I have read this series a thousand times but something about reading it in my twenties hits different. There are things I notice that I never noticed before and things that jump out that didn’t before and I shall talk about them here.

One thing I realised is I do not like Lilly and I don’t think she and Mia were ever truly good friends. You know who was a good friend consistently and got underappreciated? Tina.

Just because you’ve known someone a long time doesn’t make them a good friend. It can make them family though because family be dysfunctional and that is what their relationship was, dysfunctional.

The amount of times I wish Mia would fight Lilly. Like the time she had the audacity to be mad about her portrayal in the movies of Mia’s life!

Side note: I love that Meg Cabot worked that into her series, the movies.

That was the one thing the movies got right! (Will never forgive them for cutting Tina and taking the teeth out of Mia’s character… the real Mia is much more relatable and also the curly hair scene sucked). Lilly wasn’t supportive and they did fall out because Mia was changing! Don’t rewrite history Lilly, Mia has evidence!

Another thing I did not like and that I forgot she did was, she cheated on Boris. That was so sad. Then she broke up with him and had the audacity to be mad at Tina for dating him after.

She had the nerve to insult and come for my girl Tina… how dare she!

Boris was loyal and so was Tina, they would never have gotten together if Lilly hadn’t broken with him the way she did.

You may say girl code but in this case I feel it does not apply.

However, at the end of the day Lilly is a teenager in the series and she’s human so I do like the fact that she’s flawed and is allowed to make mistakes and grow.

Next we have Michael, oh the romance of Michael and Mia, how we love it! I love it anyway.

How did it take so long for them to get together? They’re both so slow! No quick Elizabeth Bennet wit for them! Also, the way they got together in book three was hella cute! Everything about them was hella cute.

So details I liked: Michael wanted to graduate in three years and have a year off before graduate school. He was also game to spend his year off with Mia for Greenpeace. That’s not bad to honest.

Also, knowing this makes his decision in book eight make sense. If he was planning to graduate in three years then going to Japan and speeding up the process fits.

I know Mia was mad but I blame that on her being a teenager. Things are more dramatic then even if you’re not a dramatic person. Everything feels bigger than it is and him moving to Japan probably felt like the end of the world when it wasn’t. Also, long distance is hard, I’ll give her that.

But if there’s anyone to do long distance with it’s Michael.

Then there’s the Judith thing. I know he messed up by not telling her but this case shows why it is important to be clear when asking people things, especially if it’s important to you. Don’t use slang, just ask straight up, “Did you two have sex?” Because when she gets mad at him for not telling the issue isn’t that he lied but that he didn’t understand the question in the way she meant it. They weren’t together, they weren’t dating but they were fooling around.

Even fooling around, it means different things to different people. Some people see it as kissing and over the clothes petting, and others see it as sex. So you really have to be clear.

Honestly, the biggest antagonist of book eight is miscommunication… and JP.

What I love about Michael though is, he was as intense about Mia as she was about him. In book six he declares that she will be his and honestly it was so hot. I don’t know if it’s the Michael effect but that whole scene was hot.

In that same book I also loved how they had an honest conversation about sex and how they decided to update every three months. What happened in book eight?! But as I said in my previous post, if they didn’t miscommunicate and overreact we wouldn’t have plot.

When he comes back in book ten (*cries* Michael!) he comes back with that same book six energy. However, he doesn’t force it. He waits to see if Mia is feeling him still and oooooh she is! JP who? She only has eyes for Michael and I am for it! I was so for it because as you’ve seen from my previous post on this book… JP was a snake.

And the way he flirted with her and came for her like, sir, he had me blushing for her! The café scene, the fact that he sent the arm to the Genovian hospital with Midori…! The fact that he made it clear he did that for her!

I love how upfront he was! Unlike another person I could but won’t mention.

Even Lars was like, “Pick him!” And that says a lot. Lars was like, “Girl, date him.” Mia: “I have a boyfriend.” Lars: “Dump him and date Michael, damn!”

I love Lars.

Then we have the carriage scene and the fact that Michael told Lars not to turn around… he knew what was about to go down! When I say that scene got to me. Man, must be nice. I too would like to make out with someone in Central Park and not notice time pass *wistful sigh*.

Then he said he didn’t regret it and that he would wait for her!!! Like, what! Where is my Michael? Ugh!

There really wasn’t any competition to be honest, in her heart it was always Michael. I love how I learned science because of Mia and her attraction to Michael. The whole MHC genes and the role they play in attraction and body odour I learned from book ten and it’s honestly fascinating.  

There are a lot of big words in the series that I did not understand when I read it as a teenager mostly because I wasn’t that into the stuff Lilly and Mia were but now that I’m older and I have delved into those topics I get a lot more of what they talked about.

Then there’s Tina, sis can do no wrong in my eyes. She’s a hopeless romantic and a girly girl and she ain’t stupid!! All throughout the series people keep trying to play her but sis is going to become a doctor and she’s got good instincts! She’s right about everyone! She’s right about JP. She’s right about Michael! She’s always dead on! And they doubt her!

They don’t appreciate my home girl and I don’t like it. It’s a good thing she’s nice because otherwise she would have been mad at some point.

I also love how characters like Shameeka and Lana weren’t type cast. They evolved and changed and were allowed to be different. It was nice.

Something I didn’t notice when I first read it but Perin and Ling Su were totally a couple! How did I miss that?! On page 340 of book ten it says that they got male dates out of nowhere for Prom to appease their parents. Plus, there are so many other signs in book ten that they’re dating!

If the book was written now Perin would non-binary.

Kenny was also underrated. He was a good guy from the beginning! He was kind, thoughtful and loved anime. He got cholera and decided to live his life to the fullest after he survived. He was the best boyfriend Lilly ever had in her high school years and he had Mia’s back.

I do wish Mia had, had a boyfriend other than Michael whom she really liked. But I guess, some people really do have one great love of their lives. Or rather even if she’d had other good boyfriends they all would still have paled in comparison to Michael.

Now for some random thoughts I had:

• Page 109 is very relevant to today, i.e.: the pandemic! Meg Cabot called it! Also page 114.
• Speaking of Meg being ahead of her time, we find out Mia and Michael’s MBTI’s. MBTI has been around for a long time but it’s only just gotten popular worldwide. Mia’s is INFJ *side eyes because so am I* and Michael is an ENTJ… which is interesting. So very interesting *Mr Smithers pose*.
• Tina is totally an ENFP in my opinion.
• How could Boris stand JP and keep it secret that he knew he was a snake between books nine and ten? How? He was a good friend.
• How is it that Principal Gupta in book nine is all concerned about Mia and Lilly falling out. How is that her business? Has she not been a teenager before? And Lana is a bad influence?! Why are you judging a child and did you not encourage them to be friends at one point?! Wait… was that just in the movie?
• For an open minded person Mia’s mom, Helen, can be very small minded and judgmental and it pissed me off.
• When Michael comes back he can speak Japanese… that’s so sexy of him. There is nothing sexier than a multilingual man! Meg writes great men. I mean Tommy from Tommy Sullivan is a Freak? A*
• Only Michael flaw, why was he dench when he didn’t exercise? Especially in the early books?
• There’s a plot hole in book ten. Grandmere was invited to join the Domina Reis in book nine, why is she getting invited again in book ten?
• It is very sweet that for her birthday Mia gets Princess Amelie’s tiara. She deserved it especially after all the shit her family put her through… like it was her fault. Bitches.
• Did Mia forget she was the one who broke up with Michael. She was the one who broke his heart? In book ten she’s moving like she’s the only one who had her heart broken like no sis, read your diary, you did the breaking up first. You initiated it! He just doubled down on it. About…*rolls eyes in Brumy*.

So yeah, I had a lot of thoughts re reading the series. Mia, I could talk for days about Mia. What I love about her though is that she is flawed, dramatic and so naïve. It really takes her a long time to figure things out but that works for the plot.

She sees the good in people and is willing to forgive. She bottles up her emotions and her mental health breakdown was something that was inevitable looking back. She needed real help and as someone who wrote diaries for similar reasons I know they can only take you so far. At some point, you just need to talk to someone who talks back.

Side note: If the diary starts talking back to you remember Mr Weasley’s rule.

Speaking of writing diaries, you have to remember that we’re getting a very one sided view of events. When I re read my diaries I get annoyed with myself. I tend to focus on the negative so my diaries end up being negative and whiney. Sometimes they are helpful though as they helped me realise a friend was being dodgy from way back. But often they’re one sided.

So knowing that helped me to cut Mia some slack. It also made me think, perhaps I should write about the good that happens more, because Mia did that. Sometimes, we forget the good that happens to us in life so writing it down helps.

Honestly, I learned a lot from Mia and from the Princess Diaries, I recommend them to anyone. A* series.