Customer Reviews

Queen of Babble

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Lizzie Nichols may have worked thirty pounds off of her body, shrinking herself down to a size nine, but this tiny girl still has one very big problem: her mouth. And now, as she boards a flight, heading to London to spend the summer with her boyfriend - Andrew - of three months, even though they've only spent 24-hours with each other so far, she knows that her babbling problem is bound to get her into trouble. However, once she arrives in England, she realizes that Andrew is the one with a big problem: he's a compulsive liar looking to use her for money so he can settle up his gambling fees. So, Lizzie rises to her 5'6 stature, and marches off, heading straight to France, where she will spend the summer with her best friend, Shari, at a vineyard called Mirac. The problem is that Shari has no idea Lizzie is on her way, so Lizzie is basically entering the lion's den. Until she meets Luke - the son of Mirac's owner. Luke's looks alone entice Lizzie, but it's his kindness that wins her over, and makes her forget all about the lying Andrew. Unfortunately, Luke has a girlfriend. One who will do anything to keep Lizzie away from Luke - and her future fortune.

From page one QUEEN OF BABBLE wets the appetite, and keeps the reader enraptured in the trivial, yet laugh-out-loud funny tale that Cabot weaves about the illustrious Lizzie, and her various sidekicks. Lizzie is like an adult version of Cabot's Mia Thermopolis (from THE PRINCESS DIARIES) who shares an equal love for vintage clothes and bread. Her rants and raves about various goings-on in her life are hard to resist, while her babbling tendencies will make her a winner in the hearts of everyone who has a tendency to babble on uncontrollably. Meg Cabot's humor and wit is unmatchable, while her characters are enchanting, and hard to resist.

Erika Sorocco

Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

I am a big Meg Cabot fan, particularly of her group of books featuring the newspaper employees and written in email form. However, this book was not as strong or as funny as her previous efforts. In fact, it sort of reminded me of Sophia Kinsella's book, Can you keep a secret?

It's a fast read, but i am glad I found it in the library, rather than purchasing it.

Lizzie Nichols heads off to London to spend the better part of the summer with her new British boyfriend Andrew -- who's so new in her life she doesn't realize he has a gambling problem, he's trying to defraud the British government, and that there are a few other things that make him less desirable than she'd originally thought. When she finds out he has designs on her bank account, she takes the train to visit some friends in France; while on board, she spills her heart, soul and a few other things she would never have said out loud to the handsome young stranger sitting next to her, if she hadn't known she was never going to see him again...until she gets off at her station, he gets off with her, and she realizes he's her host for the next few weeks. It sounds too much like Sophie Kinsella's "Can You Keep a Secret," published several years ago, in which the heroine babbles her deepest secrets to the stranger sitting next to her, and finds out the next day that he runs her company. Romance, plagued by a few obstacles, ensues in both books until they reach their respective happy endings.

For all of that, "Queen of Babble" is still a quick, enjoyable, light read, better than a lot of the chick lit that's out there because, Kinsella-like, it's funny. It's entertaining to read an American's take on London and France, especially when the protagonist is as appealing as Lizzie is. You find yourself rooting for her, even though you know pretty much from page one that things are going to turn out all right.

Lizzie Nichols, a history of fashion major, has recently graduated from college (well, almost, there's the matter of that 50 page thesis she has to turn in to get her degree) and decides to go to Europe for the summer to stay with her boyfriend who she hasn't seen in three months--and in fact, only met one time before that. Having lost 30 pounds since she last saw Andy (the boyfriend), she thinks that theirs is going to be a match made in heaven. She'll stay with him in England for the summer, then come back to the US with him and return to her job working at a vintage clothing store while he goes back to school to become a teacher.

It bears mentioning that Lizzie is also a gossip queen who makes no apologies for her actions. Sure, she'd like to be able to keep a secret, but she is just physically incapable of keeping her mouth shut. You know you're in for a good story when a woman like that who is expecting all of her dreams to come true travels across the Atlantic with the hopes of finding true love. When things don't work out the way she wants them to, she winds up taking the Chunnel to France to stay with friends at a French chateau. The end result is hilarious chick lit that had me laughing out loud most of the time.

Meg Cabot does a great job of giving Lizzie a distinct voice and putting her in realistic (well, as realistic as running around in a foreign country with a guy you barely know can be) situations. Lizzie's inner dialogue on everything from how you can tell a lot about a person from the way they dress to the pitfalls of oral sex is hilarious. This story isn't sappy or overly dramatic and does a great job of keeping its characters down to earth and likeable. It's also a nice touch that each chapter begins with a segment from the thesis Lizzie has to finish while overseas. This book was fun and the story was cute. I think it'd be the perfect thing to read on a lazy afternoon when you're in the mood for a bit of romance and comedy.

Cabot's books are, more or less, always predictable but her female characters always strike me as likable--the kinds of women with whom I'd enjoy hanging out. Her novels are pure entertainment for me and this one was no exception. It was very formulaic but Lizzie was a charming character and the prince meets princess and falls in love simplicity is appealing to the romantic in me. Cabot's characters don't do much more than scratch the surface of the complex creature that is woman but I she does a wonderful job of writing satisfying tales in which the nice girl finishes first.

When I first began reading Meg Cabot's latest novel, I admit, I was a bit confused and disappointed. It was a bit like the Hostess comercials, but instead of "Where's the cream filling?" it was more like "Where's the Meg Cabot?"

For the first half of the book or so, Meg channels Sophie Kinsella something fierce. Lizzie, Queen of Babble's main character, shares a great deal of similar personality traits with Emma from Kinsella's Can You Keep a Secret? She goes so far as to blab all her secrets to some stranger on a train, in a scene strongly remensicent of the plane scene in Secret.

Plus, amazingly enough, Lizzie as the Queen of Babble is pretty unconvincing. Sure, she does blab a lot of things, but she is not, as she claims "phyiscally incapable of keeping a secret". Heck, she manages to keep quite a few.

The book does pick up about half way, though, and some of the Meg Cabot flavor we all know and love comes back. Yes, the story is predictable practically down to each word, but it's still a very fun and humorous read. Even with its flaws (and they are numerous) it was still extremely easy to enjoy, as is the majority of Meg Cabot's work. It would make a perfect beach read...but watch out for that little scene at the end if you're the shy in public type.

I have to admit that by the time I finished The Queen of Babble, I was more than a little disappointed with it. Sure, I read it with some sense of enthusiasm, because it's a quick, easy, and light read, as I knew it would be, but overall I just didn't feel very invested in this book. There was no need to keep reading to see what would happen -- I pretty much knew exactly how it would end from at least a third of the way in -- but I did want to keep reading to see just exactly what "situations" Lizzie would get herself into.

However, putting the silly-but-readable plot aside for a moment, the book was flawed from the very beginning for me. As a main character, Lizzie didn't seem to have very many redeeming qualities - if any? She very much lacks a backbone and she quite apparently lacks some respect for herself and, due to such, she certainly didn't garner any respect from me. She was too naïve for her own good and at a lot of times her actions were downright annoying. At many times, I wanted to smack Lizzie's character through the pages (though a difficult task it would be) for her silliness, especially her actions regarding her boyfriend Andrew and her actions that led to her not having graduated college. Her bad relationship decisions in many ways reminded me, very unfortunately, of the times I watched some of my friends make the same silly decisions for people who definitely weren't worth it. And it's hard enough to take in real life; I hardly want to read a book with a character that constantly puts herself in similar situations. At times I seriously wondered why the other characters in the book would even continue to put up with her annoying behavior. Quite honestly, I probably only kept reading because Luke seemed dreamy, as did the idea of the chateau in general, and the interaction between Chaz and Shari seemed more believable and enjoyable to me than Lizzie's interactions with any other character or, quite frankly, even with herself.

I have to pause because I don't mean to completely tear down this book. It wasn't bad. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. I was merely a little confused because I have (almost) always enjoyed Meg Cabot's other books. However, it seems to me that she has gotten further and further from the original stories of hers that I so loved - Boy Meets Girl and The Boy Next Door. The Size 12/Size 14 books deviated from that format, but I at least still found the mysteries to be drawing enough to enjoy. However, this most recent book seems to have crossed a little over the line into the category of silly, and that's what I find to be disappointing.

I didn't expect to like this book but I do like the author. I started to read and thought how can this character be so stupid but I continued to read. I got pulled in and I couldn't put the book down. There were surprises from time to time and I fell in love with Lizzie and felt so sorry for her when she opened her big mouth. I loved the way the book ended and I will miss Lizzie, at least until I find another great book to read.

Just out of college with a degree in fashion history, Lizzie Nichols is off to London to spend summer with her 'boyfriend.' From there, she's got her life mapped out--another semester in Ann Arbor while boyfriend Andy completes his degree, then four children (names picked, of course) while Andy teaches, helping mold young minds. Sure there's a certain appeal to joining her best friend Shari in her move to New York, but Andy did save Lizzie's life--and that English accent is so cute.

Things start going wrong for Lizzie at her graduation party when she learns she didn't actually graduate at all. There's the little matter of the senior thesis she didn't know about. And then there's Andy's London flat--or lack of same. It turns out that Andy has moved back in with his parents. Dreams of a cozy summer together start looking like nightmares living in the converted laundry room. Andy's unemployment fraud is the last straw and Lizzie heads for France, where Shari is spending the summer and has promised Lizzie a job. She babbles everything to the guy next to her on the train--believing she'll never see him again. No such luck. Luke is the son of the chateau owner. Which would be perfect if he didn't already have a perfect girlfriend. As Lizzie notes, guys like that always have girlfriends.

Lizzie manages to keep herself in trouble with what even her friends call the Lizzie Broadcast Network--she can't help babbling. Mostly what she babbles is interesting, and her knowledge and interest in classic and retro fashions is, as Luke's father mentions, a passion, but babbling at the wrong time and then accusing Luke of spilling her secrets is definitely too much of a good thing.

Author Meg Cabot spins a charming tale of growth, true love, and wrong directions. Lizzie's fashion obsession (she has nightmares about working at The Gap) manages to stay on the right side of overdone and her Diet Coke addiction help make her sympathetic. Her all-nighter trying to fix a broken wedding gown makes her a sort of Cinderella. Luke certainly is an impressive prince charming.

QUEEN OF BABBLE is a lot of fun. Cabot's strong style and an energetic and spunky protagonist add up to a story that's hard to put down--and guaranteed to create smiles--and a few belly laughs.

I was expecting a comedy, but I didn't laugh. Someone who talks too much could be funny, but not in this story. I did not like the heroine Liz. She was stupid, naïve and too syrupy sweet. CAUTION SPOILER: I could not stand the stupidity of someone who thought she just graduated from college only to find out she didn't do her final thesis - a 50 page report. When Liz needed to flee her boyfriend in London and go to her girlfriend Shari in France, she refused to call Shari's parents to find out how to get hold of Shari, because she didn't want Shari's parents to tell her parents that things didn't work out with the London boyfriend. Since her parents would find out eventually, to me this was stupid. I found it hard to believe that Luke fell in love with her in just three days. I'm sure he had met a lot of other girls with "nice personalities," and to fall for her should have required other qualities and time. Sexual content: moderate.