JD

Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty was the second book in the Jessica Darling series by this author. The book was a quick easy read. Honestly it could have just been added into the first book and then heavily edited. It wasn't especially interesting to read. The story followed main character Jessica Darling as she made her way through her last year or so of high school. It also picked up where the first book ended but not really as dramatically as the first had ended. The plot was a bit slow and quite predictable. The fairytale ending was also a bit cliche. All that said I still picked up the third book so clearly McCafferty is hooking me somehow.

I also related to the story because of the character being the same age as me. She graduates in 2002 from high school, same as I did. The books are set up to be main character Jessica's journals and the divisions occur with each new month or time frame. September 2001 obviously already occurred when the book was published, but I found myself wondering if the author had it in her original draft or had to go back and add it in. Jessica describes her morning and the weeks that follow and although so many of my recent books mention 9/11, which seems odd but really isn't, it was in a way that seemed much more vivid to me since she was describing it as a high school senior which is where I was in life when the tragedy occurred.