Review: Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty

Title: Charmed Thirds
Author: Megan McCafferty
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Crown Publishing
Publish Date: April 24, 2007
Source: Library

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a Young Adult fiction fan.
• You like snarky.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Jessica Darling’s in college!

Things are looking up for Jessica Darling. She has finally left her New Jersey hometown/hellhole for Columbia University in New York City; she’s more into her boyfriend, Marcus Flutie, than ever (so what if he’s at a Buddhist college in California?); and she’s making new friends who just might qualify as stand-ins for her beloved best friend, Hope.

But Jessica soon realizes that her bliss might not last. She lands an internship at a snarky Brooklyn-based magazine, but will she fit in with the überhip staff (and will she even want to)? As she and Marcus hit the rocks, will she end up falling for her GOPunk, neoconservative RA . . . or the hot (and married!) Spanish grad student she’s assisting on a summer project . . . or the oh-so-sensitive emo boy down the hall? Will she even make it through college now that her parents have cut her off financially? And what do the cryptic one-word postcards from Marcus really mean?

With hilarious insight, the hyperobservant Jessica Darling struggles through her college years—and the summers in between—while maintaining her usual mix of wit, cynicism, and candor."

My Two Cents:

Jessica Darling is back for a third installment of pure snark. Although she seems to have matured slightly from the second book, a good thing indeed (no, seriously, thank goodness). I liked this book a lot better for that reason.

Anyhow, Jessica is in college at Columbia in NYC in this book. I loved that the author was able to capture so many things that you go through in college: the trials and tribulations of long distance relationships, trying to make friends like the really good ones that you have from home, getting to your first internship and realizing that things are not always as good in reality as they are in your mind! McCafferty did a really good job of capturing the events and the emotions tied to the events of college. I have not come across a lot of books that really cover the college experience. I think everyone's experiences are probably a little bit different but Jessica deals with a lot of common themes that so many college students face. It's very realistic.

This book does cover a few years. It made it a little confusing to try to figure out how much time had actually passed between a couple of the events in the book. There are markers in the beginning of each chapter but it was hard to keep track since time was going so quickly.

As I mentioned earlier, this book is the third in the series. You would be able to follow along with the story even if you haven't read the first two books; however, the first two books were pretty good (even if Jessica was a little whiny in the second book) so you should still read the first books.

My Reviews for the Other Books in this Series:

• Sloppy Firsts
• Second Helpings