On April 23, 2006, "The Harvard Crimson" reported that several portions of "Opal Mehta" appeared to have been plagiarized from Megan McCafferty's first two "Jessica Darling" novels, "Sloppy Firsts" (2001) and "Second Helpings" (2003), noting over a dozen similar passages. At the time, Viswanathan's novel had reached 32nd on "The New York Times" hardcover fiction bestseller list. McCafferty's third Jessica Darling novel, "Charmed Thirds", had just been released a week after "Opal Mehta", and was No. 19 on the same list.