Queen of Babble

Title: Queen of Babble

Author: Meg Cabot
Published: 2006
Read: July 2009
Number of pages: 309
Fiction
Where I obtained the book: Library
How I discovered it: browsing at the library 
My grade: B

Title: Queen of Babble in the Big City

Author: Meg Cabot

Published: 2007

Read: April 2010

Number of pages: 307

Fiction

Where I obtained the book: abebooks.com

How I discovered it: from the first one

My grade: C-

Title: Queen of Babble Gets Hitched

Author: Meg Cabot

Published: 2008

Read: July 2010

Number of pages: 319

Fiction

Where I obtained the book: Library

How I discovered it: from the first two

My grade: C

Okay, I'm going to be giving out some major spoilers in this review, so if you're really set on reading these books, then don't read this. I normally don't like to give out spoilers in my book reviews, but these books weren't that great anyway, so I don't care!

You know how when there's a film trilogy, you see the first movie and absolutely love it and can't wait for the next two films, but when you see them, they don't quite meet your expectations the way the first one did? This is how this book trilogy by Meg Cabot was to me. Granted, Queen of Babble isn't anything award-winning and it's not the type of book that will make you look scholarly if you're caught reading it. In case you couldn't tell, the main character, Lizzie, can't keep her mouth shut and is always spilling secrets which gets her into trouble - sometimes hilarious, sometimes serious.

I really did enjoy the first book which I found to be cute, funny, and romantic. Lizzie finds herself spending the summer in France with her best friend and her best friend's boyfriend. There she meets Luke (the best friend of her best friend's boyfriend - I know, it's totally contrived) and they have a summer fling and end up falling for each other. I should also mention that Luke is ridiculously good-looking and super rich. Almost too good to be true, right? We'll get to that later.

The other storyline is that Lizzie finds her passion to be a wedding dress restorer and saves the day by restoring an old wrecked wedding dress that used to belong to Luke's mom to be used for the wedding of Luke's cousin (or someone...it's been awhile since I've read the book). 

The second book deals with Lizzie and Luke living together in New York. She's found a job working at a small wedding restoration shop with a French couple (or maybe that's not until the third book...) The major plot point of this novel is that Lizzie is hoping Luke will propose to her, but she's worried that he has commitment issues because he likes their arrangement just fine the way it is. Her best friend breaks up with her boyfriend, Chaz because she (the bff) has become a lesbian. Yes, I know, totally random. Oh, and Lizzie helps make a dress for a plus size girl who's marrying a well known man. The dress is gorgeous and she gets lots of publicity.

In the final book, Luke finally proposes to Lizzie, but Chaz has admitted that he has feelings for her (because he's known her all his life). Uh-oh, smells like a love triangle! When Lizzie finds out that Luke has been cheating on her, of course she goes for Chaz. I will admit, I did not see the whole Lizzie/Chaz relationship coming up - those two never really had any scenes together in the other books, except when they were all together with their significant others.

The problem with this series is that it got very tiring very fast. The way Cabot writes Lizzie is super annoying. While it was cute and amusing in the first book, it got really old in the second two and you don't blame her friends for getting irritated at her so often because I know I would!