book review: charmed thirds by megan mccafferty

Welcome to day three of Megan McCafferty and Jessica Darling week at nomadreader!

This books is the third in a series, so the review and summary will include some spoilers from the first two books.

Summary: Jessica Darling is finally out of Pineville and in college at Columbia. She lands the dream internship at a snarky Brooklyn magazine.

Review: I expected to love Charmed Thirds as much as I loved Second Helpings. I'm a huge fan of New York City, snarky magazines and college life. I was thrilled for Jessica to experience all of these things and hear her insights. Sadly, I was a little underwhelmed; it's my least favorite Jessica Darling book. My biggest problem with Charmed Thirds was how much and little it covered. McCafferty condenses all of Jessica's college life into one volume. Sloppy Firsts covered a year and a half, while Second Helpings, the longest book, only took on one year. In order to fit in four years worth of work, school, love, anguish and humor, the book mostly jumps between summers and winter breaks. I understand the temptation to tell the story this way: it allows the rest of the Pineville characters to still be around, but I wanted to see Jessica in exciting courses embracing intellectualism in a new way. I still liked it, and I completely admit to having expectations that were too high. At the end of the book, I was happy: my beloved Jessica is now done with college and gets to be an actual adult! I instantly became optimistic and excited, although somewhat more cautiously, about what will happen.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5) - loved it
Pages: 368
Publication date: 2006
Source: my local public library