8 Meg Cabot Romance Books That Aren’t The Princess Diaries

Okay, the first one is still connected to our favorite American princess! Avid Princess Diaries fans will know that Mia, on top of trying to survive high school and royal training, had longed to pen her own romance novel. Well, now she has, via Cabot’s hand, of course. 

Ransom My Heart follows the delightfully named Finnula Crais, a tomboy who doesn't have much time for romance following a one-night marriage to a much older man who died before the honeymoon could begin. It's the year 1291 and her sister Mellana is pregnant by her lover, Jack Mallory. They need money and beg Finnula for help. Her plan involves kidnapping a rich man and using his ransom for Mellana's dowry. 

Hugo Fitzstephen has finally returned home after ten years away fighting in the crusades. Finnula doesn't know this, but when she sees him, he seems like an ideal candidate for a kidnapping. It doesn’t take long, however, for Finnula to lose her heart to the dashing stranger.

Screenwriter Lou Calabrese has everything she could ask for—except for love. Her longtime boyfriend just dumped her for a new Hollywood beauty. Now, she's flying out to Alaska for her latest job, working with the one and only Jack Townsend, the A-List hunk who became a box office smash thanks to the movies that Lou wrote. He's also trying to get over his own partner ditching him (and for the guy who used to date Lou!).

As if things couldn't get any more awkward, the pilot of their helicopter pulls a gun on Jack, claiming he was hired to kill him. Then they crash in the middle of nowhere, with no rescue mission in sight. How are an actor and writer supposed to survive in the wilds of Alaska? And how are they meant to do it without falling head over heels for one another?

Lizzie Nichols is a dyed-in-the-wool gossip, which can be fun but mostly it means she's utterly unable to keep anything to herself. When she opens her big mouth on a trip to London, her good intentions get her long-distance boyfriend, Andrew, in major hot water. Now, Lizzie is stuck in England with no boyfriend and no place to stay until she can fly home. 

Fortunately, Lizzie's best friend and college roommate, Shari, is spending her summer catering weddings in a stunning French chateau, so why not fly out and give her a hand? What could possibly go wrong? Well, Lizzie could start babbling away and cause even further chaos, and that's before Andrew turns up to make even more trouble. Can her big mouth save the day or ruin it all over again?

Meena Harper knows how you’re going to die, but nobody believes her. Her premonition abilities are more a curse than a gift, and they're never helpful when she needs them to be. For example, she's recently met and fallen hard for Lucien Antonescu, a modern-day Prince Charming who seems perfect on the outside. But he's also a vampire, and soon their blissful romance turns very dark. 

Then she meets Alaric, a vampire hunter who has a personal vendetta against the undead and permission from the Pope to kill them all. Getting caught in the middle of a supernatural battle is the last thing Meena could have seen coming.

Jean Honeychurch is nicknamed Jinx, and unfortunately, it's an extremely fitting moniker. Misfortune seems to follow her everywhere she goes—even to New York City, where Jinx has moved to get away from the huge mess she caused in her small hometown. Now she lives with her aunt and uncle in their Manhattan townhouse, which seems ideal except for Tory, her gorgeous but weird cousin, who has turned into a dark rebel in her adolescence. 

In fact, Tory is hiding a dangerous secret—one that could put them all in danger. She's practicing black magic, determined to prove that she's a real witch. After refusing to get involved with her cousin's schemes, Jean worries she's been cursed, and Tory has set her sights on Zach, the boy next door who has a soft spot for Jean.

In her teenage years, lovelorn Jessica Gold cast a spell that went so wrong that it led to her being expelled from the World Council of Witches. Fifteen years later, now living in the quaint little village of West Harbor, Jess is stunned to find Derrick Winters, a gorgeous WCW member who claims that Jess is The Chosen One. The witch banned from practicing magic is now supposed to save the entire world. 

As summer ends, her powers grow, but Jess starts to wonder if Derrick is who he says he is, and what could go wrong if she uses her magic. She must trust this mysterious man and work with him to combat the sinister force battling to bring down West Harbor, but what will it cost her in the end?

When a massive hurricane severs all power and cell service to Little Bridge Island, Florida, Bree Beckham isn’t worried, at least not at first. She's already escaped her emotionally abusive ex, so a hurricane is nothing in comparison. But she is worried when she realizes how many islanders have been cut off from their beloved pets by the weather. 

So, the animal-loving Bree takes it upon herself to save as many of Little Bridge’s cats and dogs as she can. But she can't do it alone, so she recruits her boss’s sexy nephew, Drew Hartwell, the Mermaid Café’s most notorious heartbreaker, to be her assistant. Their chemistry is undeniable, but can it withstand the changing weather...and Bree's ex?

Last year, Pierce died—just for a moment. And when she was in the space between life and death, she met John, the usher who guides souls from one realm to the next. Though she tries returning to the life she knew before the accident, Pierce can't help but feel torn between the world she lives in now and the one she glimpsed during those moments of death. 

Now, living in a new town, she's hoping to start afresh and truly live. Only she can't, because she knows she's being watched by the man she saw in death. Escape from the realm of the dead isn't supposed to happen. The underworld wants her back at any cost.