As a huge fan of Little Women, I was so excited to read this book and I was not disappointed. Bethany Morrow took all the wonderful aspects of the original and created something truly special with this remix.

The sisters have a similar feel to the March sisters we all grew up with, but Morrow made them unique and interesting with new obstacles to overcome. The beauty of the characters and the relationships they develop are astounding and make for such an excellent reading experience.

Whether a fan of the original story or not, this book is still worth the read.

Advanced Reader’s Copies (I ended up with an egalley and the audiobook) that were provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The audiobook is from Macmillan Audio/Macmillan Young Listeners and the egalley is from Macmillan Children's Publishing Group/Feiwel & Friends.

Ok, so let's get this out of the way first. This is a REMIX, not a retelling. They're two very different things. These are not Louisa May Alcott's March sisters, nor are they supposed to be.

Once starting SO MANY BEGINNINGS, I immediately did some research to learn more about The Freedmen's Colony on Roanoke Island because it's not something I know much about. And that's one of the beautiful things about reading books about people who have different life experiences than yourself.

Jo is still my favorite and I think Morrow allowed for a really important moment when Jo stood up for her writing in Boston. Sure, that moment is about the late 1800s, but it's a debate that is still happening today.

I think Morrow captured the feel of Alcott's LITTLE WOMEN while making it her own story. The historical events happening in the background that drive a lot of the story are also really interesting and I think the add to everything.

This was an interesting read and I'm excited to check out more of the Remixed Classics series.

Side note: I appreciate that Morrow made Amy less annoying (I said what I said).

Adenrele Ojo does a great job with the audiobook narration.

I have received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Now I liked the original version of Little Women but I'll admit that the characters easily annoyed me in certain situations. That being said, I was actually pretty excited to dive into this retelling which might sound weird but I wanted to see if the girls would be exactly the same as before or completely different.

These girls were way more likable than the original version. I'm sorry but Amy's character was so freaking annoying before and in this one she seemed way more normal and such. Then there's Meg, who knew what she wanted and would actually go for it. Unlike the original version who seemed to car more about the opinions from other people and wanted what they had or whatever.

As for Jo? She's been my favorite since the very beginning and I adored her and Laurie's relationship. I also think I got hints that she was asexual? Which, yes girl - I loved every second of it and it definitely made sense in my mind that she would be. Last, but not least, our girl Beth. If you've read the original version, then you know what happens to her. All I'm going to say is that Beth is a force in this one. Yes, she still gets sick but it takes a different route and I enjoyed that a bit more. Other than the doctors thinking she was faking it all but then again - that made sense too because doctors tend to think that about anyone who isn't showing symptoms all the freaking time.

Other than all that jazz, well, I think it's just safe to say that I really enjoyed this one and I can't wait for the next retelling in my life. Thank you Bethany for taking the time to write this because it was freaking addictive.

I enjoyed this! I thought it was such an interesting retelling of Little Women! I loved the setting and the sisters!

So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix is a delightful retelling of the classic coming-of-age novel by Louisa May Alcott.

A quick rundown: The story takes place in the Freedmen's Colony in Roanoke Island, North Carolina in 1863. The Civil War is still raging, but this Colony is a safe place for recently emancipated Black people. This is the place where they can begin to build communities of their own and find refuge from the horrors and atrocities committed against them. The March family is able to finally put down roots. The four daughters of this family have their own struggles to contend with; Meg, the teacher, wants to start her own family with someone she loves, Jo, the writer, discovers how powerful her words are, Beth, the seamstress, trying to learn what her higher purpose is, and Amy, the dancer, desperate to explore life outside her family's home. The four sisters work to come into their own, leaning on each other the whole way.

My thoughts: A little bit about my background before I talk more about this book: I grew up the child of historians. The time period my parents tended to focus on was the Civil War --for as long as I can remember, my mom has been working on a research project centering on the 75th reunion of the Battle of Gettysburg. This focus meant that I have a lot (like... a lot) of knowledge of this time period, but Morrow managed to give me even more, which I adored. This book was incredible. From the cover to the content, Morrow did not miss. I loved the way that these characters were written to actually reflect the struggles of the Black community, while also remaining faithful to Alcott's narrative. There is a lot of pressure that comes with writing a retelling/remix like this, and Morrow rose to the challenge beautifully. I found this book extremely engrossing and readable, and I found that I actually liked some of the characters more in this version than in the original.

Overall rating: 5/5

So Many Beginnings will be available for purchase on September 7th. Be sure to add it to your Goodreads shelf. Also, be sure to check out Bethany C. Morrow’s website!

I was lucky enough to be able to read this Advanced Reader's Copy through my partnership with NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Disclaimer: I received this e-arc and early audiobook copy from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.

Book: So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix

Author: Bethany C. Morrow

Book Series: Remixed Classics Book 2

Diversity: Black MCs and love interests and side characters.

Rating: 5/5

Recommended For...: classical retellings, young adult readers, historical fiction

Genre: YA Historical Fiction/Classic Retelling

Publication Date: September ,7, 2021

Publisher: Feiwel and Friends

Pages: 304

Recommended Age: 12+ (Slavery, Romance, Microaggressions)

Explanation of CWs: Slavery is very prevalent in this book and is the foundation for the story. There is also marked events of racism and migroaggressions by the few white characters.

Synopsis: North Carolina, 1863. As the American Civil War rages on, the Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island is blossoming, a haven for the recently emancipated. Black people have begun building a community of their own, a refuge from the shadow of the old life. It is where the March family has finally been able to safely put down roots with four young daughters:

Meg, a teacher who longs to find love and start a family of her own.

Jo, a writer whose words are too powerful to be contained.

Beth, a talented seamstress searching for a higher purpose.

Amy, a dancer eager to explore life outside her family's home.

As the four March sisters come into their own as independent young women, they will face first love, health struggles, heartbreak, and new horizons. But they will face it all together.

Review: I really like this remix of Little Women. Even though I have not read the book, I knew about what it should be about LOL. I didn't feel like from what I've heard about Little Women that this book was a lot better than it, but I really don't like classics to begin with. I loved the character development and the World building. I thought that the pacing was very well done and the story overall was very well written. I also loved the little nods to the original including the father's name being Alcott. I also feel like the book did very well commenting and showing the racism that happened after the Civil war. I feel like a lot of people think that racism and slavery and everything ended when the Confederacy gave up and this would be a great book to show them that that is definitely not true and still happens to this day unfortunately.

The only thing that I really didn't like about the book is that the plot was kind of disjointed. But I'm really not going to count that off for the book because I have not read Little Women so I don't know if Little Women is like that but it just felt like there was a lot of storylines going on around the same time and there was time skips and stuff like that and then the end really didn't resolve any conflict but there really wasn't any. Don't get me wrong the book is still really good, I just don't know if this is what Little Women is all about, but I have a suspicion that it is LOL.

Verdict: Highly recommend!

This is very, very beautiful, folks. Love a good remix, and this is a GOOD remix. Highly recommend. I especially love the characterization of the girls. Still completely recognizable, and also completely unique and different.

I am going to be honest and make a horrible admission that I have never read or watched Little Women. Some people I know have tried to get me to watch it. I have never had the time to, but after reading this, I will make sure I get around to it. So because I do not know the original, "Little Women" I ask someone I know who does know the original, and so I have a good basis for the differences between this story and the original. The main difference in this remix is the sisters are black and are former slaves. I enjoyed this twist to the original and it allowed the author to shed some light on the history and include some positive messages.

The writing and wording of this story might be hard for some people to grasp right away because the author did well in maintaining the integrity of the writing style of the original and including the more formal dialogue. I surprisingly had no trouble following along with what was happening and normally I do when the writing style is trying to mimic one from a different time. I personally really like the way that it was written, it helped to add a unique element to the story and helped me to immerse myself in the period it is set in.

I have no problem with the story that was written, my only problem is that I feel like it needed more. The story went by so fast with very little substance I feel like the story needed to be longer to properly develop the characters and to dive deeper so that we have more of a personal connection to the characters. The major development in the character's lives happened so very fast it left little time to completely grasp it and let our hearts get involved.

Each of the March sisters has varying personalities and interests. Some of them got on my nerves like little Amethyst acted childish often acting out to get her way but she is the youngest out of the four. The other ones each have little moments where I was yelling at them wishing they had thought or acted differently. But this all just adds development and life into the story.

I got an audiobook version of this story and I think the narrator did very well in maintaining the demeanor of the characters and telling the story in the correct voice to keep the formal tone of the writing style. There were slight differences in her voice with each character and this helped to differentiate when each character was speaking. There was nothing overly special about the narration and I think that this book would be enjoyed as an audiobook just as well as it would reading it yourself.

So overall there was nothing overly special about this book. Lovers of Little Women will likely enjoy this remix and getting to read a different take on a beloved classic.

So Many Beginnings is a beautifully written, fresh new take on a classic by Bethany C. Morrow . I loved the historical aspects that were placed seamlessly within the novel. I also loved how there is some familiarity with the March sister while this book holds its own as a representation of newly freed slaves in Roanoke colony during the post Civil War error. I would highly recommend this novel to all. If you find the Little Women prose difficult, you might want to try the audio book for So Many Beginnings. The narrator, Adenrele Ojo does a wonderful job telling the story and makes the writing much easier to understand.

Publication date: September 7, 2021

For background you should know I'm a big lover of the original Little Women (book and films!) and have been since I was a kid. When I heard about this project, I was cautiously optimistic and very curious to see how this beloved classic might be adapted to follow a Black family of sisters during the Civil War era (the same time period as the original). And I have to say, So Many Beginnings does this very well! It stays true to the heart and tone of the original, but is also something all its own.

Fans of Little Women will enjoy seeing the clever adaptations of the story, but even readers coming to this fresh will come to love this family of very different young women who love each other a great deal. It's a story about four sisters, each with their own personality and interests. So Many Beginnings really nails the characterization in a way that feels authentic, and even the language and style of the prose feel consistent with the tone of the original. But there are differences, and it was cool to see how those played out.

The family is living in the Roanoke colony set up for the formerly enslaved. We get a lot of real historical context here of things that happened (good and bad) in the post-Civil War era. The early part of the book felt a little muddled to me and so it took a bit to fully get into it, but I ended up loving what Morrow did with the story. I want to talk about the changes she made, so mild spoilers ahead for those who are sensitive to them! If you're familiar with the story and don't mind knowing the differences ahead of time, you might find this interesting. If not, stop here and come back later!

************SPOILERS AHEAD***************

Similar to the original, Meg is a homebody who really just wants to be a wife and mother. Early on she has a potential long distance suitor that fizzles out, and later in the book you realize that was setting things up for Amy to have a wealthy love interest who was previously involved with one of her sisters. This gives her story arc something similar to the original (though in this case Amy is a dancer who goes to Boston for training) while not infringing on the different approach to the Jo/Lorie arc. (more on that later) Meg ends up falling for a local boy who does lawn care in town, even though Jo didn't think he was smart enough for her. I liked the way this adapted the original story with John.

Jo becomes a writer of nonfiction, talking about the plight of Black people in America and philosophizing. She eventually is offered the opportunity to write her own slave narrative, mirroring the original Jo writing sensational tales before writing something more autobiographical. But in this case, Jo ends up turning down the publishing offer when they want her to write in a lower dialect because people "wouldn't believe" she grew up speaking proper English while enslaved. The book does a great job of weaving in tidbits like that that really occurred. Another cool change here is Jo is probably meant to be asexual! She loves Lorie, but doesn't want a physical relationship and they end up in sort of a platonic partnership. It's really lovely and an interesting take.

Beth is ill in this rendition as well, but based on her symptoms and the discussions surrounding it I'm pretty sure she's meant to have sickle cell anemia. Which again, is a clever way to address a chronic illness that does affect members of the Black community, and the issues of white medical professionals thinking she was lying because her symptoms would come and go. Instead of dying, Beth decides to emigrate to Liberia and there's a line that nods to the original where she would miss her family "even in heaven". There's also some subtext where you could read Beth as queer, though it's not explicit.

I really enjoyed reading this and thought the author did a really great job of doing something fresh and interesting while respecting original text. Definitely one I would recommend! The audio narration is very good as well. It's narrated by Adenrele Ojo who is just wonderful. If you aren't used to more formal language, it might take you awhile to adjust since as I said, the prose is very reminiscent of the original Little Women. I received an audio copy of this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

It is really challenging adapting a classic novel, but this book really delivered! This book has more depth than the original since it really gets into the time period from the perspective of Black women.

This book covers the bonds between sisters, the war, and romance, but also talks about life on the Roanoke freed person colony. I wished there was a little bit more backstory before Roanoke, but I think the overall perspectives and feelings were captured very well.

I can rarely say this, but I actually enjoyed this book more than the original Little Women.

I enjoyed the audiobook version and thought the narrator was very engaging and could tell which character was speaking by the tone of her voice.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me a copy of the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

What a wonderful book! I'm a huge fan of Little Women and was actually a bit nervous about reading this because adaptations are notoriously bad at capturing the originals. Yet, I thought this book was extremely well done. It was very much inspired by Louisa May Alcott's novel, but it had many different elements and even ended differently than the original. I like how the sisters also had different names that yielded the nicknames of the original sisters. While it takes place around the same time as the original inspiration, it is a historical fiction that focuses on the Freedmen's Colony of Roanoke Island, and thus, the occurs there rather than in New England. Unlike the original, racism is a huge influence on the book as the March family, born into slavery, have recently been "freed" but find that racism still exists quite strongly and that the scars they endured while enslaved are not so easily erased. The book is very well written and brings up a lot of good points and perspective. I really enjoyed this one!

So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix is Bethany C. Morrow’s unique retelling of the classic Little Women. Set in North Carolina at the tail end of the Civil War, the March women are living on Roanoke Island while the March patriarch is off fighting for the Union. A budding freedmen colony, the men (and Joanna) build houses while eldest sister Meg commands an airless tent from which to teach anyone willing to learn their letters. Bethlehem and Amethyst—Beth and Amy respectively—are the two youngest sisters. While not biologically related, Amy was taken in once the Marches reached The Big House on their way to Roanoke. Beth spends her time going back and forth to the mainland because she doesn’t own a sewing machine and dreams of being a seamstress.

Roanoke Island is their life; their home after their life before. Jo has flashbacks of slavery, of being a plaything for a young white girl. She got the education afforded to the daughter of a plantation owner and has the mind of a writer. Beth is afflicted with a mysterious illness—fatigue, fainting spells , the works—and there have been no white doctors who have been able to diagnose her. It’s only after another family moves into the March’s home that the man, Orange, recognizes her illness and aids in her recovery. Meg dreams of being a wife and mother and finds her answer in a young man named Wisdom.

I loved this take on Little Women. I thought it was so important that all the sisters survived considering how often black characters--particularly women--are viewed as expendable in media. The plot still dealt with the themes of the original but focused on them specifically through the lens of the black community. The Marches are women who take pride in their connection to their community with the understanding that their own self sufficiency is just as important. Their individual dreams are buoyed by the support of their sisters and there’s an emphasis on achieving their goals no matter what*.

*The caveat here is their status as freed people. Slavery hangs over their heads like a traumatic cloud and the older March women are cognizant of the potential of it beginning again. They’re rightfully worried that the Union will lose and their chains will once again not be far behind. Mamie is rightfully protective of her girls, especially young Amethyst. She bristles at the idea of her youngest being offered opportunities to learn to dance in Boston--at first I thought it was due to the offer being given by a white woman who was in Roanoke as a missionary teacher. Her reasoning is steeped in her slavery experience and her deep mistrust of white people.

There’s a recurrence of saviorism--both white and otherwise--throughout the book. It’s honestly so blatant. There are numerous examples offered of white people treating black people with the lowest amount of respect and then expecting a gold star in return. The plantation owner’s daughter announces that Jo is “hers” and would leave with her when she married--separating her from her family in doing so--but isn’t she so magnanimous for offering to take Jo’s ‘mute’ sister with them? Constance Evergreen expresses just how Amy’s education should be taught and that the North is the only place her education and training could flourish. The wealthy black women--northern women born free--in Jo’s salon offered to publish her work but only after critiquing her writing. They wanted stories of her own slave experience, but told her that she sounds too educated for the narrative to be believable. Their readers would think she was lying because, colloquially, she didn’t sound like a slave. I thought modern day white saviorism was bad--lookin’ at you, The Blindside--but now that I’m thinking about it, of course it would’ve been worse immediately following the Civil War. Black people are finally free*!

*except for those in Galveston, Texas who spent two extra years under slavery because NO ONE TOLD THEM.

I was all set to enjoy this novel on audio, but having listened to Part 1 four times, at which point the download stalled every time, I've given up in frustration. Netgalley, please improve your app! It's extremely hit or miss.

I enjoyed Part 1, although I didn't enjoy the narrator, whose sentence rhythms and word emphases often didn't seem to fit the text. At any rate, I've requested the galley so that I can read the rest of the story. Since I couldn't complete the novel in audiobook format, and since scoring is required, I'm giving it a neutral 3 stars.

This Little Women remix is wonderful! I've loved the story of Little Women for so long, and even wrote my college admissions essay on it. Morrow brings the beloved March sisters to life once more in So Many Beginnings, which reimagines the March family as a family of formerly enslaved African Americans, as they build a new "free" life in a Union colony.

If you're looking to learn some American history through the lens of African Americans, as opposed tot eh very white lens thought in our history books, this is a great book to pick up. You will learn how the Union, despite being the anti-slavery side of the war, was still a proponent of slavery as it benefitted them. You will also learn how escaped enslaved people built lives for themselves, and how many of the things we are taught about enslaved people are wrong and stereotyped by their oppressors.

I listened to this story via audiobook as well as reading an e-book copy, and both ways were fantastic to read. The narrator for the audiobook was great; it was an extra, more immersive layer to the story that made the reading experience just *that* much better.