When last seen, the irrepressible Lizzie Nichols was canoodling with Chaz after she and Luke, Chaz’s best friend, broke up (Queen of Babble in the Big City, 2007). Now—shocker alert—Luke returns to New York and slips a three-carat diamond engagement ring on her finger. Lizzie accepts even though she’s still all googly over Chaz, who bluntly warns Lizzie that Luke’s all about Luke and couldn’t love her the way he does. Lizzie, a wedding dress restorer and budding designer specializing in wedding garb, faces a hives-inducing decision: dump rich Luke, who wants to be an investment banker in Paris, and hook up with Chaz, who wants to teach? Or should she marry Luke and ditch New York for Paris? And then there’s the matter of her burgeoning design business, helped along by Ava Geck, a Paris Hilton–like celebrity heiress. Cabot takes full advantage of the material, delivering her trademark wit, sharp banter and lively antics from the first page. Fans of the series have another one to savor.
What a fitting end to the Queen of Babble series, in my opinion. For the most part, I really enjoyed this book. There’s gonna be hella spoilers in this review so if you don’t want to know what happens then move along to another post and when you’re done reading this book, come back and we’ll discuss…I’m dying to discuss this book with someone.
In Queen of Babble in the Big City, there was this big ol’ cliffhanger that had me on the edge of my seat. I had to know what she was going to say to Luke and she definitely did what I thought she was going to do.
But oh how I wished that she would have chosen the road I wanted her to choose. Somewhere along the line, I fell out of love with Luke. I don’t know what it was about him but I felt like he was just …too perfect for Lizzie. She was this total spaz when it came to Luke, she hid things from him and she was just this woman that she thought Luke wanted and he probably did want those things and she gave it to him.
But that wasn’t who Lizzie was…Lizzie wasn’t this perfect woman who had a plan for everything and all that, Lizzie was the girl who drank Diet Coke and had white wine with ice on the side. She was a wedding gown refurbisher who wanted to one day own her own shop. She talked too much, she ate wrong things for her and she was confused and scared of what her future held for her.
She had great friends and she had a crazy family and all of that mattered to her. When they had been going out for a while and Luke still hadn’t met her family, taken the time to get to know her family, I started thinking that maybe Luke (as perfect as he was) wasn’t the right guy for Lizzie.
I kept hoping and wishing that she would find someone new.
Like Chaz.
Chaz was the bomb and in this book, I fell more in love with him then ever. The beginning of this book when Chaz was just uber sweet to Lizzie, I soaked it up. When you could tell that he did indeed love Lizzie, I soaked it up. And seeing how much Chaz loved Lizzie made me think back to the other books and solidified Chaz’ love for Lizzie…it was Chaz that told Luke that Lizzie loves Diet Coke, it was Chaz who remembered all the small insignificant details about Lizzie and it was Chaz who was Lizzie’s lobster…not Luke.
And it was Chaz that I was rooting for throughout this book.
In the end of Queen of Babble in the Big City, when Chaz helps Lizzie move into her new apartment and when he takes her to Jill Higgins wedding and he came back looking like a million bucks in his monkey suit, I wanted to jump his bones and wouldn’t have minded in the least if Lizzie jumped his bones, in fact, I was hoping she would jump his bones so that she would realize that he was the one for her.
When they ended up together in bed at the end of the book, I was like, “Finally!” but then of course, the drama just had to continue.
And then the start of this book happened and I grew more and more aggravated with Lizzie because gosh she was dumb. She said and did things that just got on my nerves and I hated how she insisted that nothing was wrong and that she was fine and blah blah blah.
But, she makes up for all of that in the end. I’m not mad at her anymore in the end. This story ended a series on a high note and for that, I’ll always love Meg Cabot because she has the ability to suck you right into whatever world she built for the main characters and she has these memorable secondary characters that you just want to befriend and have them in your life. Her characters are never one dimensional, they’re all full of life and just positively divine.
Like Tiffany, Ava and Monica? Lizzie’s model friends who love her and would do anything for her? They’re such a riot and I loved reading everything that came out of Tiffany’s mouth. That girl has a mouth that just won’t ever stop. She’s loud, she’s vivacious and she’s totally the bomb. She made this book enjoyable and Ava and Monica were great additions as well.
I enjoyed the friendship between Shari and Lizzie, and even Shari and Chaz. They were fantastic friends and they really loved each other and you knew that. There was no doubt in my mind that these guys really loved each other.
And don’t even get me started on Gran. Gran who was in love with Sully from Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman and who loved to drink beer. Gran who loved Lizzie best and who was always on the phone when Lizzie was talking about the craziest things. Gran who called Ava a skank crack whore just like everyone else.
HA!
The way that Meg Cabot brought the two main characters together and the way that it took them 3 books to get it right just had me grinning from ear to ear when I finished the book. I enjoyed this book immensely and am already awaiting the next Meg Cabot book.
The only thing I wasn’t too wild about in this book was that in the end, Lizzie didn’t get the wedding she always wanted…or the wedding I thought she always wanted. It would have been nice to see her man give her the wedding she deserved.
I am now and probably always will be, a Meg Cabot fangirl. Especially when she writes great quotes like,
“Why, yes, Lizzie. I’m maniacally depressed because the girl I’ve finally realized I’ve always been in love with, and who I was beginning to think just might love me back, turned around and got herself engaged to my best friend, who, frankly, doesn’t deserve her. Does that answer your question?”
And …
“She’s right,” Gran says. “I’ve always thought that boy wanted to put a load of coal into your steam engine.”
HA! Gotta love Meg Cabot, THANKS for the hours of GREAT reading. A solid 4.75 out of 5.
This book is available from Harper Collins. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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I always like reading your MEg Cabot reviews. You have such great enthusiasm about her books.
Aww thanks, I really really enjoyed this book. I loved Lizzie and Luke and Chaz and just everyone! It’s so cute!
i so want to read this last enstallment but cant buy it— ugh— at least i can est assured she gets with Chaz- luke was starting to piss me off