Meg & Jo by Virginia Kantra

Book Summary:

The timeless classic Little Women inspired this heartwarming modern tale of four sisters from New York Times bestselling author Virginia Kantra.

The March sisters—reliable Meg, independent Jo, stylish Amy, and shy Beth—have grown up to pursue their separate dreams. When Jo followed her ambitions to New York City, she never thought her career in journalism would come crashing down, leaving her struggling to stay afloat in a gig economy as a prep cook and secret food blogger.

Meg appears to have the life she always planned—the handsome husband, the adorable toddlers, the house in a charming subdivision. But sometimes getting everything you’ve ever wanted isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

When their mother’s illness forces the sisters home to North Carolina for the holidays, they’ll rediscover what really matters.

One thing’s for sure—they’ll need the strength of family and the power of sisterhood to remake their lives and reimagine their dreams.

Publication Date:

December 3rd, 2019

Genre:

Contemporary Fiction

My Rating:

⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Review:

Meg & Jo

I think expectations tend to be rather high when taking on a retelling, especially one like Little Women. For many people, Little Women is a book that was foundational for their love of reading. When I saw that Meg & Jo was a contemporary retelling of this classic novel, I was intrigued but also a little worried about my own expectations of it.

Seasons Edition of Little Women

I ended up enjoying the modern tale of family, work, love, and siblinghood but I struggled when comparing it to Little Women itself. For me, this story was entertaining as a stand-alone contemporary fiction novel, but it just didn’t work with its goal of retelling of Little Women.

A lot of this is just coming from my own personal preferences but I struggled to connect and didn’t love the changes to the storyline that happened. I also fully admit that I have rarely enjoyed a retelling(I am talking to you, Eligible, by Curtis Sittenfeld!), so maybe I am just not a good candidate for these types of novels! I do have to say, I admire anyone that takes on the retelling of a classic and I enjoyed Virginia Kantra’s writing style very much.

So the book was totally fine…I liked some of the characters more than others (which often happens for me with family life fiction) but I just didn’t love this because of what I was hoping it would be.

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing for an advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

Disclosure: Some of the links above are affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission that helps support this blog at no cost to you. Thank you!