Charmed Thirds [Paperback]

Megan McCafferty (Author)

Book Description

Release date: April 24, 2007

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.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This funny, sympathetic installment in Jessica Darling's story (Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings) picks up the summer after her freshman year at Columbia University. The precocious Jersey girl, now a savvy city slicker, has picked a major (psychology), landed an internship at a hip Brooklyn magazine and managed to stay together with her high school boyfriend, reformed bad boy Marcus Flutie, for the entire school year. McCafferty follows Jessica through three years of college, chronicling her academic and extracurricular endeavors, her romantic and financial woes, all in Jessica's frank, exuberant voice. While she kisses a Republican, lusts after hot Spanish grad student Bastian and ventures a clumsy hookup with dormmate Kieran, Jessica expends a lot of energy agonizing over her long-distance relationship with Marcus, now a student at an unaccredited Buddhist university in California. The snappy writing, au courant wordplay (e.g., Jessica affectionately dubs indie-rock boys "bright-eyed, death-cab cuties") and easy-to-relate-to plot turns will keep eager teens—and teens-at-heart—turning the pages, but designating a high school romance as the novel's primary engine leaves the story stagnant. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Jessica Darling is back. She is now attending Columbia University and is still in love with her high school boyfriend, Marcus Flutie. But Marcus is going to a Buddhist college in California, so they don't get to see one another very often. As perhaps befits a college student, Jessica has gotten a lot franker about sex, and about life in general, after some time on her own. She ages from a freshman to a graduate; gets an internship at an outwardly hip, but actually dysfunctional magazine; makes (and loses) new friends; and even plans to move in with a guy. She also comes to terms with her parents and her sister. She loves Marcus and wants to stay true, but still finds herself in wildly inappropriate hookups–with a punk Republican, with a married man, and with an ex-boyfriend. Several of Jessica's old flames and acquaintances reappear–McCafferty has developed a world of characters from Pineville, NJ, who are all changing and growing in believable (but often surprising) ways. Jessica has matured, and in some ways her lovable neuroses have turned darker–she now has more in common with other 20-something chick-lit heroines. Fans of the first two books will be a ready-made audience for this one.–Jamie Watson, Harford County Public Library, MD
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 372 pages
• Publisher: Broadway Books (April 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400080436
• ISBN-13: 978-1400080434
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (138 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MEGAN MCCAFFERTY is the author of the hit novels Sloppy Firsts, Second Helpings, and Charmed Thirds, which was a New York Times bestseller. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and son. To find out more, visit www.MeganMcCafferty.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars No longer charming! April 13, 2006

By Anna Z.

Format:Hardcover

The brilliance of the first two books in this trilogy was that the reader was responsible for a lot-we were required to "get" Jessica unlike her parents, her peers, and ever her closest friends. And Mccafferty wrote with such precision and wit that Jessica became endeared, a hero, but she never strayed from the perfunctory happenstance of all pubescent life. We "got" Jessica, bought her hook, line, and sinker. The wholeness of Jessica's character-her worrisome, analytical nature juxtaposed to her flaws-made her more real and true than most characters in teen lit books, not merely a compilation of adorable quirks and journals filled with angst over prom dates and zits.

The first books worked because they spent time developing Jessica and made her existence both incredibly cool (She's snarky and likes John Hughes films! She listens to The Smiths! She writes editorials for her school newspaper! She likes nerds!) and incredibly tragic. Though from a rational standpoint, a poem stuffed into one's backpack is not the stuff of Hamlet, Mcafferty made it true anguish. We were so wrapped up in the endearing Jessica and so confused about Marcus Flutie's intentions that it was-- perhaps the sign of a truly genuine story-- as if the events were unfolding in our own lives. The lip-nip was ours, likewise the heartache of Len Levy. The annoyingness of the Clueless Crew. We felt it all, and wanted to scrawl, "Life sucks and then your die," on our book covers, too.

I waited with baited breath for the final installment in the Jessica Darling Epic, and trudged through the pages with alarm. J. (a laughable collegiate moniker) is now a woman. And not the woman I wanted her to be.... Somewhere along the way she picked up the habit of leaving huge chunks of time out of her journals and letters- instead reporting sexual trysts and ridiculous scenarios (her parents bang-a-langin' in the living room upon her visit home, to her utter horror) whenever she felt the urge. There is nothing cohesive about the book. J's new personality is both uncharming and totally annoying. The sweetness and sincerity are gone now, and what's left is the making of an OC archetype. Worse still, of course, the writing grew from unrelentingly realistic to slapstick one-dimensional. Why even include the Clueless Two and Co. if there has been no change at all? As a reader, I'm offended that the writer who once expected me to understand, to "get", the complicated psyche of her heroine now paints a story so clumsily and manically. Subplots come and go, characters apparently fall of the face of the earth, only to reappear chapters later in some offhand parenthesized comment.

There is simply, absolutely, unequivocally, nothing charming about this latest attempt at a novel. Save yourselves. Read more ›

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars What was Charming in a High Schooler is Rather Annoying in A College Student July 6, 2006

By Amy Senk VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Jessica Darling is in college at Columbia in Megan Mccafferty's third installment of this series. And suprisingly, the same angsty, existential characteristics that made her such a great character in the first two books, make her nearly unbearable in Charmed Thirds.

The book is told in a series of letters, emails and mostly diary entries as Jessica deals with summers at home with her parents, with college friends, a long-distance love affair that is on but mostly off, internships and bad jobs.

The problem is, she's not a very nice person, and she's hardly interesting enough to sustain the novel. It's interesting to see this young woman, who had been the most honest and cool of her high school crowd, morph into a petulant, judgmental and unreliable young adult. Her warts-and-all honesty was endearing in high school, but by college you just want her to grow up a little bit and get some perspective.

It's interesting how the formula worked before, but now it falls flat. As a teen-ager, pointing out the bad clothing choices and faux-ironic tee-shirt messages, that seemed kind of wry and amusing. But in a college-age student, it seems snooty and shallow.

The book is well-written, and an interesting slice of contemporary college life.

It's a shame that Jessica hasn't aged gracefully enough to make her someone whose journals are worth a peek.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as the first two May 20, 2006

By H. Case

Format:Hardcover

Like pretty much everyone else reading this book, I read Megan McCafferty's first two books, so I can only contrast them. In this one, it seemed at times like the author was trying too hard. The descriptions of some of the college boys, like the "bright-eyed death cab cuties" or being "dashbored" by them, literally made me roll my eyes. Even though I get the references, maybe I'm too old (I'm certainly outside the demographic) because it just seemed cheesy.

What happened to the Republican guy (no spoilers) seemed like it was supposed to move me, but it didn't; I was just left wondering why it was so significant. Also, I didn't like Marcus in this one, and the internship at True magazine also seemed like it could've been written to be more amusing. I did like the focus on Jessica's sister, though.

In short, some of the good aspects of the first two books were still here, but it felt like this story was slapped together quickly and too much happened. Whatever magic there was between Jessica and Marcus seems to be gone.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Charmed once again by Mccafferty May 21, 2006

By EE.

Format:Hardcover

While I was nearly dissuaded by some negative reviews claiming Charmed Thirds paled in comparison to Mccafferty's previous two novels, Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings, I bought it anyway. Moral of my experience: don't buy into negative hype. Charmed Thirds was every bit as good, real and addictive as Mccafferty's earlier masterpieces. Some readers may have been put off by Jessica's coming of age college experiences. However, I had the opposite reaction - I think the evolution of her character for better and worse just strengthened by admiration for Mccafferty as a writer. Had Jessica remained the same as she was in high school, the story would have become stagnate and fairy tale like. We cannot impose idealistic qualities on Jessica and neither should Mccafferty. Let's not pick up Mccafferty's fourth Jessica Darling story expecting to read exactly what we want to happen - let's let Jessica tell us what's going to happen.