the language or know a soul. Rather than having to explain her mom’s new lifestyle to her friends, Valerie opts to go with her father, but when they arrive in foggy, gray Schwerinborg and see their spartan palace housing, the teen is sure she has made a huge mistake. Until, of course, she meets the royal family’s son, Prince Georg, and romance is ignited. Burnham, an adult romance writer, targets a younger audience with this fluffy, predictable, yet entertaining romance, which will most certainly be compared to Meg Cabot’s popular ‘Princess Diaries’ series (HarperCollins).–Betty S. Evans, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. –This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
From Booklist
Gr. 8-10. Fifteen-year-old Valerie is shocked when her mother announces that she’s divorcing Valerie’s father and has a new relationship–with a woman. Valerie, who chooses to stay with her father, gets another whammy when she learns that Dad has accepted a position working for a royal family–in some small, unpronounceable European country. It’s difficult leaving, but castle life has some pleasant surprises, especially Georg, a very cute prince. Burnham, best known for her adult romances, here offers a lively, humorous read with a contemporary approach and plenty of plot twists. Valerie’s first-person narrative is perky and conversational, and e-mails to stateside friends and pop-culture references (sometimes overly abundant) add trendy context. Valerie’s hip, decorous dad is an appealing secondary character, though the gay-parent element is underdeveloped, even glibly treated (‘Who’da thought my mom announcing she was gay could get me a boyfriend?’). However, modern romance fans will enjoy the castle setting, occasional nods to the Cinderella story, and familiar teen dilemmas that range from crushes to peer pressures, family to school life. Shelle Rosenfeld
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved –This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.
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Details
| ISBN | 1416905197 |
| Genre | YA Fiction (Young Adult) |
| Publication Date | 31-May-05 |
| Publisher | Simon Pulse |
| Format | Mass Market Paperback |
| No. of Pages | 208 |
| Language | English |
| Rating | NotRated |
| BookID | 10883 |
