Royally Jacked (Romantic Comedies (eBook)) [Mass Market Paperback]

Niki Burnham (Author)

Book Description

Series: Romantic Comedies (eBook) | Publication Date: December 23, 2003

Valerie's life is pretty good. While she's not the most popular girl in school, she does have decent grades, great friends, and a potential boyfriend. All a girl could want.

Then her mother announces that (1) she's gay, and (2) she's leaving Valerie's dad for her girlfriend. Not what Valerie envisioned for her future. And just when Valerie is getting over this bombshell, her father tells her he's gotten a new job as protocol chief 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!

Editorial Reviews

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.

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

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Simon Pulse (December 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689866682
• ISBN-13: 978-0689866685
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #853,340 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Niki Burnham is the RITA-award winning author of over a dozen novels. Originally from Colorado, she spent her childhood traveling around the world thanks to her father's military career. After attending high school in Mannheim, Germany, she graduated from Colorado State University and the University of Michigan Law School. Niki currently lives in Boston. She maintains a blog called The Go-Ahead where she often talks about writing, her travels, and her two favorite baseball teams, the Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies. Her website is www.nikiburnham.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun New Teen Fiction, December 27, 2003

By 

Erika Sorocco (Southern California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Royally Jacked (Romantic Comedies (eBook)) (Mass Market Paperback)

Valerie's life has never been better. She's got great grades in school, a very-potential boyfriend, she's semi-cool, and her friends are some of the best that a girl could ever wish for. But then things change. Valerie's mother not only announces that she's gay, but also that she's divorcing her father, and leaving him for her girlfriend, an organized vegetarian. Not only that, her father is leaving for a small European country, where he will be working for a royal family, and Valerie is forced with making a decision between living with her mother, or her father. But she doesn't realize that choosing to live with her father means that the Prince of a country might just turn out to be the perfect guy for her.

As a fan of HOW NOT TO SPEND YOUR SENIOR YEAR by Cameron Dokey, I decided to give ROYALLY JACKED a try. I was NOT disappointed. Valerie is a fun character, who's situations and friends remind you greatly of those found in Meg Cabot's best-seller THE PRINCESS DIARIES. Her father is a fun character and is someone who all girls will gladly trade their fathers in for. A must-have book for all fans of THE PRINCESS DIARIES, or anyone who's a fan of teen fiction, and royalty. You won't be disappointed.

Erika Sorocco

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cute and fun teen romance., October 18, 2004

By 

Rebecca Herman (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Royally Jacked (Romantic Comedies (eBook)) (Mass Market Paperback)

Fifteen-year-old Valerie's life is turned upside down when her mom decides to leave her dad for another woman. And because Valerie's dad worked for the very politically conservative President of the United States, he now has to find a new job in order to avoid a scandal. He gets a position as protocol chief to the royal family of Schwerinborg, a small European country. Rather than live with her mom and her girlfriend, Valerie decides to go to Schwerinborg with her dad. At first she thinks it's a terrible mistake -- until she meets Georg, the very cute prince of Schwerinborg. But could a prince ever really fall in love with Valerie?

Teens who love light romances are sure to enjoy this fun, fluffy tale. It is sure to appeal to fans of Meg Cabot's books, and I can't wait to read the upcoming sequel. It's not the most original story in the world, but it's still really enjoyable and cute.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally!, December 29, 2003

By 

Kathleen L. Barron "smrtrnu" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Royally Jacked (Romantic Comedies (eBook)) (Mass Market Paperback)

I read a lot of teen and young adult novels, and I HAVE to say that Valerie Winslow is the first character ever I can A) Relate to and B) Respect. OK, she watches more MTV than is strictly healthy, but she watches Buffy and she's intelligent and sarcastic and believably flawed and cool in the sense that she doesnt give a fly from the beginning. This is really one of the better teen novels I've ever read. It's funny and pointed and doesnt ignore things like computers, which a surprising amount of authors shy away from. The problems and characters are believable, as are the solutions. Yay for Niki Burnham.