Harriet Klausner's Review Archive
Missing her English boyfriend Andrew Marshall (though they met for only one night), who returned home, svelte (lost thirty pounds) Lizzie Nichols, having probably graduated from college, heads to London to see him. Lizzie knows Andrew’s letters are sweet. However starting at Heathrow when she sees him dressed as a Michael Jackson eighties reject then learning he lives at home with his parents who enable him to support his gambling addiction, Lizzie realizes he is her anti-fantasy man.
The icing occurs when he orders her to help him pull a financial scam on the government. She lets him know what she thinks of him and heads to the continent where her best friend and college roommate Shari is with her boyfriend at the glamorous French Chateau Mirac working on an upcoming wedding there. Upset while riding a train crossing the Chunnel, Lizzie tells all to a handsome hunk. However to her embarrassment he leaves the train at the same stop she does as Luke’s father owns Chateau Mirac. As Lizzie and Luke hit it off, his girlfriend has other commercial spa plans for Chateau Mirac that will suction out the place’s regal charm if someone does not stop her.
This is a fascinating coming of age tale as the QUEEN OF BABBLE learns life lessons that loose lips sink ships (at least relationships) and images and reality are not the same. Though at times readers will want to tell Lizzie to shut up, she holds the story line together as her mouth gets her into one problem after another mostly because she cares about others especially wanting to help with her keen fashion sense. Meg Cabot provides a fine tale starring an American invading the European Union.