Meg & Jo

It started off a little shaky for me. I didn't like some of the choices the author made. In particular, I thought that Jo & Laurie (Trey in this book - another hard to swallow change) having had a sexual relationship in the past changed the overall nature of their conflict. Their romance being entirely unrequited is an intrinsic element of the source material & ascribing a sexual element to their past relationship here hugely alters their dynamic. Plus, it weakens the future Amy & “Trey” relationship to come.

That being said, as the story went on, I liked the modernization of Meg & John's marriage and the relationship between Jo & Bhaer was nicely developed.

I also appreciated that in this version, Beth isn't sickly (and, apparently is NOT going to die), she's just shy. However, the health concerns came in the form of the Mother (Abby) which makes sense to the story and serves to provide that life or death conflict as well as bringing the sisters together.

Overall, I enjoyed this and look forward to seeing how the author is going to handle Beth & Amy in the next book.