I honestly did not expect to like Fourth Comings as much as I did. If anything, I opened this book with trepidation, fully planning to give it four stars at best, but it wound up just blowing me away. While Sloppy Firsts and Charmed Thirds remain the most life-changing of all the Jessica Darling books for me so far, I think Fourth Comings is easily the most brilliant. It isn't the one I'll re-read the most or even return to too many times, but the clues scattered throughout this book, the intell More...

I really wish this series had stopped at Second Helpings. This story, and everything the main character thinks, feels and experiences is such a high school experience. It’s a classic story, but done so perfectly it feels fresh and new. We can sympathize with the teenage Jessica’s angst because we’ve all had similar experiences. This does not translate to college, and it’s even more out of place in the real world. Jessica’s whininess and general disdain for everyone makes sense when she’s stuck i More...

I really enjoyed this latest Jessica Darling book when I read it a few months ago, although my particularly good impression may have been influenced by the fact that I read the underwhelming Charmed Thirds right before and my expectations were pretty low.

This whole book is supposed to be a letter (well, more like dissertation) to Marcus, detailing the week in which Jessica is deciding whether to accept his proposal or not. I have to say that by now the whole Marcus saga has gotten to be like som More...

After Charmed Thirds, my expectations were not high for this one. I did like it more than Charmed Thirds, but it certainly did not appeal to me as much as the marvelous Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings. In those first two, Marcus was so attractive to me. But in the third, he wasn't even really in the book and in the fourth he was more annoying than appealing.
I don't know if the problem with these later books is Megan McCafferty or if the problem is me. I think I grew up a lot between reading th More...

So. What do you do when you've graduated from college at a prestigious university (that put you in debt for thousands of dollars) and you've discovered that you did not major in something useful and employable, but instead majored in psychology and can't find a job? And what do you do when you live in a city that you can't afford and that your boyfriend hates? And what do you do when your sister suspects that your mom might leave your dad and it's making you question the entire institute of marr More...

I have a love/hate relationship with the Jessica Darling books. The slang in the first two books drove me up a wall. Jessica forever pointing out how she hates high-tech forms of communication and loves the 80s grates after awhile. But at the same time, the way Megan McCafferty has structured the books around actual dates means that this character and I are going through the same things at the same time and there's a lot of truth behind it.

Fourth Comings tackles my fundamental problem with this More...

The shine on the Jessica Darling books is starting to wear off for me. I think the problem is that in the high school realm, Jessica Darling is a rebel, an amusing foil to her stereotypical high school counterparts. But in the real world, she comes across as whiney. Aww, you don't have enough to pay your rent? You have bad roomates? Your boyfriend is a college freshman and that's inconvenient for you? You got an impractical degree in a field you'll never make money in? Welcome to the real world More...

because one can never get enough marcus flutie.

Jessica Darling is back!!! After a not-so-darling Charmed Thirds, Jessica Darling is kicking ass again in Fourth Comings. She's now a post-college 22 years old, working full-time-ish, and debating a marriage proposal from long-time not-so-emotionally-stable boyfriend Marcus.

I have to admit, it wasn't until about page 50 or so that I really got into the book, but once I was into it, I really enjoyed reading it. Jessica is much more adult in this book and it reads differently as a result. She's d More...

I only just finished reading Fourth Comings, but I've followed Jessica Darling on her journey from high school and beyond. When I first met her, she was voiced by Megan McCafferty who made a guest appearance at one of my high school classes as a favor to our teacher. Talking about Len Levy's version of premature ejaculation at the high school talent show, she got my class laughing and my interest piqued.

In high school, the snarkiness and the frustration with the cookie cutter lifestyle of the J More...

Jessica Darling graduated from college one semester early, which is where Charmed Thirds ended. Now she is struggling to find a job while still trying to figure out her relationship with Marcus Flutie that has been a part of her life since she was 16. I liked this book but was not really happy with the ending. The next book in this series is being released in April 2009. I am looking forward to seeing how her story plays out as a woman in her mid 20s.

I love the Jessica Darling books, but I'm getting tired of all the explication necessary to either refresh the memory of regular Darling readers or to explain the story up to now to newcomers who haven't read the three previous novels. The story is progressing nicely, and this one is more coherent than some of the earlier ones, I just can't stand the approximately one to two paragraphs of recap to every page or so ratio. It's starting to become like the Babysitters Club, you know? That said, I'm More...

This is the kind of book you should own so that you can read it as it deserves to be read. I would prefer a hard copy rather than an ebook to underline things I like- so they're easy to turn back to as I ponder them. It's the kind of book that makes you consider profound philosophical concepts- of course that's what the characters are doing too. This kind of book is awesome in your'e in your 20's. In one's late 40's, well, I just want to strangle her sometimes- love doesn't come along that often More...

My first book of 2012! Well, I got a start on it in 2011. That's life.

The journal format was pushing it here - I didn't really believe that Jessica was writing to Marcus because I could hear McCafferty behind it all inserting backstory into the narrative for the reader's benefit. The journal would often get stuck in this narrative rut: something happens, Jessica half-describes it and then turns it into a petulant op-ed about society in general while slipping in references to pop-psych research s More...

Although I don't care about these series anymore, I feel compelled to express my opinion once again. Can you really blame me? I LOVED the first two books and then the next installments crushed my heart.

I just can't believe what an enourmous downfall this series has taken.
Don't get me wrong, I've been disappointed in books before but not to such an extent. These books have abruptly turned from fresh young-adult novels to good old chicklit. What I don't get is the author's point. If she wanted t More...

Yes, I have an addicted personality and I read things that I know aren't good for me, just because I have read the previous books. And lucky for me, I have the next book in my to-read pile already, even though I know it's not good for me.

Anyway, god, what was this book about? Don't I start everything with this? What is wrong with my memory lately? Unlike the previous books that take place over a year/summer/various years and summers, this book takes place, from what I understand over the time of More...

(review for both FOURTH COMINGS & PERFECT FIFTHS)

In the final 2 books of the Jessica Darling series, our wires-crossed, love-imperfect couple decide if they'll make it or break it for good. While Jessica enters the post-college "real world," Marcus finally decided to go back to organized education in the form of Princeton. Still physically distant in location, Jessica thinks she's too old to re-live the college scene again. Will she wait for Marcus to graduate? Will Marcus dump her for a fre More...

In this, the fourth book of Megan McCafferty's Jessica Darling series, the writing style takes a nosedive. The third book started to lose the sparkling wit and cutting judgments/descriptions of characters. Here, it seems that McCafferty's narrative shift has really messed with what could have been an excellent story.

Jessica's finally reunited (and it feels so good!) with her high school BFF Hope Weaver, and she has been in a tentative relationship with Marcus Flutie, her on/off high school boyfr More...

Finally finished with her expensive college experience, Jessica has no clue what to do with her future. She's freelancing for an obscure journal, which doesn't even begin to cover her student loans - and looking for that perfect job to come her way. Although Jessica and Marcus have reunited after his long absence, she's feeling particularly unsettled in their relationship especially with Marcus' newest decision to attend Princeton University as a freshman at age 23. And most confusing of all is More...

Fourth Comings by Megan McCafferty is the fourth (and second to last!) book in the Jessica Darling series. Book four opens with Jessica Darling sitting on a bar stool at a dingy college bar in the middle of the day contemplating her relationship with the elusive Marcus Flutie who has just started his first year at Princeton (although he is 23 years old).

Determined to end the relationship because they are just at two different places in their lives, Jessica goes to Princeton and just as she is ab More...

you know what's worse than getting a really long break up letter? reading a break up journal.

do y'all feel a rant coming???

first off, make no mistake, i get it. jessica has a 23-year-old college freshman boyfriend who sports dreads AND a shitbeard. i'd be embarrassed too. but despite that fact, he still (apparently) oozes sex appeal and badboy-attractiveness, the college is princeton not some unaccredited hippie school in the desert, and, she LOVES him. so suck it up and figure out a solution. i More...

Is it me, or was McCafferty very good at writing high school angst and not as good at writing post-HS drama? This book is more of the same when it comes to THIRDS, which isn't a compliment. It did have some interesting changes, such as its pre-established weeklong timeframe and the fact that Jessica is writing all of this to Marcus.

Once again, McCafferty goes for the BAM factor, making us sit through a couple hundred pages of filler, counting on our desperation to know what happens to the chara More...

Is the real world ready for Jessica Darling?

At first it seems she’s living the New York City dream. She’s subletting an apartment with her best friend, working for a magazine that actually cares about her psychology degree, and still deeply in love with the charismatic Marcus Flutie.

But reality is more complicated than dreamy clichés.

When Marcus proposes—giving her only one week to answer—Jessica must decide if she’s ready to give up a world of late-night literary soirees, art openings, and down More...

This book Fourth Comings, was about a girl Jessica who was having a hard time with her boyfriend Marcus. Marcus can’t stand being in the city and he is going to Princeton. He knew she was going to break up with him, so he proposed to her. Jessica love him, but she couldn’t marry him. She didn’t want to get marry.
For a relationship to go on I don’t think you “must” get marry. Love is a come and go thing. Also, when I was reading this book I felt like the dialogue was going to fast. The voice o More...

Megan McCafferty’s Jessica Darling is back, this facing life after college in New York City. As usual, Jessica examines her life with the same sarcastic, witty voice. The problem is that nothing really happens in Fourth Comings. Long time boyfriend Marcus Flutie proposes to Jessica early on in the book, sending Jessica into an existential decision-making crisis.

The problem with Fourth Comings is really that Jessica’s snarky voice, which worked so well for her character through high school and co More...

I began this book immediately after Charmed Thirds, and I am happy to say that I enjoyed this, the fourth book in the Jessica Darling series, much more than the third. The entire novel takes place over the course of one week. This allowed for the detail that I craved, but did not attain, from Charmed Thirds.

I also appreciate that Jessica is, for the first time in a long time, in complete control over her relationship with Marcus. She must decide whether or not to accept his marriage proposal and More...