Perfect Fifths

Perfect Fifths (Jessica Darling #5)

by Megan McCafferty

** spoiler alert ** It is the last book in the series and it really lived up to everything that it needed to be. Nothing overly done. Nothing had a great finality to it. Just right.

In this book Jessica and Marcus are at an airport. Jessica is on her way to her friends wedding and Marcus is coming back from some volunteer work in New Orleans. She literally bangs into him. They both want to talk, but she is late. So late that by the time she gets to the gate the plan is leaving. The meeting shakes them both up and makes them start thinking about questions they should have asked, something they should have said, wanting more. Well, Marcus gets in trouble for loitering and gets rescued by Jessica. They decided to sit down at a coffee shop and talk, about everything, and yet nothing. At least not the words that truly need to be said. Eventually you learn about what both have done for over the past three years and how much they have changed and stayed the same. You also learn about all the other minor characters. But most importantly you learn how much their attraction for each other and love is still very strong between them, no matter how much they try to fight it.

Like I said I couldn't put the book down. I was engrossed in it from page one. I had to keep turning the page to see what would happen next, which character I would learn about next. I loved that Megan wrote things from Macus's point of veiw. I finally got to see what made Marcus tick, see how he really looked at Jessica, and why he says cryptic messages without really trying.

I also LOVED the haiku section. Some people may not, but you really got to see them opening up to each other more; Marcus's funny and care free side, and Jessica's cynical and analytical side.

Overall I was extremely pleased with everything. However, I wanted more at the end. Maybe a confirmation that they will stay together this time. Or showing that Marcus bought that ticket to the Virgin Islands and he is going with her. Something! But then again it might be my own longing to want more. More from these two characters that I have related to.

If you have never read the Jessica Darling Series, you must. If you love chick lit books or something that you really can relate to, this is the perfect book for you. I could relate to her completely. She grew up in a small town with friends she didn't like, with her best friend moving away. She thought life was horrible there, nothing to do, or anyway way out. Then Marcus comes into the picture, the bad boy. The boy you know you should stay as far away from as possible, but you just seem drawn to them. (Just like me!!) Their relationship goes back and forth for years, after graduation in 2002 to her going off to Columbia University in NY, and finally after. The whole time you are reading Jessica's diary.

It is awesome coming of age book. (It is not a Young Adult novel. So you don't have to feel weird reading it in public.)

Bumped

Bumped

By Megan McCafferty

Publishing Date: April 26th, 2011

I just finished the book and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I don’t even know know where to start. I have loved all of Megan McCafferty’s books. I have read her Jessica Darling books several times and have loved them immensely. I had no idea Miss McCafferty would come up with something this different from her other books.

Just be warned that this is not like any of her other books. It is dark, kind of disturbing in places, and really makes you think.

The book is about two sisters, Melody and Harmony, who have lived completely different lives finally meeting up and how everything ends up changing.

Melody grows up believing that getting bumped is the only important thing that can happen to her, because society has become infertile after the age of 18 due to a Virus that has been plaguing man kind for decades. It will get her in into the college she wants, to live a life that is her own. Her parents are never there and have pushed her into being the perfect possible pregger - intelligent, athletic, artsy, and has a perfect resume to a potential client who wants her to bump for them. The only thing they aren’t happy about is that the couple that she is contracted with hasn’t picked a bump mate yet. To Melody she isn’t in that big of a hurry to get bumped, yet she is starting to feel the pressure to get pregged from the other girls at school. Besides the drama from not being bumped yet, is her twin sister Harmony showing up at her house.

Harmony grew up completely opposite of Melody. Harmony is known as a churchfreak. She grew up in a cloistered community where the bible is taught and applied strictly. They are completely sheltered there and rarely go to the Otherside, where they use sex for money. However Harmony doesn’t think that is all there is over there and wants to find out for herself.

Once Harmony gets over to Otherside she has a hard time understanding what people are saying and feels she needs to witness to the sinners, helping them find their way to God. The more she finds out about her new sister and the new world around her, she comes to realize that she does not want to go back to Goodside, where her secrets and strict beliefs are.

Finally Melody gets matched with the most sought after mate, Jondoe. Only the news gets delivered to Harmony by mistake, and she has a hard time telling him that she isn’t Melody. The deeper Harmony gets into the lie the more Melody finds out about Harmony’s past and starts to analyze her feelings for her best friend Zen.

Over all the book was very well written and it really took on a different side of teen pregnancy. It is a side of it that is disturbing and something that I hope never comes to pass. Where the world pushes for young kids to have unprotected sex as early as possible, along with mass orgies or mass semination parties.

I have to admit that at first I wasn’t sure that I would like the book at all. The first couple of pages where kind of hard to get through. The language and slang was really hard to understand and having the shortened names of which sister was talking at the time was confusing. I understand that it was taking place in 2035, but I am not sure that they would talk that different 20 years from now.

Once I got in the swing of how the flow of the book was, it took me no time in order to read it. It only took me about 2 hours to get through it. It was a very nice quick read.

The ending however left you really hanging. I honestly didn’t like it and kind of pissed me off. It left me feeling like something was missing and nothing got completely resolved. Then I found out that it a first book in a series, so now it makes more sense.

Anyway, the book was great, but still up in the air if I love it. So I have to give it four out of five stars.