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 don't even classify the first two as such because they were so funny and well-done) and, as some people have mentioned, only rewarding for those who hated the end of book 4 (I didn't mind the end but also knew the series wasn't really over).

Even ignoring the wildly ridiculous plot line (because it's not like the good books in this series were without ridiculousness), everything that I loved about the previous books is gone. Most notably: this is not written as a diary entry from Jess. It's told in an annoying third-person present tense (plus even more annoying sections of just back-and forth dialog, and back-and forth haikus). For me, a lot of what I loved about the earlier books was Jess's way of describing her world, even (or especially) when she was overly focused on petty things. I missed the constant stream of snark mixed with semi-psychotic paranoia and neurosis. Jess is grown up in this one and apart from some omniscient descriptions of her thoughts, and chunks of dialog, we don't really get to see what she is like now, I felt.

Speaking of the dialog, that was another problem I had with the book - although the earlier books had a bit of unrealistic pretentious-teen speak, I didn't feel it was that unbelievable, and it didn't go on for endless passages like in this one. (made all the more obvious in the parts where there is no narration whatsoever).

Finally, and this may be something of a spoiler, but all the events of the book are mainly confined to the airport. Other characters make appearances through bits of backstory revealed in conversation, memories, or through phone calls. Jessica and Marcus were the focus of the other books, of course, but I don't think anyone would have liked them as much if they were the ONLY characters the entire time. Here, they pretty much are.

Completists like me will probably not be able to resist this one (clearly I wasn't), and it's not like it's a complete waste of time. (after all, my plane trip flew by! You will be quickly flipping the pages waiting for something to happen). But it's certainly not going to win any new fans (not like that would be the purpose of a part-5 in a series anyway).

In the end, the story itself is satisfying enough, but all of the charm of the previous books is absent.