Fourth Comings (Jessica Darling #4)

Summary:

"At first it seems that she’s living the elusive New York City dream. She’s subletting an apartment with her best friend, Hope, working for a magazine that actually utilizes her psychology degree, and still deeply in love with Marcus Flutie, the charismatic addict-turned-Buddhist who first captivated her at sixteen. 
Of course, reality is more complicated than dreamy clichés. She and Hope share bunk beds in the “Cupcake”—the girlie pastel bedroom normally occupied by twelve-year-old twins. Their Brooklyn neighborhood is better suited to “breeders,” and she and Hope split the rent with their promiscuous high school pal, Manda, and her “genderqueer boifriend.” Freelancing for an obscure journal can’t put a dent in Jessica’s student loans, so she’s eking out a living by babysitting her young niece and lamenting that she, unlike most of her friends, can’t postpone adulthood by going back to school. 
Yet it’s the ever-changing relationship with Marcus that leaves her most unsettled. At the ripe age of twenty-three, he’s just starting his freshman year at Princeton University. Is she ready to give up her imperfect yet invigorating post-college life just because her on-again/off-again soul mate asks her to... marry him? 
Jessica has one week to respond to Marcus’s perplexing marriage proposal. During this time, she gains surprising wisdom from unexpected sources, including a popular talk show shrink, a drag queen named Royalle G. Biv, and yes, even her parents. But the most shocking confession concerns two people she thought had nothing to hide: Hope and Marcus.
Will this knowledge inspire Jessica to give up a world of late-night literary soirees, art openings, and downtown drunken karaoke to move back to New Jersey and be with the one man who’s gripped her heart for years? Jessica ponders this and other life choices with her signature snark and hyper-intense insight, making it the most tumultuous and memorable week of her twenty-something life."

After reading Fourth Comings.. I have come to the conclusion that I am done with Jessica Darling and do not imagine myself reading another book in the series for awhile. I wanted to love this series, I REALLY did. I enjoyed Sloppy Firsts and LOVED Second Helpings , but Charmed Thirds lost me. Jessica was SO vulgar and crass, it was such a turn off for me and Fourth Comings although in some way better than Charmed Thirds was just boring to me. I also, think this has to do with the fact that Jessica Darling and I are just TOO different of people and I could no longer relate to her the way I used to and I couldn't justify her actions to be like-able for me anymore. So in the end I think it is best to part my ways with the series.

Charmed Thirds (The Jessica Darling Series #3)

Summary:

"Jessica Darling’s in college!

Things are looking up for Jessica Darling. She has finally left her New Jersey hometown/hellhole for Columbia University in New York City; she’s more into her boyfriend, Marcus Flutie, than ever (so what if he’s at a Buddhist college in California?); and she’s making new friends who just might qualify as stand-ins for her beloved best friend, Hope.

But Jessica soon realizes that her bliss might not last. She lands an internship at a snarky Brooklyn-based magazine, but will she fit in with the überhip staff (and will she even want to)? As she and Marcus hit the rocks, will she end up falling for her GOPunk, neoconservative RA . . . or the hot (and married!) Spanish grad student she’s assisting on a summer project . . . or the oh-so-sensitive emo boy down the hall? Will she even make it through college now that her parents have cut her off financially? And what do the cryptic one-word postcards from Marcus really mean?

With hilarious insight, the hyperobservant Jessica Darling struggles through her college years—and the summers in between—while maintaining her usual mix of wit, cynicism, and candor."

Plot: I thought it was very interesting that McCafferty choose to write Jessica's all four years of college in one book. Personally, it didn't work well for me, since I felt it just confused me more. Although, McCafferty did a decent job at giving Jessica college experiences it just didn't feel authentic enough for me.

Characters: I only liked two characters in this book and that was Bridget and shockingly Bethany (Jessica's Sister) . Jessica was beyond annoying and I felt made no personal growth and then there is Marcus who is basically non-existant.

Final Thoughts:  WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO YOU JESSICA DARLING?! The girl who was witty and sarcastic became way too crude for my liking. Overall, it was hard for me to sympathize for Jessica and her actions and frankly at time immature. Than the author did something I personally don't like in books. Sh brought in politics / political party bashing. If it isn't really important to the the characters, character; than it just rubs me the wrong way. I was really beginning to enjoy the Jessica Darling series, but I just could not get behind Charmed Thirds.




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Second Helpings (Book 2)

Summary:

"“Knowing that I’ve just done something that will take decades off my parents’ lives with worry, you’ll excuse me for not getting into the fa-la-la-la-la Yuletide spirit this year. . . . The only difference between Christmas 2001 and Christmas 2000 is that I don’t have a visit from Hope to look forward to. And Bethany has already packed on some major fetal flab. Oh, and now Gladdie doesn’t need to ask a bizillion questions about my boyfriend, because she’s already gotten the dirt from you know who.”
Jessica Darling is up in arms again in this much-anticipated, hilarious sequel to Sloppy Firsts. This time, the hyperobservant, angst-ridden teenager is going through the social and emotional ordeal of her senior year at Pineville High. Not only does the mysterious and oh-so-compelling Marcus Flutie continue to distract Jessica, but her best friend, Hope, still lives in another state, and she can’t seem to escape the clutches of the Clueless Crew, her annoying so-called friends. To top it off, Jessica’s parents won’t get off her butt about choosing a college, and her sister Bethany’s pregnancy is causing a big stir in the Darling household. "

In book two of The Jessica Darling Series, I enjoyed watching a more mature slighty less neurotic Jessica decide where she is going to college, ignoring Marcus Flutie, Having a Boyfriend and overall trying to get through her Senior Year of high school. McCafferty does a good job at showing a very rounded aspect of how high school life can be  for every social circle. And as usual, I can laugh along with Jessica, I cringe with her in those embarrassing, can't we all pretend this didn't happen moments and my heart melts for her in all those stomach flutter moments.

What I enjoyed most on Second Helpings is there was an amount of comfort with these characters, you really felt like you already knew them and that you weren't intruding on their lives. Also, everything was less dramatic in book 2 and a little more realistic. Second Helpings was a good sophomore book and I really cannot wait to see where Jessica goes in the rest of the series, but not just her the rest of the characters too.