This series probably should have either stretched out Jessica’s high school experience through more than two books, or come to an end when she graduated.

The tone and maturity level of these books is very much high school, but Jessica is a 23 year old adult now! But it feels like she’s experiencing it like a 16 year old.

It’s just a little hard to wrap one’s brain around even one’s least mature friends behaving the way Jessica and Marcus do at their age, or the way Jessica and Hope think at this age in general.

It’s too bad, because this started out as a cute and fun series perfectly suited to a high school audience but enjoyable for adults as well, at least in a nostalgic sense. But having actually lived in New York at the same age, this feels laughably like what someone’s little sister would imagine your life would be like.

I usually love YA, but this one was not a favorite. Maybe it's the slang, the very highschool storyline? I listened to it fast as I wasn't that into it.

Jessica Darling is day drinking. She is day drinking hard. Because she is thinking of doing something a little bit crazy.

Jess has graduated from Columbia and now lives in a tiny room in New York City, where she shares bunk beds with one of her oldest friends, Hope. The walls are painted in such a way as to encourage them to call the room The Cupcake, but it’s home. She’s working as a freelancer and a paid babysitter for her niece Marin, and she’s thinking about breaking up with her high school boyfriend.

Jess and Marcus Flutie had known each other for years before that day in high school when he convinced her to break the rules for him. An unlikely friendship developed from there, and then something more. They stayed in touch while Marcus was in rehab and while Jess was in college. Now Marcus is starting Princeton, and Jess is thinking it’s time for them to move on, in spite of her love for him.

She lives in and loves Manhattan. He’s going to be on campus, enjoying all the freedom of a freshman, even though he’s got a few years on the others in his classes. Jess worries that they’re just in very different places in their lives. But right as she’s about to tell him she wants to break up, he catches her off guard. He gets down on one knee and proposes. She doesn’t know what to say (maybe that would be partly from the day drinking?). So he hands her a notebook and tells her to write down he thoughts for a week, and then they’d see where they are.

As Jess goes through her week, she writes extensively about what’s going on and what she’s thinking about. As she spends time with her friends, she thinks about where they are in their relationships. Some are engaged and some aren’t but having a baby together anyway. Some are breaking up to go after old loves, and getting back together when that idea goes really badly. And it wouldn’t be a Jess Darling novel without at least a mention of Paul Parlipiano, her high school crush to end all crushes and the gay man of her dreams.

But it’s the time that she spends with her family that brings out her truest desires for her future. Her talks with her sister, who offers her the chance to be the original Doughnut Ho, actually helps Jess see what it takes to make a marriage work. And then a trip back to good old Pineville, New Jersey, when her dad ends up in the hospital from a biking accident, helps Jess clarify what is the best choice for her and come up with an answer for Marcus that she can live with.

Fourth Comings is the fourth in the delightful Jessica Darling series from Megan McCafferty, and it’s clear that Jess has grown a lot since that first book. Even though much of this book is written like an extended letter to Marcus, the depth of understanding that Jess shows in her assessments of herself and her relationships as well as those of others shows how much she has grown over these years since we first met her in high school. (Incidentally, if I’d had one fourth of her wisdom when I was her age, I would have considered myself very fortunate!).

I got to listen to this one on audio, and narrator Katie Schorr perfectly embodies the voice of Jessica Darling. She has been Jess since book one of the series, and she has the perfect blend of intelligence and humor, of self-deprecation and snark (so, so much snark!) that is Jess’s signature voice. I read the first Jessica Darling book and have listened to the next three. The final book in the series is coming out early next year, and there is no way that I will not listen to the audio book for that one as well. Schorr is just too perfect as Jessica Darling, and I can’t wait to see where we all end up at the end of the book.

I love the Jessica Darling series. In fact, I think Fourth Comings is my favorite volume so far, just because of how she has grown to understand the world so beautifully and snarkily. And I definitely recommend listening to these on audio. The combination of book and narrator are as close to perfection as it gets.

A copy of Fourth Comings was provided by Macmillan Audio, with many thanks.

Jessica Darling is back in this re-release, only this time she is navigating adulting. Jessica as an adult is just as snarky as she was in the first three books, but is finally starting to grow up (although she’s not quite there yet). In this book, we still find her indecisive and confused about her future, but she’s also starting to see beyond herself. One aspect of this book I really appreciated was her realization of who her parents were outside of being her parents. Seeing her start to really get to know them as individuals for the first time was fun to see. This book was still written in journal form, only these journals were written to her boyfriend, Marcus and she really starts to scrutinize not only her life but their relationship.

I’ve listened to this whole series so far on audio and have loved the narrator. She perfectly captures Jessica’s sass through her voice and I love it. I highly recommend the audiobooks!

I’ve really enjoyed discovering this series through it’s rerelease this year and I’m excited for book 5 to come out in January!

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the gifted audiobook.