QUEEN OF BABBLE GETS HITCHED

A young lady obsessed with bridal couture cools her wedding fever for a moment to ponder the possibility that she’s engaged to the wrong guy.

When we last spent time with our loudmouthed friend Lizzie, she was making a go of it in Manhattan. After finishing up a make-out session with her boyfriend’s best friend on New Year’s Eve, the boyfriend, a prince (yes, for real), surprised her with a gigantic engagement ring. In this, the third book in the Queen of Babble series (Queen of Babble in the Big City, 2007, etc.), Lizzie is so bedazzled by the sheen of her diamond and by the idea of getting married, she tries to ignore all the warning signs. Like, she’s more attracted to Luke’s friend Chaz than to Luke, her fiancé, who is mysteriously never around anymore. But what is she going to do? She’s already in her early 20s—and that’s too dang old to not be engaged to someone! So, she banishes Chaz from her mind, fritters away in her employer’s dress shop and talks about herself to anyone who will listen—mainly her bizarrely crude grandmother and a trashy Paris Hilton-type. When tragedy strikes, Lizzie realizes she needs to make some hard decisions about her life.

Rather insipid romp through well-traveled chick-lit territory.