A CHARMING and COMPELLING coming-of-age saga that paints a vivid picture of sisterhood and the strong family bond, The Spring Girls grabs you and never lets go. This Little Women-inspired read is so RIVETING and RELATABLE. The setting of New Orleans and Germany were places I’ve lived or heavily frequented. I instantly related to the mother, Meredith, an Army wife of four children like me. I saw some of myself in each of the Spring girls. Each sister is so CHARMING and CHARISMATIC that you’ll be pressed to choose a favorite Spring girl. I LOVED everything about this spellbinding story of sisters. 

We were a force of nature, the four of us Spring girls.
 
The Spring Girls is a POWERFUL and PASSIONATE story of love, acceptance, and identity discovery. This tale is brilliantly told with multiple heroine viewpoints that flawlessly flow into the overarching family saga. The Spring Girls is fresh, fun, and full of feels. I couldn’t put this book down. What an ENTHRALLING and EVOCATIVE journey!!! My only problem is that I NEED MORE!!! 

I loved the plot twist. I loved the entire idea that people were never who we thought they were.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 strong ‘sisterhood’ stars

I honestly did not like this book at all. I don’t like Little Women but I was hoping that Anna Todd could bring a better perspective to the tale and I just didn’t like it at all. I just felt the characters like those in little women were flat, selfish, and boring. The only person I really liked was Beth and that  was it. I didn’t like that Jo was in this head space that you could be girly and tomboyish at the same time. I’m like that so it was like she was saying that against me. Maybe I’m reading too much into it but still. Meh was just selfish and stuck up and I did not like her at all. Amy was just annoying AF and the mother was a disappointment. I felt bad for Beth. She was basically everyone’s slave. And Jo noticed that but never really did much to help her. She would notice that she was everyone’s slave and then never did much about it. Overall i did not enjoy this book, but I feel like if you’re a fan of little women this is definitely the book for you. Sadly for me it was not. I just went into it hoping that I would gain a better liking for it but nope.

This was the first book I have read from Anna Todd and it was a nice sweet read, it was well written with characters you will love. I loved the original Little Women and I enjoyed this retelling loosely based on the story with a modern twist. The pace is a bit slow but the storyline was gripping and kept me hooked.

One bit did annoy me and that was the girls calling their mum, Meredith, instead of mum.

Maybe it was the rewriting of a classic book that turned me off but I just couldn’t get into this book. I have serious issues with how the story is being reinvented. This was just a no for me

1.5 Stars

Got an ARC from Net Galley.

Welcome to my first DNF of the year. I was curious  about this book so I requested it. I have read I think the first two books at least in the After series. I'm not sure if having Little Women more fresh in my mind would have made the reading experience better or worse or unchanged at all. Basically trying to read this book made me want to go back and reread Little Women that I reread many, many moons ago.

The writing isn't terrible. I just couldn't get into the story. I think in a way it being modern kind of kicked me out of the story with the mention of black nail polish and movies like Interview With The Vampire and The Ring. I swear it used to be A and not The which makes more sense. I just couldn't get into it. I didn't get very far into the story before I decided to put it down since I'm not going to force myself to read a book that just isn't for me. It is about Meredith who has four daughters that she's taking care of while her husband is off in the military. I guess this made me realize that this author just isn't for me.

If you don't try to compare SPRING GIRLS to the original LITTLE WOMEN, I think you will really enjoy the book.  It is well written with captivating characters - they just aren't the same characters from LITTLE WOMEN at all.  But SPING GIRLS is a thoroughly delightful story in its own right, so forget Louisa May Alcott and just enjoy.!

Reading The Spring Girls now has me wanting to re-read Little Women!

Anna Todd takes a beloved classic story of 4 sisters and puts a completely modern twist on it. The Spring Girls is set in Louisiana, near New Orleans. For much of the story, the sisters and their mother are struggling as the father is deployed in the middle East. Beyond the struggle within their family, they are all trying to find their place in the world.

Many of the same struggles are there. The girls want to rise above their current 'station' in life. However, the modern setting means the inclusion of sex and alcohol. 

Overall, it was an interesting read. If you are a purist, the conversion of the story into modern day society may seem like sacrilege. As mentioned, the girls are fully immersed into aspects of our modern culture. Meg has a reputation for being a slut, something she can not seem to fully escape. And, let's just say that Amy soaks up all the WRONG things while their mother drowns herself in alcohol.

First and foremost, please don't let my rating fool you. Sometimes people see three stars and they immediately think that it is a negative review. That is definitely not the case. I enjoyed The Spring Girls and really thought it was written well. There was just something missing for me so in a sense, the rating is a bit false. I felt I needed to say that because I think a lot of people will like this book as long as you go into it with an open mind. 

The Spring Girls is a modern day re-telling of The Little Women. I will admit that at first I struggled with the idea of using the original character names but in the end, I'm glad that Todd decided to do that. There are so many ways to re-tell a classic and a lot of times, the names are changed. So I think at first I was expecting that, but in the end, I think it worked better keeping the original names. 

The girls are growing up in New Orleans. Their father is away on tour in Afghanistan and we get to see this modern day military family and how they cope and grow when one of their loved ones is away fighting for freedom. This story is told in multiple POVs, including all the sisters, the mother and a few others. It gives you a really good idea of how different each girl is and the struggles they go through. Since they are different ages, different things are important to them at this point in their life. 

While I enjoyed each of their POVs, I just had a hard time connecting with most of them. As usual, Jo stands out and she was the easiest to connect with but the other's kind of fell off the radar for me for some reason. I think that's the downside to modernizing it. When you start throwing in cell phones and other materialistic things that are important to a 15 year old, it's easier to disconnect. I know that sounds unfair to Todd because the original had the same but it was just a different era. I don't know if I can really explain it well enough. 

The only other thing that bothered me a bit was that I felt like some of the things I wanted to know towards the end were skimmed over or briefly touched and I felt like there needed to be a bit more. I know that I'm the minority here and again, I want to state that I really did enjoy this book and I think a lot of people will like it. 

If you are looking for modern day re-telling of a classic that shows us about love, strength and loyalty, then you need to pick up The Spring Girls and read it. It won't be just like Little Woman so through that notion out the window and go in with an open mind and just enjoy the story.

Growing up being one of 3 sisters, and having 5 of my own children, the craziness and diversity of personalities of each one of the sisters made me feel like I was reading snippets of my own life, and those of my own children. The wannabe, the rebel, the homemaker, the baby....sounds a bit like the Breakfast Club doesn't it?

The story is set in present day on an army base. Anna Todd gives us a real life look at what life on a bast looks like. Deployments, navigating the social circles, raising four daughters....not an easy life. But it's one that the Spring Girls seem to handle in their own unique ways.

The sister I was drawn to was Jo. Her free spirit entranced me. She doesn't care about the opinions of others and marches to the beat of her own drum. She has lofty dreams and is determined to do whatever it takes to obtain her goal.

Amy, for me was the most frustrating. She is a typical 12 year old. Nosy, always trying to act older than she really is, sneaky...which I can relate having 2 younger sisters. At times, I didn't quite get where she was coming from, but then again, she's 12. They are impetuous, and quite selfish at that age.

Meg, I pitied her at times. Always wanting more than she had, when I just wanted her to embrace what she DID have and be happy. Happiness was always fleeting with her as she is always trying to reach for another goal.

Beth was the quiet one. The one most content to be at home, being domesticated, and not really interested in having much of a social life outside the home. I don't think their mother could have made it without her.

My only wish is that we could have seen just a bit in to the future to see how the Spring Girls fared a little later in life.

Having never read Anna Todd before, I know, I've been living under a rock, I can honestly say that this book and her writing style has me curious for her other works as well.

Omg such a great book by anna Todd! Highly reccomend

Anna Todd takes on Little Women. That may not be quite right but with her Spring Girls, she does give readers a modern retelling of  a classic.  Little Women remains one of my favorite reads from childhood and I couldn't wait to read this new offering.

The Spring Girls are Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.  With their story set in New Orleans, I was looking forward to learning more about them and seeing where Todd was taking this retelling.  I did like that we get to know each of the Spring girls as this is told in first person in alternating chapters, although not evenly told by each sister.  Todd delivers on the feeling of family and all that can encompass with teen-aged girls - friendships, drama, insecurities, love, heartache, and growth.

While not taking the place of the classic, I appreciate what Todd does with this modern retelling.  The Spring Girls kept the pages turning as I wanted to see just how close and different this read would be to Alcott's original.

This was sadly a DNF of me. I found it hard to connect with the characters and the story. It felt flat and didn't interest me at all. There was no depth to the characters and I couldn't bring myself to root for any of them.

Sigh. I had high hopes but this read as little women fan fiction to me. The story was stagnant and the characters were all horribly petty, hormonal people. There were bright spots throughout the storyline the storyline and relationship with the dad and the girls. It seemed like everyone hated the other except for poor Beth. I only ask one thing, WHY COULD NO ONE PUT A DISH AWAY FOR BETH.

I read to about 30% of the book, and I just couldn't get into it. I wasn't able to connect with the characters as much as I had hoped for. It just wasn't keeping my interest and I had to put it down. So it was a DNF for me.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott has always been on of my favorite books and movies, so I was so excited to read this one by Anna Todd. She exceeded all my expectations. 

Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy are the Spring girls. They live with their mother in New Orleans while their father is on tour in Iraq. Anna Todd does a wonderful job of bringing their voices to life as the chapters are in told in several different characters’ POVs. That gave me such an insight into the characters and their story. I loved the way the book began with Meredith’s POV. She is their mother, and her chapter gave a background to the book and her relationships with her daughters and husband. I especially loved her memories of the birth of each child. I could certainly relate to that being a mother myself. 

Some characters, at their core, remain similar to Alcott’s characters, and some she takes in another direction. While some readers might not like that, I loved it. In my opinion, that was necessary to make the characters realistic in this day and age. Anna Todd definitely made the story and the characters her own. Anna Todd is a new author to me, and I can’t believe I waited this long to read something by her. I’m excited to read more from her. 

****Read and Reviewed for Devilishly Delicious Book Reviews***

I'm always a little nervous when an author takes a beloved classic (LITTLE WOMEN in this case) and writes a new novel using the original characters. Sometimes it's a spin-off, which I give a lot more room for interpretation. But in this case, it is a re-telling of the original novel by Louisa May Alcott. 

The reason I get nervous is because I already have an emotional connection to the characters. I already have an idea of how I feel the story should go. However, I was excited to see how Anna Todd would modernize LITTLE WOMEN to help make it relevant to today's current issues.

I can't express how disappointed I was. It started okay, but with each passing page (over the course of over 400 pages) it flung itself into a downward spiral which left me more than a little angry. 

This is a character-driven novel, but lacks all that I loved about the original characters. First off, all of the characters act older than they really are. Though they are all teenagers, they are crude, vulgar, constantly talking about sex, and are disrespectful. They call their mother by her first name, Meredith. Even Beth doesn't call their mother 'Mom', which seemed very out-of-character.  
Though Amy is only twelve-years-old, she also uses the F-word, talks about sex, and watches disturbing videos on the internet. 
The girls do nothing but fight, their mother does nothing but drink, and there doesn't seem to be anyone, or anything, keeping the family together. 

Since when does making something modern mean creating the most dysfunctional family you can? The original novel was full of heart-break, yet also hope, courage, love, and forgiveness. I saw very little of that here.

I also felt  the girls weren't given the opportunity to change. Many of the heartbreaking incidents were removed, which didn't offer the growth opportunities that the girls had previously had. Those incidents had brought the family closer together, and made the girls stronger. Also, in the original novel we were able to grow up with the girls and see how their relationships resolved, as well as more of the people they became. There is no fast-forwarding in this novel, and I felt the pieces were left still scattered and broken.

This is a very rare moment for me, but I am giving THE SPRING GIRLS 1 out of 5 Stars.

One of my favourite books growing up was Louisa May Alcott’s ‘Little Women’. The classic tale of Amy, Beth, Jo and Meg was always one so close to my heart and a book I loved to read when I was all worn out. So, when I received an email at the start of December, saying that one of my favourite authors was releasing a retelling, I just had to get my hands on a copy. And I am honestly so glad that I did.

Anna Todd’s The Spring Girls is the coming-of-age story every teenage girl should be reading this year. It’s honest and haunting and true to its original telling, but with all the fun on the 21st century drama thrown into the works. The brilliant thing about Todd’s writing style is that she takes the story and makes it her own. And while the story is like the original in some ways, it’s got its own voice entirely. There were so many brilliant contemporary issues, such as bullying and slut-shaming, touched upon in the story, and it’s always amazing to see a light being shone into these areas. Perhaps my biggest love was the mentions to social anxiety. I feel there needs to be a bigger awareness behind this, as its still quite brushed off.

Characterisation of the four girls and their mother was a little blurry at times. Some of the characters didn’t feel fully developed, but it was a minor issue I was personally willing to overlook. I was amazed at how emerged I became within their story, and I could almost feel the passion and the tensions behind each one. Each girl brought something new to the story – each had her own things to deal with.

I do wish the pacing of the book had been a little different. Little Women was always book I read when I had time, as the pace of the story could slow me down and stretch my usual four-hour reading binge into weeks. For some reason, I expected the modernisation of the book to also speed up the pacing, but I was wrong.

Looking back, this isn’t a book I will be in a rush to read again. I did really enjoy the plot and how each issue unwound and tied itself back up, but the slow pacing of the novel really surprised me. Yet, the portrayal of the sisters (although a little shaky at times) really made me feel for them. I was desperate to know what happened and just how it would all unfold for the girls. I am aware however, that the book faces a lot of untoward criticism, simply due to the fact it’s a modernisation of a beloved classic. My honest opinion is to give the book a go. People are always going to find a fault, but you’ll never know unless you try it.

The Spring Girls is a modern day retelling of Little Women. I went into this novel open minded because I read a few reviews beforehand that said it strayed pretty far from the original story. I honestly really liked this version, and I think that was because I was okay with the fact that it was a bit different from the original. I really loved the setting as well as the characters, and I think Anna Todd did a magnificent job creating a modern version of a beloved classic. 

I had a little trouble keeping all the characters straight at first, but after I figured out the personality of each girl I was able to really connect with them. I loved that they were all so different and they were facing everyday struggles that young girls face in the world today. It felt extremely raw and relatable, and I really enjoyed those aspects. There were a few times I felt that the novel was a little slow, but it would quickly pick up pace and leave my heart racing. 

All in all, The Spring Girls was a charming and fun read that I thoroughly enjoyed. I would highly recommend this to readers who enjoy women's fiction. It is definitely different from the classic Little Women tale, but absolutely still worth the read. Thank you so much to Gallery and NetGalley for sending a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott has been always one of my favorite reads. This classic gem was one unforgettable read that showcased strength, resiliency, family, love, and all the feels. It will always be remembered as the book that made me fall in love with Meg, Beth, Amy and Jo March. And so when I heard Anna Todd was doing a modern retelling of the book, titled The Spring Girls, I knew I had to get my hands on this book. 

Though Alcott’s version will always be a literary classic gem, Anna Todd did a marvelous job in putting in her own spin to the story. Todd’s style of writing brings forth a new flare to the characters as she brought life to one of my all time favorite characters, Jo. And for Todd to give Jo and her sisters a voice, this book took on a life of its own as it showcased and emphasized the bond of sisterhood, independence and acceptance. So if you are a Little Women fan, this book might resonate to you on a different level as it is given a new modern fresh perspective.

Storyline: 5
Angst: 3
Tissue: 1
Value: 5
Panty Scorching: 1
Over All Rating: 4.5 Stars
Kindle eArc provided by Netgalley

The Spring Girls is a lovely coming of age story. Fall in love with Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy all over again. With father over in Afghanistan in the military, Jo’s mother is raising her four daughters basically as a single parent struggling financially. These little women are confronted with 2017 teenage dilemmas that differ quite a bit from the original little women in a refreshing new way.

“I tried to explain the dangers and blisses of being a woman, but as they grew older, it got harder and harder. I had to explain to them that sometimes things would come easier to the boys and men around them, often for no good reason. I had to teach them to defend themselves if one of those boys or men tried to harm them. Having four daughters aged twelve to nineteen was not only the hardest job I’d ever worked, but it would be the most important thing I would ever do. My legacy wasn’t going to be that I was an Army wife, it was that I’d raised four reliable, responsible, and capable little women to unleash out into the world.

I felt a heavy sense of duty; if nothing else in my life, I wanted them to carry their strength proudly and their kindness openly.”

I found this novel loosely based up The Little Women to be refreshing, clever and such a relatable coming of age story. Raising four daughters on an Army base while their father in stationed in Iraq and all of the current issues of teens these days seem to play on the sisters day by day. Bullying, slut shaming, jealousy, dating and social anxiety…I just loved how everything wove effortlessly through this book and made the story come to life. The twists seemed to make Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy more real to me and as often as they bickered, you could still feel the closeness of the Spring sisters resonate when they united as a family unit to protect each other. I felt included as an inside member of their family and I truly wonder what is coming next for the girls as they mature and have families of their own.

If you are looking for a nice beach read, look no further. This story of family and siblings really was uplifting with the unity of the sisters and pulling together to help their mother. I really found myself thinking on military families and the sacrifices they go through while their spouse serves our Country.