Madeline was horrified to learn that instead of spending Christmas at home in New York City, her mother was taking her to Australia to meet her internet boyfriend!  How wrong was that?  However, she decided to go as long as they could spend quality time together, go shopping, stay in a five-star hotel with room service.  She should have known as soon as she got off the plane and saw Barry and his son, Jason, that it was all downhill from there.

Barry had cancelled their hotel reservations (no room service now) so that they could stay with him.  In his rent house!  Not only that, she had to share the only bathroom with Jason the brat.  But if she thought that was bad, that was the best part!  Barry had booked them on an Outback adventure, so they were off to the Northern Territory to do who knows what in the middle of nowhere! 

Breaking down in the middle of a deserted foreign territory could have been frightening, but Madeline soon found out that sometimes life has the funniest way of bringing your soul mate to find you.  Mitch, the gorgeous Aussie hunk, found them and brings them to his family’s home.  Well, home as he knew it.  More like a shack really.  Now, Madeline was sleeping under a lean-to, with no bath, no electricity, fending off huge mosquitoes the size of Brazil and terrifying lizards with razor sharp claws.  How was a girl supposed to survive in these conditions?  And with no makeup!  Hello, how was she supposed to win her handsome knight in shining armor when she looked like death warmed over?

PRINCESSES DON'T SWEAT is a really cute and fun book.  The heroine, Madeline, has all this inner turmoil and insecurities that normal everyday teens face (she’s 15).  But throw her in the middle of Australia, with her mother gallivanting off with her would be new step-father, and she learns a little about growing up and fending for herself.  I sometimes had a problem with the mother, as I don’t really understand why she did the things she did, but it made the story move along, so it didn’t bother me much.  I loved all the Australian references and things Madeline had to face.  I’m sure I would have been much the same given the circumstances.  Fun and lively, PRINCESSES DON’T SWEAT is a perfect teen romance that will make you laugh and feel good.