Sometimes the heroines of Chick Lit novels come across as only a bit more mature than your average high school freshman. Their extreme insecurity, their reluctance to take any sort of emotional lead in a relationship, their devotion to winning “The One Ring” – as the heroine of Call Waiting calls an engagement ring – all remind me far more of high school friends than the 30-something women I know today (except back then it was a class ring, not an engagement ring).

This observation is relevant to Call Waiting because the book features a very typical Chick Lit heroine ­ a 31-year-old who is likable and sweet and trying very hard to make her life come together personally and professionally. Unfortunately, her means and motives at times might make more sense to someone closer to sixteen than thirty-five.

Call Waiting is the sequel to 32AA, but it’s not necessary to read the first before enjoying the second – a farcical take on a few months in the life of Emma, a put-upon Junior Advertising Account Executive in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Told in the first person, Call Waiting occurs about a year after 32AA. Emma and Jack, the hero of that first book, have been dating seriously for eight months and Emma’s getting nervous because, even though she and Jack are very close and spend as much time together as possible, they haven’t yet had a discussion about moving in together. This seems the next logical step for them and she is becoming stressed because Jack hasn’t mentioned it.

To make matters more unsettling for Emma, architect Jack is busy working on a project in Boston requiring him to take frequent trips away with his colleague Claire (including a last minute trip on Emma’s birthday). Emma loathes Claire, and not just because she’s buxom (which Emma is not, as detailed in 32AA), blonde, and intelligent with an interesting career. Emma hates Claire because Claire wants Jack. Unfortunately, at first only Emma can see the woman’s true intentions and Emma has little luck getting anyone to believe her suspicions.

In the meantime, Emma’s suffragette icon Great Aunt Alice passes away back in England. Along with one very significant (and amusing) piece of phallic iron, Auntie Alice left Emma an unspecified inheritance she can’t claim until she fulfills a set of ambiguous criteria through public humanitarian works. Emma’s efforts to earn the rest of her inheritance as stipulated by Auntie Alice’s will are comical, though with rather disastrous results. As a novice member of HUSSI ­ Hoboken United Sisters Suffragette Institution ­ Emma’s attempts to take on the group’s radical and malicious leader often go awry and create all kinds of trouble.

I enjoyed Emma, but her approach to life and love frustrated me. She dithers, obsesses, and over-analyzes everything that occurs between herself and Jack. This is okay to a point because we’ve all been guilty of that on occasion. But where Emma loses me is that she very rarely actually discusses any of these said issues/concerns with the interested parties – even Jack, who repeatedly asks her what’s wrong and encourages her to speak up. There¹s no single big misunderstanding in Call Waiting, but there is a host of little ones, and they’re almost all unnecessary. Emma and her friends blame her habitual passivity on her British half (she’s half English and half American), but I found that a little too pat. She’s an emotional doormat most of the time ­ and when she finally does stand up for herself, she does it in little-girl ways that made me wince.

That annoyance aside, Emma is sweet and funny and trying her best in all areas of her life, with varying degrees of success. Her wide circle of friends have all coupled since 32AA and are dealing with various aspects of wedding planning, in-law/parental travails, pregnancy, communication breakdowns, and other issues. Emma is the pseudo-counselor in the group and her phone rings endlessly with calls for help from the clan (thus the title). It amused me that everyone comes to Emma for help, since she seems like the least put-together of the group, but she generally provides good advice.

As the hero, Jack is more absent from Call Waiting than I would have liked. He spends a lot of time traveling, or trying to convince Emma to tell him what’s bothering her, or reassuring her that Claire isn’t a threat. He seems like a great guy who treats Emma well (until her immaturity makes him crazy), but we don’t really to get to know him all that well, which is unfortunate. In fact, the book deals with the breakdown/repair of several other relationships (Tom and Katy, Rachel and Hugh) more effectively than it does the relationship between the hero and heroine.

If you enjoyed 32AA, you will probably also enjoy the continuing adventures of Emma and company in Call Waiting, a fun and quick read with little depth. Be aware that there’s no new ground broken here in terms of character development or relationship savvy – Emma is a typical Chick Lit heroine – a 31-year-old ninth grader trying to earn her boyfriend’s class ring.