I first read Anna Todd books in her "After" series and was very interested in what she would bring us with her newest book coming up. The Spring Girls. WOW! I am amazed how much I loved this book. I have never read Little Woman, but I get the whole picture now. I love the Spring sisters. My heart broke for their mother. Even though she had her own demons, she loved her girls whole heartily. Their dad did what he could do. The heartbreak this family goes through is gut wrenching when he is sent home. 

This story is about a family bond. Anna shows us how military life is not all that it is cut out to be. There is so much more that our heroes have to go through besides defending our country. This brings so much more perspective for the military families that live this life. 

The bond of sisters made my heart warm and fuzzy. The fighting, the drama, and the growing pains are all there. What a great book to read over a weekend or two! I love Anna's books, but she had brought her writing to a new level that will stay in your hearts way after you finish reading the last page.

I adore Little Women.  I have read it multiple times and watched all of the movies.  So, when I saw this, I was so excited to read it.  Is it an exact retelling of the story, No.  However, it is loosely based on it and it is a very entertaining story.

I liked the feel of family and friendship and love you get from this story.  It is a clever telling and I really enjoyed reading it.

This modern retelling of Little Women was engaging and a wonderful read!

The Spring Girls is a modern retelling of Little Women - same names and personalities. This reads more like a YA or Chick-lit novel - not to many details about the war or the father. I think teens would appreciate the girls and how the mother treats them. The Springs live on an Army base near New Orleans. The four girls - Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy are very  believable characters as 19 -12 years old sisters. The mother Meredith, who the girls call by name, is kind of in the background as a scared, but empowering/understanding parent. It's kind of lightweight, but interesting about living on a military base and how the social system works.

3.5 stars
The Spring Girls is a modern-day version of the best selling classic, Little Women, by Louise May Alcott. The book focuses on four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy Spring. They live in New Orleans, on a military base, with their emotionally, unavailable, mother. The girls desperately miss their father, who has been fighting in Iraq, for several months. The characters come alive as the author brings the reader deep into the hearts and minds of the Spring sisters.  

The oldest Spring sibling, Meg, yearns to be a mother and marry well. She desperately wants to erase her past mistakes and ruined reputation. Having a wealthy and prestigious husband by her side, Meg feels, will do wonders for her self-esteem and social status. Jo, however, is just the opposite. She has no interest in finding love or getting married. She wants a successful career in NY as a journalist. Beth is the co-dependent workhorse of the family. It bothered me that Beth was allowed, and even expected, to pick up, clean and cook for the entire family. Beth was riddled with social anxiety, stayed in most of the time, and was homeschooled. Amy, the youngest sibling, was twelve and treated like a princess. All four girls would grieve their father’s absence differently, but the older three would face their demons and begin to emotionally grow and change. 

I enjoyed reading The Spring Girls but found the pace slow. The writing is very good, however, and the storyline captivating. 

Thank you, Gallery Books and NetGalley, for my advanced review copy.

It makes me sad to see the low ratings and reviews for this novel because I thought the book was very well written and interesting to read. Perhaps those who are not looking for an exact replica of Little Women will enjoy this one? I sure did. 

Anna Todd does a wonderful job at bringing these characters to life. Each one of them are different from the other and I could feel the clashes between them. This never took away from the feeling of family and togetherness though which made the book seem very realistic. 

I applaud Anna Todd for her spark and the way she wrote The Spring Girls and I think the story will appeal to many readers.

The Spring Girls by Anna Todd is a modern retelling of Little Women, which is, let’s be honest, every little girl’s favorite book. I was so excited to read this! I I love Louisa May Alcott and I love retellings of classics!

In The Spring Girls, Meg is a personal makeup artist to their wealthy neighbor, Mrs. King, Jo is counting the days until she can graduate and move to New York City, shy Beth is homeschooled, and Amy is there, too.  The family is having mysterious financial worries, even though their father’s deployed and he’s just had some kind of promotion.

I wondered a little bit how this story would modernize successfully, since a lot of tension in Little Women has to do with the sisters  needing to marry money or supplement the family with side income from a non-threatening small project, but it works, because the story is on an army base, with army wives selling candles and Lularoe and making a career out of being an officer’s wife. That part of the modernization is, unfortunately, just about the only thing that works.

Something is off with the pacing.  I realize this sounds like useless workshop feedback, since I can articulate what’s not quite right without putting my finger on what, exactly, would fix it. The first third of the book takes place between Christmas Eve and New Years, including sections that are so beat-for-beat that it feels more like a parody than homage. Then, the story progresses in fits and starts, with some really forced events. The main pastime on this base is passing by and overhearing highly relevant conversations.

There’s a lot of cool foreshadowing here with John Brooke’s weird reluctance to introduce Meg to his mother (Is she too poor? Has her reputation, after an old boyfriend leaked an NSFW photo, reached his mom? Is he two-timing Meg?), but that’s never resolved. There’s also a lot of cool foreshadowing with Beth and her role in keeping her parents together, but that’s never resolved. And Jo is writing a Very Serious Piece for Vice (On spec, but with an assigned word count? On assignment, but without mentioning that she’s sixteen?), because she is every teenage girl with Big Dreams of being a writer in the Big City. Amy is there too.

In the last couple pages, there are so many revelations that there’s no time to process them. Amy is revealed as the real sender of tragic breakup emails from John Brooke to Meg, but Meg shrugs it off, since she’s about to leave the country with some other dude (I’m about 90% sure they’re going to Cambodia?), Jo bangs Laurie, Beth gets a girlfriend, and the financial weirdness with the March parents just goes totally unresolved.  Amy is there, too.

Overall, I feel like a read a solid draft of what could be a fun retelling. This was an eARC, so maybe the final version will be smoother.

I’m a goner for anything Little Women related - however this adaption wasn’t my favorite. It was just too far from the original, and I totally understand this is an interpretation, it just wasn’t for me. I did appreciate how the author modernized the characters and included an LGBTQ element. 

Thanks, Net-Galley for the ARC!