Customer Reviews

Queen of Babble in the Big City

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The heroine of Meg Cabot's Queen of Babble is back, and better than ever, in Queen of Babble in the Big City. When readers last left Lizzie Nichols, she'd just hooked up with Luke, an actual prince (though the French don't recognize their monarchs anymore), had just saved the day by restoring a much abused wedding gown, and was finishing up her degree in the history of fashion at the University of Michigan.

In QoBitBC, Lizzie has moved to New York and plans to make her living as a certified wedding-gown specialist. Unsure of how she's going to pull it off, considering she hasn't quite got her degree yet, and she doesn't know where she's going to live or how she'll afford it, Lizzie is just reveling in her relationship with Luke and figures things will work themselves out. After all, her best friend Shari is moving to New York as well, and together they can find a half-decent place that won't be too expensive. Right? Well, all of this is before Luke asks Lizzie to move in with him to his mother's Fifth Avenue apartment, complete with a real Renoir over the bed. Lizzie can't turn down this opportunity, even if it does mean leaving Shari hanging, because she loves Luke and knows that moving in with him is only the first step toward getting the proposal she's always wanted. With a part time job as a receptionist at a law firm, and another (unpaying) job working for a French couple who are wedding-gown specialists, Lizzie thinks she might have it all figured out.

That is, until Luke's mother starts getting mysterious phone calls from a man who isn't Luke's father and Lizzie decides to keep this information to herself; and until her firm starts representing the down-to-earth normal girl who happens to be marrying the most famous bachelor in New York and Lizzie finds herself desperate to restore the girl's wedding dress despite the firm's strict confidentiality policy; and until Lizzie's best friend starts having problems with her boyfriend that no amount of karaoke and cheap beer can solve... Then Lizzie finds herself trying to keep her mouth shut while still getting everything she thinks she deserves.

If there's one thing that can be said about Meg Cabot, it's that the woman knows how to write amusing, entertaining, occasionally laugh-out-loud funny chick lit that is sure to keep you enthralled from start to finish. So it's not the newest or most original story... those are hard to come by these days. Meg Cabot puts just the right amount of real-world experience, pop culture references, and realistic human flaws to make her characters relatable and her story enjoyable. Yes, Lizzie can be annoying with her inability to keep a secret (except all the wrong ones), her refusal to acknowledge her own fault in certain situations, and her complete lack of common sense when it comes to dating, mating, and extricating, but really... nobody's perfect. My one problem with this story, and with Cabot's writing in general, is that it doesn't feel finished and it's always so clear that you're being set up for a sequel. But I suppose that's the nature of the writing game these days and I can forgive her for it as long as the stories keep me entertained.

Read Queen of Babble in the Big City #1) if you've read the first book because, while you won't be lost without it, there's really no point if you don't have the proper background, and #2) if you're in the mood for a quick beach read that will keep you entertained.

First, let me just say that I enjoyed the first book The Queen of Babble. I thought it was cute. I liked Lizzie, the zany main character as well as her friends Shari & Chaz. I thought Luke was dreamy and was happy at the ending as it stood.

I read the second book and am totally disappointed. It's predictable and trite. Luke becomes a shadow of the guy she fell in love with, Shari is angry (and transformed big time), and Chaz is just floating around in the background until he's not (you'll see what I mean if you choose to read this book).

The characters we came to know and love from the first book are not featured much and are really weak. I have decided to not read the third book and pretend that I've never seen the second. I liked the first story as a stand alone.

I'm terribly disappointed because I was looking forward to continuing the journey with Lizzie & Luke, Shari & Chaz, Luke's family, Lizzie's family and anyone new that came to be. I really feel like Meg Cabot betrayed her original characters. My theory is that her publishers saw an opportunity to sell more books and had her write two more books for a story that already had it's ending.

Boo. Hiss.

First off I wanted to say that I love Meg's writing, and I really enjoyed the first book in the Queen of Babble series. With that said I really did not enjoy this book in the slightest. The plot was predictable, but not in a good way. Basically I did not want to continue reading once I figured out what was going to happen. The character development seemed really shaky with an ending that did not fit with the first original story, even though I udnerstand that characters should change greatly with development and circumstance. I am hoping that the third book will be better, because I was incredibly disappointed with this book

Our second installment in the Queen of Babble series by Meg Cabot picks up with Lizzie, our big mouthed heroine, moving to New York City to begin her life in the fashion industry and as a love interest for the sexy Luke. Rather than finding her own apartment, however, Lizzie allows herself to be talked into living with Luke in his mother's high rent abode across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. While this seems to be a wonderful development, it does throw a wrench into BFF's Shari's plan for she and Lizzie to live together and keeps Lizzie from finding the independence she needs. Still, determined to be a success in NYC, Lizzie takes on a job refurbishing wedding dresses for free while also working part-time as a receptionist at a law firm and dreaming of Luke asking her to marry him.

This is a fun sequel to a light piece of chick lit that clearly fits the bill when you don't want to read anything heavy. Meg Cabot has a way of pulling you into her characters' lives with humor, and Lizzie is particularly engaging as the marriage-minded vintage fashionista whose head is in the clouds. Still, Lizzie's got a firm grip on what she wants from life and her skills in the refurbishing of wedding dresses bring success in unexpected ways. While there are moments you'd like to smack her, Lizzie is still someone you'd want as a friend, and Cabot has brought us another light bit of summer reading fun.

I read the first book in the series, "Queen of Babble" and found myself being annoyed at the main character of Lizzie. Orginally I said to myself that I wouldn't read anymore of the series because of my dislike of Lizzie but because I'm such a huge fan of Meg Cabot's writing and her adult books, I ended up reading the second book in the Lizzie series.

Unfortunately, I found myself being disappointed once again. I found Lizzie to be just as annoying as in the first book. She is supposed to be 23 but the way Meg Cabot writes as Lizzie, you'd think that Lizzie is 13 year old teenager writing in her diary. Lizzie sounds and acts completely immature for being a 23 year old adult living in New York City. I found myself not caring what happened to Lizzie and that she be successful in her career and life.

I found myself being disappointed in the other characters of the novel. There are not the same characters I remember in the first novel, especially Shari. The story was an okay one but pretty predictable. Meg Cabot has written much better books as an adult writer-like the Heather Wells books and hopefully her next series will present a more likable character and story.

The review before me said that the book was predictable. I'll agree with that to a point. But I don't read Meg Cabot to be surprised. I read her books because they're fun. I read her books because I like how she writes and that she includes pop culture references.

If you liked the first Queen of Babble book, you'll like this book. It's Lizzy being Lizzy but growing up a little and having to deal with life throwing her curve balls.

Definalty a worthwhile read!

I used to be a huge fan of Mag Cabot's chick lit until I've read Queen of Babble and Queen of Babble in the Big City. It may just be the characters, like Lizzie, in these books that I dont particularly like and that annoy the heck out of me. It may be that I feel these could really be teen books and not adult chick lit. They really are just all fluff.

I enjoyed the story in this book but sometimes it seemed like there wasn't really a direction it was moving toward. Even though I struggled a bit trying to get through this, I know I have to read the sequel. Talk about a cliff-hanger ending?! Geeze.

In the second book, the hints begin to show up. To understand the Sherri thing (and see the hint dropping begin), I would read the first book, as it is a total shock in the second one. But then, the Chaz thing...you can see it coming. Maybe it's not a sure thing, but there are some subtle hints here and there, the biggest one being the fact that he is mentioned and discussed at length at all, as opposed to simply being the background character he was in the first book. The pattern of break-ups is painfully annoying, and feels like Andrew (and by extension, Luke) should never have even been mentioned, that maybe the story should have just been about Lizzie, Sherri, and Chaz to start from, instead of complicating things and as a result, making it repetitive and boring.

Rating: 4/5

I (like most other reviewers) really enjoyed the first Queen of Babble book. It was quick, silly, and fun. The characters were established pretty clearly and even if we didn't know them that well, the characters (Lizzy, Shari, and Chaz) knew each other very well. This book made me sad. The big plot twist is predictable and a huge disappointment. I'm not sure I'll read the next book since I can't trust Cabot to be honest with me. I've enjoyed other Cabot books, but in all of the ones I've read she is fairly mean to all the male characters. Why is that? Is it related to the shallowness of her characters' relationships? I can't recommend this one. Spoilerish rant in the comments.

Lizzie Nichols has survived the summer and is returning to New York to live. After her smmer in France, she is moving in with her "summer fling" Jean Luc, wholives in his family's extravagent apartment in the Big Apple. It is only teporary, Lizzie plans to move into an apartment she'll share with Shari, her best friend, once it's ready. Of course, if Luc decides that he can't bare to live without her (and shake off his committment phobias)after a few weeks of domestic bliss, all the better. So much for carefully crafted plans. Not only does Lizzie manage to open her mouth when she shouldn't, she is beginning to notice cracks in her plan to ensure Luc falls for her....hard.
Even with her housing secured, she has to find a job. Her almost degree in Fashion History isn't much help so she snags a job as a receptionist for her friend Chaz's father's law firm to help pay her bills. That job leaves her afternoons free for Madame and Monsieur Henri and thier small (exclusive)bridal gown restoration business. The job she has taken for no pay. One day at the law firn she comes to the aid of Jill Higgins, an unlikely society bride and soon the two worlds she has tried to keep apart collide. And in all this, she cannot decide if Luc falling for the real her or the her that tries to be and act as she thinks Luc wants her to act? Is she really cut out to be a part of society?
Once again Meg Cabot launches her readers on a whirlwind romp with Lizzie Nichols...and the results of her good intentions. Cabot endows her characters with such a sense of humor and throws in some unexpected twists and turns that readers are carried through to the very end.