book review: second helpings by megan mccafferty

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It's day two of Megan McCafferty and Jessica Darling week at nomadreader! I loved this series, which I read over the summer, and each day I'm posting a review to celebrate finally catching up on summer reviews.

Because this is a sequel to Sloppy Firsts, there will be some spoilers for the first book in this review and summary.

Summary: Jessica Darling is a senior now, and she's making the hard choices about where to go to college and what she wants out of life. She's still dealing with the fallout of a broken heart, dating her academic rival, and dealing with an anonymous and accurate school gossip ezine. Once again, the reader is privy to Jessica's thoughts through her diary.

Review: After getting to know Jessica Darling in Sloppy Firsts, I was really rooting for her in this novel. I desperately wanted her to make the right choice for college. There is still plenty of candor, insight and humor, but Jessica's reactions to the September 11th attacks still surprised me (in a good way.) I'm curious to know how these events affected McCafferty's story: were they an impetus or did they help shift the story to accommodate timeliness? It's impossible not to compare the two novels, and Second Helpings takes everything wonderful from Sloppy Firsts and makes it better. Jessica is smart, funny, ironic and vulnerable, and all of these things make her absolutely delightful to read about.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5) - wow
Pages: 368
Publication date: 2003
Source: my local public library

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