Lizzie Nichols is a blabber-mouth. But that's not her biggest problem. If I was her, I'd be more focused on the fact that I was a self-absorbed, boyfriend-stealing, shallow, mindless, sorry excuse for a woman. After meeting a guy for 24 hours, this idiot declares that she's in love with him AND THEN proceeds to move in with him, to another country of course, after only "knowing" him for three months. I put quotations around knowing because after the initial 24 hours, the contact she had with this guy was only through e-mail. The fact that she leaves a mere day after she has arrived because the guy isn't what he seemed to be (you mean in the oh, I don't know, 24 hours you've actually had a real conversation with him? Color me shocked.) is neither here nor there because she then continues to be an idiot throughout the entire summer.Case in point. Another mere 24 hours after leaving the love of her life, she then falls in love with another guy after, you got it, knowing him for 24 hours. She just lurves him. And that's all she thinks about. This chick is pathetic. All she bitches about is a guy. All the time. The guy might be moving to Paris and she thinks "Oh that's a whole ocean away from me". Dude, you've known him for two days, did you really envision this grand "I will love you forever" scenario? Then she complains about the guy's girlfriend being mean to her, saying "I don't know what I ever did to her?" Well, gee, I don't know, maybe you've been blabbing everything she told you out to people she wouldn't want you to or maybe it's the fact that you've been FLIRTING with her BOYFRIEND in a not-so-subtle way. Hell, if it was me, I wouldn't have been manipulative, I would've pounded Lizzie Nichols into the ground (pathetic chicks tend to bring out violent tendencies in me with the whole "backtracking the feminist movement about fifty years" thing). Seriously, this chick was like Bella with a better fashion sense.And another thing, the whole blabbermouth thing is not cute. In the slightest. Sure, on some people it's endearing (five year olds, honest-to-God-good-bitchy people), but on Lizzie Nichols it wasn't. It just made her sound like an idiot. One who can't keep a secret for the life of her. She was also nosy. She needed to mind her own damn business more than half the time. Annoying.The only reason I gave Queen of Babble two stars instead of one is because I really liked the supporting characters. Shari was actually smart (which means Meg Cabot can write a smart female, but chose not to in regards to Lizzie, which is baffling) and Chaz was just adorable. I also really liked Agnes. So, two stars for great supporting characters and for being a quick page-turner. Too bad the main character was annoying and a disgrace to strong women everywhere (I call her Bella-lite).
Queen of Babble by Meg CabotLizzie Nichols can’t keep her mouth shut for anything. She talks and talks all the time. She is in college to become a fashion designer. She has a long-distance boyfriend, Andrew, from London. Her college roommate, Shari, is now her best friend. Lizzie seems like a good and fashionable girl who can take care of herself. Lizzie goes to London for some of the summer to visit Andrew, and makes a big mistake. Lizzie and Andrew get into it because Lizzie doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut. So now Lizzie is stuck in London until her airline ticket time and she has nothing…well Shari’s always there for her. This summer Shari and Chaz, her boyfriend, went to a wedding cabin to help out Chaz friend. So Lizzie gets on a train and to Souillac, the place where they are, alone being the first time she has traveled alone and she only speaks little French. So she spends the rest of the summer catering for wedding. I think that would be fun. If I was going to London to met my boyfriend I would take someone with me for that reason being. I couldn’t do a long-distance relationship anyways. So to me that was on her part. Yeah, I think its cool that has a London boyfriend but it would for me.So now Lizzie is at the wedding cabin with Shari, Chaz, and Luke, the owner’s son. Luke is HOTT. Lizzie falls in “love” with the hottie. Lizzie is there to cater though, and she hears a secret and...guess what? Yap...she blabs! Luke soon sees the real Lizzie Nichols and hates her. She can not keep ANYTHING inside. I think I would hate myself if I had that problem. It just would mess everything up. If I lost Trent, my boyfriend, because I blabbed something I would blame him…yeah I would miss him but I shouldn’t have told that thing. Lizzie soon gets over it all and starts living her life again…just a little quieter. You know…I feel sorry for Lizzie. She has an illness that can’t be cured. I liked this book because it kept my interest. I would recommend this book to the drama people!
What do You think about Queen Of Babble (2006)?
This is a mindless read. The main character, Lizzie, has just graduated college with a degree that is pretty much useless. She has no idea what she'll do with the rest of her life, and she is completely wrapped up in Andrew, a boy she spent one evening with. She flies to England to spend the summer with him, which is where the real story picks up. Lizzie is a superficial and annoying character, making it difficult to keep reading at times, but there are a few funny bits throughout the story. In a way, Lizzie reminds me of "Rachel" from Friends in the first season - superficial, whiny, and dumb to the ways of the world - but she speaks like a middle-schooler. Not meant for the literary geniuses of the world!
—Tammy
Absolutely hilarious. Queen of Babble follows Lizzie, a typical hopeless romantic who cant keep her mouth shut. Much to the disappointment of her friends and family she spends most of her money travelling to London to see her long-distance boyfriend. However things don't turn out as planned and she finds herself stuck in London with no where to go. Funny romance begins as she travels to Paris to see her friends who are staying in a sixteenth century chateau catering weddings, meeting handsome Luke (Whose parents, unknown to Lizzie, own the chateau) on the way."Oh God, this is so embarrassing. It's my underwear, I KNOW it. How could he tell? That I'm not wearing any, I mean? It's true I don't have any visible panty lines, but for all he knows, I could be wearing a thong. I SHOULD have worn a thong. Shari was right.But it's so uncomfortable when they go up your—I KNEW I shouldn't have picked a dress this tight to get off the plane in—even if I did personally modify it by hemming the skirt to above the knee so I'm not hobbled by it."
—Georgia Barker
I picked this book up for variety, since it has been sitting on my office table for the longest time, and it's been a while since I read a chicklit novel. The verdict? It was a light, okay read - nothing exceptional (where chicklit is concerned), nothing bad, either.Queen of Babble is the story of Lizzie Nichols, a (non-)graduate of History of Fashion who lives with her parents at Ann Arbor, Michigan, who flies all the way to London, England, to spend time with her British boyfriend, Andrew. While there, she discovers more things about her boyfriend than she bargained for, forcing her to cross the channel to France, where her best friend, Shari, and her boyfriend, Chaz, are spending the summer helping out with the weddings being held at Chateau Mirac, owned by Chaz' best friend's family, the de Villiers. Luke, the handsome son of the owners, happens to be there, too, and, well, as in all chicklit novels, I guess we all pretty much know with whom Lizzie ends up at the end of the book.Predictable, yes. Very much. There hasn't been an instance when I predicted what was going to happen, and I turned out to be wrong. However, the predictability was actually - forgive me - predictable, so I wasn't really disappointed. I also expected that it would follow some sort of formula: you know, cute heroine, hunky love interest, the latter's bitchy girlfriend, loyal bestfriend, etc. True enough, all those characters were present here. But I was just looking for a fun, easy read, and this book is just that, perfectly. Cute book, I'd say. But I'm going to think really hard before I read its sequel. :)
—Monique
