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.

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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.

Little Women is one of my childhood favorites. These characters are special to me and the genre. This book takes those characters out of their place and time and plunks them down in modern NYC and the South. There are nods to the original tale, but this is a story on its own. For much of the book, I felt like my beloved characters had been hijacked to tell this story. The story on its own was fine and I don't understand the appeal of using these iconic characters in this instance.

Meg and Jo is an absolutely delightful, modern take Alcott's Little Women. The novel showcases the life of the elder two March sisters (as the title claims); both are adult now and dealing with their respective work, romance and domestic problems. The beauty of this novel is that while we are hurtled back into nostalgia and reintroduced to characters we've known and loved for decades, Kantra's treatment of it still manages to surprise. It felt like I was meeting my BFFs after twenty years and getting updates into their lives from page to page.
Bravo! Highly recommended.

This book has shades of Little Women, indeed, but can also work as a highly readable and warmly written romance on its own.


While book two will focus on Amy and Beth, we have the central friendship and grown-up lives of Meg and Jo featured here. Kantra focuses on the limitations of recalibrating romance in the marriage of John and Meg who solidly love each other while learning to live within the reality of recalculated expectations and busy with their twins. I confess that this portion of the book read much to me like the scene in Good Wives where John brings a business colleague home without telling Meg who has just burned jam --but again and again. It is definitely a nice slice of realism, but not the most alluring for those who want to escape into romance.


Jo, however, having suffered a few disappointments ( unintentionally hurting her best childhood friend Trey Laurence (two guesses who his counterpart is) and losing her job, is starting a food blog and working as a line cook at a swanky NYC restaurant called Gusto under head chef Eric Bhaer.


The food world and blogging world and recipe world here was fascinating. It is in this city-set portion of the novel that Kantra's voice sparks to life. And as Eric Bhaer's food and passion is fused by recipes from his childhood in Germany, so Jo brings a bit of her Marmie's North Carolinian flavour to local recipes.

I really have to give it to Kantra. Bhaer is a hard character to transpose --to adaptation or to a contemporary retelling-- and yet she surprised me with him.

He is kind, of course, and creates a family of his staff. It is within the walls of Gusto that we see reflected the boarding house scenes Jo writes so familiarly about in Alcott's pages.


The big problem is by having Bhaer in this position of power and as an unofficial patriarch for the kitchen staff, Jo is courted and sleeps with ...her boss.


It has never been my favourite trope ---boss falling for employee---and perhaps I am extra sensitive in the era of MeToo. I also felt the relationship blossomed a little too quickly as did the "major conflict"

All that said, I read this book in one sitting and was very much allured by Kantra's voice. To add, for all of the Little Women adaptations I have read and watched... this one DID surprise me and it does show a close and heartfelt appreciation for the source material.



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With thanks to Netgalley for the review copy.

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Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for the opportunity to read and review Meg and Jo.
Little Women has been around so long that at one point or another we have seen remakes of some sort or another. Meg and Jo is no exception. Virginia Kantra pens a novel of Meg and Jo living in contemporary times with a twist on old issues. It is a thoughtful, sugar coated novel about sisters who come together while living separate lives. If you read the novel without think about the original, I think readers will enjoy it some much more. Meg and Jo is about family, living your best life, and learning that change is inevitable. My only real issue with the book is that the characters seem self-absorbed, but living in the world today most of us are so...personally to me it fits. We are living in the times of Little Women, when women were not "allowed" to do certain things or act a certain way.