megan mccafferty

The instant New York Times Bestseller on sale in paperback 9/9/08

Fourth Comings cover photo"Megan McCafferty's hilarious coming-of-age novels are getting better as Jess gets older...Acidly funny, imaginatively profane and, above all, a sharp reflection of the what-do-I-do-now, post-college dilemma."
--Miami Herald

At first it seems that she’s living the elusive New York City dream. She’s subletting an apartment with her best friend, Hope, working for a magazine that actually utilizes her psychology degree, and still deeply in love with Marcus Flutie, the charismatic addict-turned-Buddhist who first captivated her at sixteen.

Of course, reality is more complicated than dreamy clichés. She and Hope share bunk beds in the “Cupcake”—the girlie pastel bedroom normally occupied by twelve-year-old twins. Their Brooklyn neighborhood is better suited to “breeders,” and she and Hope split the rent with their promiscuous high school pal, Manda, and her “genderqueer boifriend.” Freelancing for an obscure journal can’t put a dent in Jessica’s student loans, so she’s eking out a living by babysitting her young niece and lamenting that she, unlike most of her friends, can’t postpone adulthood by going back to school.

Yet it’s the ever-changing relationship with Marcus that leaves her most unsettled. At the ripe age of twenty-three, he’s just starting his freshman year at Princeton University. Is she ready to give up her imperfect yet invigorating post-college life just because her on-again/off-again soul mate asks her to... marry him?

Jessica has one week to respond to Marcus’s perplexing marriage proposal. During this time, she gains surprising wisdom from unexpected sources, including a popular talk show shrink, a drag queen named Royalle G. Biv, and yes, even her parents. But the most shocking confession concerns two people she thought had nothing to hide: Hope and Marcus.

Will this knowledge inspire Jessica to give up a world of late-night literary soirees, art openings, and downtown drunken karaoke to move back to New Jersey and be with the one man who’s gripped her heart for years? Jessica ponders this and other life choices with her signature snark and hyper-intense insight, making it the most tumultuous and memorable week of her twenty-something life.

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Charmed Thirds

Charmed Thirds Cover Photo

"Offers brilliant and cutting insights into the world of the adolescent about-to-be-a-woman."--Chicago Sun-Times

Megan McCafferty’s hundreds of thousands of fans have been clamoring for more of the character they met in sloppy firsts and continued to adore in second helpings, and they’ll be thrilled with this long-awaited third installment of Jessica’s story. Just as observant, witty, and insightful as ever, Jessica had finally left her New Jersey hometown/hellhole for New York’s Columbia University; she’s more into Marcus Flutie than ever (so what if he’s at a Buddhist college in California?); and she’s making friends who just might qualify as stand-ins for her beloved Hope.

But Jessica soon realizes that her bliss might not last. She lands an internship at a snarky Brooklyn-based magazine, but will she mesh with the uber-hip staff? 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 who is her partner on a summer project…or the oh-so-sensitive emo boy down the hall? And what do the cryptic one-word postcards from Marcus really mean? With hilarious insight, hyperobservant Jessica struggles through three years of college—and the summers in between—while maintaining her cynicism, wit and candor.

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Second Helpings

Second Helpings Cover Photo

"An exhilirating and genuine take on teendom."--Boston Herald

Jessica Darling is up in arms again in this much-anticipated, hilarious sequel to sloppy firsts. This time, the hyperobservant, angst-ridden teenager is going through the social and emotional ordeal of her senior year at Pineville High. Not only does the mysterious and oh-so-compelling Marcus Flutie continue to distract Jessica, but her best friend, Hope, still lives in another state, and she can’t seem to escape the clutches of the Clueless Crew. To top it off, Jessica’s parents won’t get off her butt about choosing a college and her sister Bethany’s pregnancy is causing a big stir in the Darling household.

Will she crack under pressure of senioritis? Will her unresolved feelings for Marcus wreck havoc on her love life? Will Hope ever come back to Pineville? Fall in love with saucy, irreverent Jessica all over again in this wonderful sequel to a book that critics and readers alike hailed as the best high school novel in years. Get second helpings, from Three Rivers Press.

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Sloppy Firsts

Sloppy Firsts Cover Photo

"Judy Blume meets Dorothy Parker."--Wall Street Journal

When her best friend, Hope Weaver, moves away from Pineville, New Jersey, hyper-observant 16-year-old Jessica Darling is devastated. A fish out of water at school and a stranger at home, Jessica feels more lost than ever now that the only person with whom she could really communicate has gone. How is she supposed to deal with the boy-and-shopping-crazy girls at school, her dad's obsession with her track meets, her mother salivating over big sister Bethany's lavish wedding, and her nonexistent love life?

A fresh, funny, utterly compelling fiction debut by first-time novelist Megan McCafferty, sloppy firsts is an insightful, true-to-life look at Jessica's predicament as she embarks on another year of teenage torment- from the dark days of Hope's departure, through her months as an type-A personality turned insomniac, to her completely mixed-up feelings about Marcus Flutie, the intelligent and mysterious Dreg who works his way into her heart. Like a John Hughes for the 21st Century, Megan McCafferty taps into the inherent humor and drama of the teen experience. This poignant, hilarious novel that is sure to appeal to readers who are still going through it, as well as those who are grateful that they don't have to go back and grow up all over again.

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Sixteen: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday

Sixteen Cover Photo"Delightful and different. "--School Library Journal

Dating! Driving! Drama!

Remember what it was like to be sixteen? Whether it was the year your teeth were finally free of braces or you were discovered by the opposite sex, that magical, mystical age is something you will never forget. Edited by Megan McCafferty, author of the runaway hit novels sloppy firsts and second helpings, SIXTEEN: Stories About That Sweet and Bitter Birthday is a compilation of short stories inspired by all the angst, melodrama, and wonderment of being sixteen.

Sarah Dessen's "Infinity" is about a girl confronting two major milestones: getting her driver's license and losing her virginity. The Dead Girls in Jacqueline Woodson's "Nebraska 99" have already done it and now must cope with being teenage mothers. And Carolyn Mackler's, "Mona Lisa, Jesus, Chad and Me" explores whether friendship can survive when prayer and partying clash. Also included is a new Jessica Darling story by Megan McCafferty about the last fifteen minutes Jessica spends--or rather, doesn't spend--with her best friend, Hope, who is leaving Pineville.

Also featuring stories by Steve Almond, M.T. Anderson, Julianna Baggott, Cat Bauer, Emma Forrest, Tanuja Desai Hidier, David Levithan, Sarah Mlynowski, Sonya Sones, Zoe Trope, Ned Vizzini and Joseph Weisberg, these hilarious, poignant and touching tales are perfect both for those who have yet to reach that milestone and those who want to reminisce about their "sweetest" year.

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