Monday, April 20, 2015

A to Z April: Q Reviews - Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot/Queen of the Slayers by Nancy Holder





You would think book titles starting with the letter Q would be few and far between. And really, that is true for the most part. But I had two that started with the word queen, so that worked perfectly for the first post this week.  One is a chick lit book, another by that popular author Meg Cabot.  The other is a story from the last season of one of my most favorite tv series ever, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.


So, as I said, the first is by Meg Cabot, it is the first in the Queen of Babble series, and that is its title.  It's kind of an American girl in Europe story.  The main character Lizzie just cannot keep her mouth shut.  And she is always opening up and letting the wrong things slip in front of the wrong people.  Here's the synopsis from Goodreads:
What's an American girl with a big mouth, but an equally big heart, to do?

Lizzie Nichols has a problem, and it isn't that she doesn't have the slightest idea what she's going to do with her life, or that she's blowing what should be her down payment on a cute little Manhattan apartment on a trip to London to visit her long-distance boyfriend, Andrew. But what's the point of planning for the future when she's done it again? See, Lizzie can't keep her mouth shut. And it's not just that she can't keep her own secrets, she can't keep anything to herself.

This time when she opens her big mouth, her good intentions get Andrew in major hot water. So now Lizzie's stuck in London with no boyfriend and no place to stay until the departure date written on her non-refundable airline ticket.

Fortunately, there's Shari, Lizzie's best friend and college roommate, who's spending her summer in southern France, catering weddings with her boyfriend, Chaz, in a sixteenth-century château. One call and Lizzie's on a train to Souillac. Who cares if she's never traveled alone in her life and only speaks rudimentary French? One glimpse of gorgeous Château Mirac - not to mention gorgeous Luke, the son of Château Mirac's owner - and she's smitten.

But while most caterers can be trusted to keep a secret, Lizzie's the exception. And no sooner has the first cork been popped than Luke hates her, the bride is in tears, and it looks like Château Mirac is in danger of becoming a lipo-recovery spa. As if things aren't bad enough, her ex-boyfriend Andrew shows up looking for "closure" (or at least a loan), threatening to ruin everything, especially Lizzie's chance at ever finding real love...

Unless she can figure out a way to use that big mouth of hers to save the day.


The 2nd one is from the last season when the only way for the Scooby gang to win was to get all the slayers in training up to full slayer power.  Of course it takes magic, and Willow is there to do that. Even with the misgivings of the last time she did big magic and what it turned her into.  After they've saved the world, what does it man to have all of those slayers now, instead of just the Chosen ONE.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads.com:
No vacation. No benefits. And the only retirement is an early death. 

With the closing of the Hellmouth and the awakening of hundreds of potential slayers, Buffy Summers thought she had overturned the Slayer's self-sacrifice and earned herself a much-deserved break. But the thrill of victory is short-lived. The Forces of Darkness are not ones to graciously accept defeat, and the collective rage unites disparate and powerful parties more eager than ever to reclaim dominance.
Willow's magickal distribution of the slayer essence left girls across the world discovering their latent power. Giles races to reorganize the now much-needed Watchers Council, and the Scoobies relocate to Europe. And there in Rome, Buffy is drawn to the Immortal -- a charismatic, if inscrutable, figure. But then comes word that a number of the fresh slayers are being coerced to join an army of slayers -- governed by the mysterious "Queen of the Slayers," an awesome evil determined to claim the intoxicating slayer essence for herself.
Xander is sent to Africa to learn more about the origin of the slayer essence. Instead, he returns to report that, alarmingly, there's not enough good in the world to counteract the overabundance of evil, and that the deciding apocalypse is drawing much too near. Alliances are formed and loyalties betrayed as it comes down to slayer versus slayer, leading to an ultimate battle of champions -- from Buffy's past and present. And then an unimaginable gift arrives...


If you are a Meg Cabot fan, have you read this book, or this series?  I believe I need to finish the series.  Are you a Buffy fan?  If so, have you read any of the books or graphic novels based after the tv series ended?

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