Review Detail

By and large, Second Helpings was a massive improvement over Sloppy Firsts. Where in the first book I found Jessica Darling to be needlessly rude and judgmental, in this sequel I was instead charmed by her ridiculous sense of humor and pleased by her obvious character growth from her sophomore year of high school. I think really, that this series is the kind one needs to see to the end, since otherwise the reader will miss out on the full effect.

Second Helpings dealt with Jessica’s senior year—college applications, figuring out what she really wanted to to with her life, and figuring out how to tell her parents that she didn’t exactly want to do what they wanted. Thrown into the mix is her awkward relationship with reformed druggie Marcus Flutie. Overall this was a book I felt much more strongly attached to.

From the very first scene to the last, I was completely in love with this book. Though it’s wasn’t instantaneous, I now count myself as one of Megan McCafferty’s (many) fans.