Lizzie Nichols is back, pounding the New York City pavement and looking for a job, a place to live, and her proper place in the universe (not necessarily in that order). "Summer Fling" Luke's use of the "L" (Living Together) word has her happily abandoning plans to share a one-room walk-up with best friend Shari in exchange for cohabitation with the love of her life in his mom's ritzy Fifth Avenue pied-à-terre. Lizzie's landed a non-paying gig in her chosen field—vintage wedding gown rehab—and a paying one as a receptionist at Shari's boyfriend's father's posh law firm. So life is good . . . for the moment.
But almost immediately her notoriously big mouth is getting her into trouble. At work she's becoming too chummy with society bride-to-be Jill Higgins, inflaming the ire of Jill's troublesome future mother-in-law. At home she's made the grievous error of bringing up the "M" (Marriage) word to commitment-shy Luke. Once again joblessness and homelessness are looming large for hapless blabbermouth Liz—unless she can figure out some way to babble her way to a happily ever after.
I didn't enjoy this quite as much as the first book but it was still a fun, fluffy story. Lizzie has grown up a bit since the last installment but she still has a lot to learn. Like a lot of women our age, she hides her true self from her boyfriend and despite daydreaming about the idea of them being married, she never talks to him about the future. Hopefully other women will learn a lesson from Lizzie's mistakes - the best relationships are the ones where you can be yourself and talk about anything. I really enjoyed the parts of the book about Lizzie's fashion career and her job at the law firm, especially the characters that Cabot created in these new situations. The ending was a huge cliffhanger and I really hope that Lizzie doesn't go back to Luke - that would show that she hasn't learned anything. But I guess I'll have to get the third book and see how things work out. 7/10
