What fun it was to meet these characters again! The book was a great reimagining of the characters of “Little Women” in a 21st century setting.. The author includs a lot of elements of the original plot but with a contemporary twist. If you are looking for an enjoyable, entertaining read, look no further.

Did somebody write the retelling of my all-time favorite book? Oh, yes, it is true. So what I’m waiting for to dive in! CHRISTMAS WON’T BE CHRISTMAS WITHOUT MARCH SISTERS!

BUT…

That was the worst decision I’ve made to decide reading retelling of my all-time favorite story which means so much to me. It won’t be wrong if I admit I was raised by reading “Little Women” because first time I have gotten my hands on this precious, marvelous, heart-warming classic I was only 9! And of course I watched its black and white movie on TV with my siblings ( 1949 version and it was amazing to watch Janet Leigh as Meg, Elizabeth Taylor as Amy but mostly I loved June Allyson’s memorable performance as Jo and now I’m dying to see Greta Gerwig’s new adaptation, I hope it doesn’t disappoint me!)

Then I reread it when I was 15 and I asked myself “did I read the same book?” because it awakens different feelings about me. I also empathized Jo because I was a book-worm tomboy like her, playing soccer with boys (Jo isn’t a midfield player but you got the picture) but I started to find inner Meg and some poshy and spoiled Amy, some good-hearted Beth inside me.

Then I reread at 20 and finally 34 … It is miraculous thing to admit but every time the book gave me so much joy, happiness, encouragement and it is like a cure for depression, ill feelings, negativity. This story makes you feel alive and rejuvenated. It gives you purpose, a clear perspective, warming your heart, healing your soul, making you always smile.

So it’s normal to expect so much more from a retelling. You have well-crafted characters, an emotional story about sisters’ bounding, fighting against their differences and the message is clear: “family always comes first”
But as soon as I started the story takes place in North Carolina, well, at first all those over usage of Southern stereotypes broke my enthusiasm. And I felt like I’m trapped in a regular Christmas movie of Hallmark Channel. I didn’t find creative enough the re-adaptations of characters into 2019’s. And why the author decided to turn Laurie into an uninteresting douchebag! He was a lovely, emotional, sweet boy-next door! I hate his interactions with Jo!

And let’s take a closer look to the new version March girls’ lives:

So Meg is a mother in a happy marriage ( not so much there are still complications), Jo is independent, as always free-spirited loses her journalism job so she starts food blogging to make her ends meet and works in a restaurant whose chief is Eric Bhaer (now he is food professor) in NYC.
Amy turned into Friends’ Rachel’s another version, lives in Paris for Louis Vuitton. Beth is taking a break from her school.

What I don’t really like are:

Lack of imagination and creativity to retell the modern version of characters’ storyline.

Meg acted like a spoiled brat, whining too much about herself and her life. I wanted to make her shut up and push her make some changes if you don’t like who she became!

Changes about the original storyline and giving too much role to the girls’ father could work at some way but the character is already emotionally reserved and reading daddy issues of the sisters made me wonder if I read the right retelling. Because the little women is about sister’s bounding against the poverty, hard times, illness and differences between them. It’s about pure love, understanding, compassion, genuineness! But this story is going completely different direction and I didn’t like where it was headed and where it ended.

So I could only give 2.5 rounded up to 3 stars. The author decides to achieve a changeling and compelling task to retell the one of most favorite classics. Expectations are naturally so high and it’s really tough job to satisfy the readers who had written the original novel. So I really appreciate the author’s hard work and bravery. I hope to read her upcoming works but this book could never be my cup of wine!

Thanks to Netgalley, Berkley Publishing Group to share this ARC COPY with me in exchange my honest reviews.

I'm a big fan of Little Women so I was excited to read a new retelling of the classic story but unfortunately Meg and Jo was just okay. It read more like a cheesy hallmark movie than the beloved classic. I know it's a modern retelling but none of the characters strong traits were on display. This was basically just a romance with characters having similar names as the original which is fine if thats what you're expecting. If you're looking for a romance with minor similarities of the original you'll love this book. If you're a fan of Little Women looking for a strong retelling you probably won't enjoy this one that much. The writing was good and the story flowed nicely but I just wanted more for the characters.

I thought this was...fine. There were a lot of details where I was like "oh, that's a clever adaptation" but it didn't really like...move me the way Little Women did?

kinda didn't love Jo getting immediately accidentally knocked up by her boss? like was that supposed to make me like Bhaer more?? This version kinda took Laurie out of the picture, which, fine, but then could we not just have a queer Jo or what

This modern retelling of Little Women focuses on the stories of Meg and Jo. Meg still lives in their hometown and is trying to be the perfect wife and mother to twins but something is missing and she can't talk about it because she doesn't want to disappoint her family. Jo is an anonymous food blogger in New York City and works in a restaurant as she tries to get her writing career on track. When their mother is hospitalized Jo comes home to help. The hospitalization forces Meg and Jo to reevaluate their life's and relationships. A modern take on family and family expectations that does not lose the original story.

A warm-hearted, feel-good novel about family and relationships. It both modernizes and fills in the gaps of Alcott’s beloved Little Women. A kind of fictionalized fiction as it were. Focused primarily on the two older sisters — the titular Meg and Jo — the book delves into what is happening behind the scenes: What is Meg’s marriage like? How can the fiercely independent Jo learn to remain true to herself and still give herself in love to another human being? And what is the mostly absent Mr. March really like as a father? By the way — spoiler alert — in this version Beth is not dead (nor sick, nor recovered). The author just skipped over that realistic for the time but now unnecessary part of the story. Great!! Never particular liked that part anyway!

Easy to read, great insight into the characters, and seamless modernization that maintains the integrity of the key messages but is totally believable for today’s world. Plenty of life lessons for a variety of personalities and situations.

I loved this modern re-telling of Little Women. I am a life-long fan of the story of the Marches, especially Jo, so I couldn't wait to read this one!

I love the characters and their very modern struggles with finding their own way against the backdrop of their parents and their marriage. As adults, Meg and Jo must come to terms with how they grew up and the way their upbringing has influenced their life choices. I think it is important to see Mrs. March break free from a marriage where she is not put first and she is expected to shoulder all of the family burdens. Many women are STILL bearing the weight of their whole families in silence, and I want to see that cultural shift.

If you like Little Women, you won't be disappointed. If you like family stories and romance, then you will be happy with this story! There is another installment to come chronicling the stories of the other two March sisters (Beth and Amy).

I

Meg and Jo is a charming – but yet another modern retelling of -  Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel, Little Women. Though there have been a ton of retellings of the novel released in latter days (such as 2017’s The Spring Girls), Meg and Jo stands apart for injecting a little bit of Southern nice into the mix.  Meg and Jo is both a straightforward modern retelling of the book and an alternate universe story in which the girls follow the general pathway of their Civil War-era counterparts, but grow up and past their origins.

Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March were children of the church; the daughters of a preacher who has followed his calling all the way to Iraq and life as an Army chaplain.  This sacrifice means that they have to move to their grandparents’ farm when another preacher and his family have to take over their house.  The adjustment brings on changes both good (Jo gets custody of the attic, where she can write in peace) and bad (she yearns for her father’s presence, an impossibility thanks to the distance; Meg does not get a fancy car for Christmas as she wished so she can ‘keep up with the joneses’).

Years later, and after being fired from the paper she once worked for, Jo is a mid-level, New York-based food blogger who moonlights as a prep chef and, on the side, struggles to write fiction that’s poorly received by most editors she’s shown it to.

Meg, meanwhile, has a perfect-seeming life as housewife, raising preschool-aged twins Daisy and DJ, still living in their hometown of Bunyan, North Carolina, still married to John, an ex-teacher and current wrestling coach working at Mister Laurence’s car dealership.  Her family life is the center of her world.

Young, flirty Amy, in Europe after a graduation present gone right, has an internship at Louis Vuitton, and quiet, conservative, self-sacrificing Beth is…not dead, and managed to make it to college to study music in Greensboro, hoping to make it big as a musician even though she has stage fright.

Meg, Beth, Jo and Amy’s lives are upended by the sudden news that their mother has been hospitalized after a fall at home.  Going back to see her during the holidays, Jo is confronted by memories of her failed romance with boy next door Theodore – Trey – Laurence, who  now works at his grandfather’s car dealership, alongside John.  Trey is the boy she decided she was better off being friends with, and tries daily to convince herself she’s made the right choice.  But she’s also falling for her supervisor – Chef Eric Bhaer – who seems to know her better than anyone.  But when Jo breaches his trust, will they be able to recover?

Meanwhile, Meg tries to control everything, tries to hold everything together as her mother deteriorates and her father continues to put God first; juggling a cooling marriage, her active three-year-olds, and the responsibility of her mother’s post-hospital care and duties connected to the family farm, in spite of her growing sense of misery and stress. When Carl Stewart, an old high school acquaintance, calls to offer her an accounting job, she’s tempted out into the workforce again – and it could lead to amazing things for her.  Will she and John learn how to balance their duties and trust one another?

Meg and Jo does a few interesting things with the March clan that makes this one of the better retellings of the novel.  By grounding things in two different worlds – the intense, competitive universe of line-cook chefs in New York and the simple, quiet everyday world of small-town North Carolina it adds a fresh perspective

By making the Marches southern, a new sense of personality is infused into their story – also this flock is less wholeheartedly charitable but human, and still flawed.  Kantra has taken an interesting approach to modernizing the novel; we spend most of our time in the present with our characters, and Jo’s career path – as well as Meg’s – are unique to the book, as is Aunt Phee, who’s a fresh analogue for Aunt Josephine, modernized, still acid-tongued but with a purse dog.  Big events in the original book are changed and moved around, and Mr. March’s constant absences from his family’s life are finally addressed.  And honestly, I wish the breakdown of the marriage between Abby and Ash had been more thoroughly discussed as it’s the most interesting take on the union I’ve seen in any of the remakes.   Laurie is an immature type who is nonetheless kind and loving of the sisters, though it doesn’t innovate much away from the source material.

There are a few unnecessary additions – an unplanned pregnancy, which turns out to have been at least two secret unplanned pregnancies; too few setbacks in particular for Meg, who, though she does struggle with her jobs, ultimately doesn’t really have to question her life’s path, her marriage not worth questioning and rock-solid.  Beth and Amy, because they’re going to have their own book, have truncated stories told from outside in this one, which is a frustration, something that Amy even makes fun of (while talking about Pride and Prejudice, she points out that Jo’s judgmental self has pegged her as the family Lydia) .

In the end, however, the book’s sense of character and time and place make Meg and Jo a good, worthwhile read.

Buy it at: Amazon/Apple Books/Barnes & Noble/Kobo
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I didn't finish this book. It just didn't grab me after about five chapters. Perhaps it was because all of the characters were keeping their problems all to themselves and not talking to each other or asking for help. They were setting themselves up for failure. The relationship between Marmee and Father was particularly aggravating, even if he were probably suffering from PTSD. I didn't really care if they ever overcame their problems.

This was an amazing read! Definitely written by a fan of Alcott, it struck the perfect balance between following Alcott's plot and adding her own spin to the tales of eldest sisters, Meg and Jo. I am interested to see what the plan is for Beth and Amy and hope that Beth doesn't meet the same fate as in Little Women.

In this modern day retelling of Little Women, the author has captured the essence of the characters of Meg and Jo March. Their interaction with their family and friends rings true to their unique personae.

Virginia Kantra shines when writing family relationships, which made me very excited to read MEG AND JO. With foundations in LITTLE WOMEN, this new story focuses on the new March family through the eyes of the two elder sisters. Facing a failing family business, stale relationships, ailing parents, and the desire to handle everything, this is a heartwarming story to share this holiday season!

I enjoyed reading this book, but didn't find that it really stood out to me - which may be exactly what the author/publishing team was going for. It was a perfectly pleasant (if not realistic) retelling of parts of Little Women. I liked how the author chose to focus the story around only two of the sisters, but I found myself struggling with some of the more unrealistic portions of the plot - namely Jo's storyline in a New York kitchen.

Both familiar faithful to the original, and still surprising and totally original. I fell hard for this book, from the characters to the world they inhabited. I would love to read more set in this universe (maybe Amy's story??? and Beth's???). And I can't leave a review of this book without commenting on the absolute off-the-charts swoon factor with Chef Eric Bhaer.

A modern take on the beloved classic, Meg and Jo take a deeper look at the lives of Meg and Jo March. Meg is a mother of twins, devoted wife, and there for anyone who needs her, especially her family. Jo lost her job as a journalist and decided to carve her own path as a restaurant reviewer on her own blog while moonlighting in the kitchen of a famous chef.
Both March women's life do not go the way they planned, but they know how lucky they are to have their family.

I really enjoyed this twist on the classic. It made me look at the girls in a new light. I also really enjoyed how they brought the father's absence and aloofness to the forefront.

I didn't really like the ending plot twist. I didn't think it was needed for the story but enjoyed the story anyway.

Little Women is the classic that everyone is re-reading in anticipation of the upcoming film. MEG AND JO take a classic tale and give it a contemporary spin and it really worked for me!

I received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I am not a romance reader, so my review may be stilted. For the person who loves Hallmark romance this book might be a perfect fit., but it wasn't for me.

I love Little Women and I doubly-loved this NYC/North Carolina reinvention in Meg and Jo. This story focuses on the older March girls, with Beth and Amy appearing like guest stars. Jo is a food blogger and prep cook in New York, while Meg is a stay-at-home mom to adorable twins in North Carolina. Amy's doing a fashion internship in Paris, and Beth is a country singer in Branson, MO??? (What now? The rest of these are so on-target that I'm trying to reserve judgement on this one until I read Beth And Amy).

This review is going to have spoilers, because it's almost impossible to discuss this book without mentioning ways in which it followed and deviated from the original. Anyway, Little Women came out in 1868, which makes it a 151-year-old spoiler.

I just loved the sisters' relationship here, and I absolutely believed that not just that they were really sisters, but the girls took wildly different paths and still called each other every day. I thought Jo's blog was a perfect updating. In Alcott's life, magazine serials were considered pop culture, and sometimes minimalized as lowbrow and easy. just like blogs today. I loved Jo and Eric's relationship, too.

My only concern was a moment where Jo and Eric decide that it doesn't matter whether they live in NYC or North Carolina, as long as they're together. Nope.  Speaking as someone who moved from Brooklyn to Chapel Hill when my Southern boyfriend proposed, OMG, IT MATTERS A LOT. Jo, you deserve better than extra-slow conversations about traffic and college basketball, don't move to North Carolina!

Meg and John's story was believable and engaging, but a bit Romance 101. The basic premise is that Meg is running herself ragged being a supermom when her problems could be solved if only she could learn to ask for help from John, as if assigning the husband chores isn't just more mental load for the wife. I realize that grown men sometimes need to be told to take out the trash and buy milk and whatever, but it doesn't make for an appealing romantic hero. I always thought the modest, hardworking John Brooke was more appealing than selfish Laurie, so I really wanted him to be a great husband too. 

Finally, I was just as sad as the March sisters when Marmee and Father's marital problems are revealed! The modern Mr. March is consistently and realistically inconsiderate towards his wife, leaving her with all the responsibility while he does Important Work, just like in the original story, but modern Mrs. March isn't having it. Plus, Bronson Alcott was off doing charitable works while his family struggled, making this a sick 151-year-old burn.

I loved this retelling, and I'm already looking forward to seeing the rest of the story in Beth and Amy.

This was a great read. A fun and modern take on a favorite classic, with enough of the original's characterizations to be familiar, yet plenty of it's own up to date appeal. This book focuses on Meg and Jo, the oldest two March girls, and their lives as adults. We do get a few glimpses into their girlhood, but the focus is on what happens when the grew up. First person, alternating between the two sisters. I read the book in one night, and I hope that there is a follow up for Beth and Amy.

Did not finish after the first chapter; the book began different than I thought it would so I moved on to my next book.