Chick Lit: Queen of Babble

Queen of Babble, Meg Cabot

Lizzie Nichols has just (sort of) graduated from college and is going to England to meet her (sort of) boyfriend, Andrew, and spend the summer with him.  Andrew "rescued" her from a fire in her college dorm earlier that fall but then had to leave Anne Arbor, MI, when his student visa had problems.  In the land across the pond, Lizzie is horrified to find out that not only is he not the man of her dreams, but he told his mom she liked tomatoes, which she vehemently, does not.

Mildly heartbroken, Lizzie gets on a train to France where she meets up with her college roommate who is volunteering at a chateau that does weddings.  She runs into Luke on the train, the owner's son, not knowing it's him, and confesses her entire sordid story with college and the ex-boyfriend Andy.

Embarrassment, humor, and a wedding dress maid entirely of doilies follows.

Meg Cabot is most famous for The Princess Diaries and other YA books.  The Queen of Babble series was recommended to me by my sister and while it was quick and fun, the writing isn't my usual thing.  It's entirely too stream of conscious, and that's coming from a person that writes stream of conscious.

One other pet peev ... I was never sure how to pronounce some of the names.  She helps you out with this when characters are first mentioned, but it bugs me sometimes.  I liked that Lizzie got her foot in her mouth a lot (I do that - in far more embarrassing was than Miss Lizzie) and I liked Luke though there wasn't enough of him.  There was more the idea of him that was discussed.  So we'll see if he's more involved (he should be) in the next one.

It was good but different.  One of its best attributes, coming off a spell of books that are multiple POVs is that it stayed entirely in the first person.  Which seems to be really rare lately.

I'm definitely going to finish the other one (Queen of Babble in the Big City ).  And look!  I finished one more book in May!