The Jessica Darling books are a New York Times bestselling series of five young adult novels by Megan McCafferty, published between 2001 and 2009.

[1] Told from the diary-style perspective of character Jessica Darling, the series chronicles her misadventures through high school, college, and beyond.

[3] On April 23, 2006, The Harvard Crimson reported that several portions of Kaavya Viswanathan's highly publicized debut novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life appeared to have been plagiarized from Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings, noting over a dozen similar passages.

"[18] On April 24, 2006, Little, Brown issued a statement from Viswanathan in which the author admitted to reading McCafferty's novels but stated that any similarities between them and her own work were "completely unintentional and unconscious.

"[5][19][20] The next day, McCafferty's publisher Crown issued a response, calling Viswanathan's statement "deeply troubling and disingenuous" and asserting that her claim "that similarities in her phrasing were 'unconscious' or 'unintentional' is suspect.

"[16][17][20][21] Noting more than 40 passages from Opal Mehta containing "identical language and/or common scene or dialogue structure" from McCafferty's novels, Crown called the incident "nothing less than an act of literary identity theft" and stated that "Based on the scope and character of the similarities, it is inconceivable that this was a display of youthful innocence or an unconscious or unintentional act.

"[22][23] In her initial statement on April 24, 2006, Viswanathan had stated that she and the publisher would be revising her novel for future printings "to eliminate any inappropriate similarities.