Royally Jacked » (Reprint)

Niki Burnham is the RITA Award-winning author of several books forteens, including Scary Beautiful, Sticky Fingers, and the popular Royally Jacked series about Valerie Winslow. Originally from Colorado, she now lives in Massachusetts. You can find her online and post to her bulletin boards at nikiburnham.com.

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!

Publishers Weekly

As one of the launch titles in the Simon Pulse teen romantic comedy series, Burnham's Cinderella-like novel throws in a few fun twists. When Valerie's mom leaves her dad for another woman, her father, the chief of protocol at the White House, accepts a new job working for the royal family of the fictional country of Schwerinborg. Valerie, who doesn't want to live with her mom's girlfriend and fears the reaction to her mother's new identity, decides to go along, leaving behind her friends and longtime crush. When she arrives at the palace, she quickly bonds with Georg, not realizing at first that the "mesmerizing" teen is actually a prince. But although he kisses her when they're alone, he ignores Valerie at school. Some of the pop culture references may feel forced ("all this giggling is probably making me sound like one of those bimbettes who goes on The Bachelor"), but Valerie's funny, lively voice reads as mostly authentic, and readers will appreciate the romantic details (including dancing in the palace's reception hall). The lesbian parent subplot and the e-mails Valerie exchanges with her friends back home keep the story feeling fresh (though readers may wish her protocol-minded dad had been played for more laughs). There are enough loose ends here to spark a sequel, and readers will likely want to know what happens next. Also releasing this month in the series, How Not to Spend Your Senior Year by Cameron Dokey (-86703-4). Ages 14-up. (Jan.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.