ROYALLY JACKED
Niki Burnham
Simon Pulse
Romance
ISBN: 0689866682
240 pages

Fans of THE PRINCESS DIARIES --- and there are obviously a lot of those readers --- will be disappointed with ROYALLY JACKED. Author Niki Burnham writes adult romance, and perhaps tones things down too much to make this title work as a romantic comedy.

It starts with an interesting situation. Fifteen-year-old Valerie's mother announces that she is gay and is moving in with her girlfriend. Valerie's father is then transferred to the palace of a foreign country where, of course, there is a handsome prince. It's a good thing she went with her father.

Valerie is not really sorry to leave her three best friends, as she does not know how to confide in them about her mother. But she is kind of sorry to be separated from a longtime crush who has just started noticing her. She also does not know at first who the prince is --- she merely considers him a friend who she talks with occasionally. From there the plot becomes fairly predictable.

Crazy plots are expected, even desired in romantic comedies. Look at Sleepless in Seattle, for example. But they only work if the lead characters are really likable. My favorite character in ROYALLY JACKED is Valerie's father, a man of many surprises and talents. The situation with her mother could have been a book in itself and is dealt with pretty lightly here, making Valerie less believable. The prince is wooden at times, though he does act like a normal teenager in some pretty decent scenes at the new school.

Still, something is missing with the two lead characters, and the plotline doesn't do enough to help it. Burnham seems to have good ideas, though, and will be an author to watch for in future attempts.

   --- Reviewed by Amy Alessio

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