Queen of Babble - Meg Cabot

Lizzie Nichols is about to have the best summer of her life. She has graduated from college (the first in her family to do so) and will spend a month in London visiting Andrew, her boyfriend. Unfortunately things do not go as planned.

Lizzie discovers she hasn't graduated after all. As part of her independent study, she is to write a thesis—a requirement she claims to know nothing about. Her topic is the history of fashion and it has to be at least fifty pages. The problem is in two days she's traveling to London to visit her boyfriend.

Her trip to London quickly turns into disaster. Andrew isn't the same as she remembers in college. When Lizzie discovers the truth about him, it sends her scrambling to her best friend, Shari who, along with her boyfriend Chaz, is spending the summer in France. Chaz is friends with Luke, whose father owns the chateau that he is working at with Shari. Their job is to assist with the wedding details of Luke's cousin.

While on the train traveling to Souillac to meet Shari, Lizzie meets a gorgeous stranger: an American man! Before she knows it, she's telling him everything about not graduating to her breakup with Andrew. Little does she know that this stranger will become a significant part of her life.

Queen of Babble has been sitting on my shelf unread for awhile now. I adore Meg Cabot and have read nearly half of her collection. At one time, Queen of Babble was on my "must read" list along with the other two books in the series. I wish I could say it was worth the wait. Sadly, it wasn't.

Early on, I thought Cabot was repetitive with Lizzie's thoughts that it took away from the story. And yes, Queen of Babble is quite predictable. The moment she meets this "stranger", the reader knows who he is and can quickly see where the story is headed. The formula of "girl dates boy only to find out he's not the one for her and then finds her true love" didn't work for me in this novel. Even though the story fell a bit flat for me, I still want to continue with the trilogy. I am curious to know what Lizzie gets herself into while living in New York City.

Book details:
Series: Queen of Babble #1
ISBN-13: 978-0-06-085199-6
Pages: 308
Release Date: May 23, 2006
Genre: Chick Lit
Source: Personal Copy