For all those who rooted for Laurie and Jo to end up together, this is for you.

And yes, I’m a cliche, I prefered them together compared to Amy and Laurie and those classic-purists will deccry that I am missing the point. Jo and Laurie wouldn’t have worked because they were too similar, and Laurie wasn’t mature enough for Jo and etc. etc. I know the arguments and it may be more fitting thematically speaking to their character developments that they wouldn’t work out, but I’m simply too biased to care.

In this novel, Stohl and De La Cruz blend author autobiography with the fictional world of Little Women. It shows the story behind the story as Jo tries to finish her second volume of her best-selling book, Little Women (as some may know, it was originally published in two volumes. This book is set between the volumes). Problem is, she has intense writer’s block. Her publisher is urging her to marry off everyone, which much like Louisa May Alcott, she despises.

Furthermore, she feels pressured as she is now the sole breadwinner of her family thanks to her earnings and she doesn’t want to disappoint her fans. As it is, her book has drawn a rift between her and Meg. Since Little Women was heavily based on their lives, readers are assuming it is true that Meg and the real life Mr. Brooks are lovers which Meg finds ridiculous. Basically, she hates that Jo used their lives as novel fodder.

Other things that differ from the novel in the “real” world is that Beth is dead while in the first volume, she is still living as Jo couldn’t bear to revist that moment. Amy is sweeter and is annoyed at how Jo portrayed her as a diva and troublemaker. And Laurie and Jo are dancing around their feelings.

Here, everyone can see it, but Jo refuses to entertain the thought. She’s busy, she has deadlines, and most of all, she doesn’t want marriage interfering with her dreams. Even as Laurie insists that he’ll read everything she writes, and will always encourage her to be the best authoress. Jo is also convinced that she’ll never fit in within Laurie’s uppercrust world. While he does make fun of it, Jo is very aware of the class gap and knows that others will disapprove their marriage.

Yes, Jo is scared which doesn’t sound like her but I think it still fits within her characterization. Jo is a bold woman, but she has her moments of fears and vulnerabilities as anyone else. In the original novel, we see how Jo fears the family splitting apart because of Meg’s marriage, how she hates change. We also see how she fears losing herself, so she focuses only on writing. It makes sense that Jo is scared of love. Stohl and De La Cruz also have a great thread on how Beth’s death influenced Jo’s feelings of love and loss and her willingness to let herself fall for someone.

But fall she does because this book has so many good moments between them from discussing potential plot ideas to a reading by Charles Dickins. Such great literary date ideas and they keep up their playful friendship throughout. Well until the inevitable proposal.

I won’t spoil how they make up but I found it believable and in character for them. Complete with anguished declaration of love from Laurie after he spends some time growing up in Europe.

But it is not soley about Jo and Laurie. Meg also gets a decent amount of POV as Jo’s unintentional literary matchmaking takes effect and what starts as an unwilling fake date because everyone thinks they’re courting anyone turns into real affection between Meg and Mr. Brooks and offers some surprising insecurity from Meg who fears that she can only help her family with a rich marriage compared to her famous sister Jo, artistically talented Amy and the saintly Beth.

But it is not only about romance as Little Women/Alcott references abound and sisterly bonding, ephasizing how the loss of Beth affected them and the strength of their bond/conversations that depict how much they love and need each other.

The only downside is that some of it was so based on Alcott’s life, I forgot it was Jo and not Louisa. The lines get blurred a bit but it makes sense since Jo was partially based on Louisa so.

Otherwise, it’s a great spin on classic characters that I’m sure Little Women fans will enjoy, just as much as the authors who clearly loved writing this.