Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

May 11, 2011

Jessica rated it:

What a disappointment.

Perfect Fifths basically reads like a Fanfic. A Fanfic for those who didn’t like the ending of book 4.

In my opinion, this book was completely unnecessary and I think the author secretely thought so, too, seeing as she couldn’t even come up with a real story. One third of the book consists of weird poems or dialogues in the fashion of

[Pause]
"Have you Googled me?"
[Pause]
"No."
"Not once?" More...

7 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2009

Alia rated it:

It pains me to rate this book so low because the rest of the series was so good. This last book though seemed like an afterthought, a way to tack on a nice, pat, happy ending despite the fact that these characters have grown-up and moved on. But even if the premise of this book (which is really just a alternate ending to the fourth book in the series) was entirely plausible there were a few other things I just couldn't get over.

First there was the annoying critical theory speak that More...

0 comments like (20 people liked it)

Mar 03, 2009

Steph Su rated it:

It’s been three years since Jessica refused Marcus’ marriage proposal, and both of them have moved on with their lives. Jessica now works for the Do Better High School Storytellers Project, traveling across the country to work for ten weeks with groups of girls on finding a voice through writing. She has even found a mini-me in the dregs of Pineville, a cynical teenager with the unfortunate name of Sunny Dae, who gives Jessica meaning to her work. Meanwhile, Marcus has embraced college life, imm More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 17, 2009

Brittany rated it:

I'd like to preface this review with two things. First off, I have never felt compelled to write a book review until now. Secondly, the phrase "chick lit" is enough to make me run for the hills, as 99% of the books in this "literary" genre are at best cloyingly cliche, and at worst insultingly stupid.

This series, however, changed my life.

Shortly before Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out, there were a bunch of articles floating around about r More...

2 comments like (10 people liked it)

May 28, 2009

Mrs. Featherbottom rated it:

I guess one way to end the Jessica Darling series with a bang is to make your readers never want to hear from her or Marcus (a.k.a. Edward Cullen on a yoga bender) ever again. It's laughable how many times McCafferty talks about how sexy and fuckable Marcus is in the span of only some 300 pages. I felt like she was channelling StephEnie Meyer in a major way, especially when I finally finished and flipped to the back cover flap to the author's pic -- surprise!!! She looks like a description of Je More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

May 15, 2011

Nicole rated it:

When I first read this I thought it's a long span book. I mean the story's time span is more like a year. I'm surprised to see that the story is about like 1 or almost 2 days.

The only a thing or two what I like about this:

1.) <Jessica to Mercu>
"By the way," she says, releasing her hair from its elastic and shaking it over the pillows. "The bed isn't
the only place you're not going to have sex with me."
Marcus raises an eyebr More...

8 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 08, 2012

Angela rated it:

This book was a big disappointment. I have read the first two books at least five times each and I was delighted yet uneasy when two sequels followed. I thought the third book was pretty bad (and even that I re-read), but the fourth was at least somewhat back on track. Even with the poor reviews I read about this one, I decided to give it a try, because I needed something to read on an airplane and figured, how bad could it really be?

Well, pretty bad. Basically, this is pointless chick-lit (I do More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 18, 2009

Liz rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (5 people liked it)

Apr 15, 2009

Jenny rated it:

This was published on my library's website...
Readers have been with Jessica Darling since her best friend Hope moved away when she was 16 and she started hanging out with the bad boy we all love, Marcus Flutie, in Sloppy Firsts. When we last saw Jessica in Fourth Comings she had just graduated college and broken up with Marcus after he proposed. The novels have transformed from YA to adult as the characters age from their teen years to adulthood. Now in Perfect Fifths, the final book in th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 18, 2009

meredith ann rated it:

maybe i'm a bad jessica darling fan but this novel wasn't what i've come to expect from the series. something was missing - i don't know if it's the fact the time was so compartmentalized or that it was all based on this interaction with marcus - it just wasn't all there. i missed jessica's snarkiness and humor! there were glimpses of it but not to the extent of the past four books. still, i enjoyed revisiting with these characters and am holding out hope for a sixth in the series (although More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 25, 2009

Jessica rated it:

I got an advanced copy of this book and had to tear into it right away. I'm giving it five stars not really because it is a five star book, but more because it is a five star ending to the story of Marcus and Jessica. A little slow at the beginning, but the middle and end more than make up for it.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jan 26, 2012

Emma rated it:

I like the idea of Perfect Fifths. I for one have considered what it would be like if I were to run into an ex and actually talk with them, cutting past all the pretenses. In that respect the novel is great because the idea is great. However, the execution is quite lackluster. McCafferty has given up the journal format that made the series charming, choosing instead to employ a third person narrative. She reveals her reasons for the switch at the very end of the novel but those reasons are just More...

0 comments like

Sep 22, 2011

Lisa rated it:

I just don't know what happened to this series. I LOVED the first two books. I think I even gave them both a 5-star rating. After the first two the series just went downhill. I only completed it because 1. I hate ending a series in the middle, and 2. I had already purchased all the books (thank goodness they were on sale when I bought them).

The 5th and final book of the Jessica Darling series was just dreadful. I didn't put much hope in it thanks to the last two not-so-good book More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 02, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

This book was unlike the rest in this series. And not in a good way. I didn't like the format at all. The past books were written in first person, which is probably my favorite way of writing and this was written in third person, Plus, it kept jumping back and forth from the views of Jess and Marcus. And I don't like Marcus anyway, so it was blah to me. And it took place over like a 2 day period. All the books keep getting shorter and shorter. What even happened. Jess is on her way to the weddin More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 28, 2011

cecilia rated it:

(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 du More...

0 comments like

Mar 21, 2011

Molly rated it:

I so loved books 1 and 2, even 3 was all right... but Jessica has turned into an unreadable, snobbish character. There is nothing to like about her at this point; you just hate her. And that's not the same lovably cynical character from the earlier books in the series. I don't think Jess would really have turned into such a cunt. Sorry for the language, but there are no clean words to describe how maddening this book was for me! The fourth book was alienating enough, but this is just too mu More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 22, 2011

A. rated it:

My advice to those who want to read the final installment of Megan McCafferty's Jessica Darling series? Don't.

Why so harsh? you may ask. It's just one more book and you can be satisfied knowing the ending, right?

This book was so incredibly painful to get through. I thought it was bad enough that in Fourth Comings Jessica wrote to Marcus instead of for herself, changing the whole dynamic and dulling the clever wit into purple prose. Here, McCafferty employs so many writing More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jan 12, 2011

Michelle rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Dec 18, 2010

Traci rated it:

I'd read the first four books about Jessica Darling and her life in high school/college, and while I enjoyed them, I wasn't really sure I wanted to read this last book. It's been quite a while since I read the fourth book, and if my memory serves correctly, I wasn't all that into it; it felt a bit tired, like we'd been there and done that. However, I thought I owed it to myself to at least attempt to finish the series, as so many authors these days seem to keep them going and going and going... More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 09, 2010

Jessica rated it:

It’s the end of an era. I have finished Megan McCafferty’s Jessica Darling series.

Perfect Fifths opens with Jessica frantically running through an airport to catch a plane to the Caribbean to see her two best friends Bridget and Percy get married. She is late, disheveled and tired and as she reaches her gate she runs into (literally, runs into) the one person she didn’t think she would ever talk to again: Marcus Flutie.

When Jessica misses her flight and has hours in the a More...

0 comments like

Jul 01, 2010

Anya rated it:

I had a lot of problems with this final book in the Jessica Darling series. First, the format change. After structuring the narrative in the form of journal entries from Jessica's point of view for the first four books, suddenly we get an omniscient narrator who sees into the minds of both Jessica and Marcus. And, for me, Marcus's inner thoughts did not really match the character he was in the first 4 books. Second, the whole Sunny Dae character just wasn't doing it for me. While Marcus's resist More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 18, 2010

Bianca rated it:

I was quite anxious to read Perfect Fifths, mostly because I needed to find out how the series was going to end.

Perfect Fifths is written in a different style than the other books in the series. The story takes place within 2 days and yet this book is able back a lot of the past characters, which is completely awesome. Half the book is in Marcus' POV and it was great to finally get the chance to read what went on inside his head.

Jessica and Marcus literally run into each More...

0 comments like

Apr 25, 2010

Lauren rated it:

and so we have come to our conclusion.

honestly, i was braced for the worst. i know a lot of people took issue with the 50+ pages of nuthin' but dialogue followed by a series of suggestive haiku-ing...that actually didn't bother me. i've been calling for more communication between the star-crossed pair since book three. and the poem thing, well, i've done shit like that, so it didn't strike me as particularly odd or out of place. you know what was? barry frickin' manilow. i get that More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Mar 18, 2010

Abby rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 18, 2009

Jennifer rated it:

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

PERFECT FIFTHS gives the reader the conclusion to the ongoing highs and lows of the relationship between Jessica Darling and Marcus Flutie. For those that have been with them from the beginning, you will recall that they met in high school. Marcus was the druggie best friend of Jessica's best friend, Hope's, brother. The couple, the most unlikely in the school, get together, and they make perfect sense. The rest of the series covers the ins and More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 13, 2009

Katherine rated it:

We knew it was coming. Jessica and Marcus' reunion was telegraphed from the moment I heard there would be a fifth book. Which is fine, though it definitely doesn't have the suspense of the fourth book.

Anyway, I was hugely relieved that we got a break from the journal format. Jessica was my favorite narrator imaginable in the first two books, but by the third she was vaguely annoying and by the fourth she was outwardly annoying, so I think this was a good choice for McCafferty. Th More...

0 comments like

May 08, 2009

Kelly rated it:

Summary: Three years after he proposed to her and she said no, Jessica Darling runs into Marcus Flutie—literally.

Review: I’m glad I read the final book in this series not just for the closure but because the book offers up some truly enjoyable moments. And even though it had been almost 2 years since I last read about Jessica, this book brought it all back immediately.

But this wasn’t my favorite book in the series. A few reasons why:

* Transcript in the mid More...

0 comments like

Apr 18, 2009

Sara rated it:

I was unsure what to expect, coming into this book. It's the last book in the Jessica Darling series - a series in which I loved the first two books, heartily recommending them (and gifting them) to everyone I know, hated the third book, and felt "meh" about the fourth. I was afraid this final installment would underwhelm me again and make me even more sure of my belief that the series should have ended with only two books. My problems with the 3rd and 4th books stemmed from their l More...

0 comments like

Apr 17, 2009

SKB rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 22, 2010

Janean rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (1 person liked it)