The Spring Girls: A Modern-Day Retelling of Little Women

Anna Todd

Jan 2018 · Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Four sisters desperately seeking the blueprints to life—the modern-day retelling of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women like only Anna Todd (After, Imagines) could do.

The Spring Girls—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy—are a force of nature on the New Orleans military base where they live. As different as they are, with their father on tour in Iraq and their mother hiding something, their fears are very much the same. Struggling to build lives they can be proud of and that will lift them out of their humble station in life, one year will determine all that their futures can become.

The oldest, Meg, will be an officer’s wife and enter military society like so many of the women she admires. If her passion—and her reputation—don’t derail her.

Beth, the workhorse of the family, is afraid to leave the house, is afraid she’ll never figure out who she really is.

Jo just wants out. Wishing she could skip to graduation, she dreams of a life in New York City and a career in journalism where she can impact the world. Nothing can stop her—not even love.

And Amy, the youngest, is watching all her sisters, learning from how they handle themselves. For better or worse.

With plenty of sass, romance, and drama, The Spring Girls revisits Louisa May Alcott’s classic Little Women, and brings its themes of love, war, class, adolescence, and family into the language of the twenty-first century.

Ratings and reviews

I first read Anna Todd books in her "After" series and was very interested in what she would bring us with her newest book coming up. The Spring Girls. WOW! I am amazed how much I loved this book. I have never read Little Woman, but I get the whole picture now. I love the Spring sisters. My heart broke for their mother. Even though she had her own demons, she loved her girls whole heartily. Their dad did what he could do. The heartbreak this family goes through is gut wrenching when he is sent home. This story is about a family bond. Anna shows us how military life is not all that it is cut out to be. There is so much more that our heroes have to go through besides defending our country. This brings so much more perspective for the military families that live this life. The bond of sisters made my heart warm and fuzzy. The fighting, the drama, and the growing pains are all there. What a great book to read over a weekend or two! I love Anna's books, but she had brought her writing to a new level that will stay in your hearts way after you finish reading the last page.

3.5 stars The Spring Girls is a modern-day version of the best selling classic, Little Women, by Louise May Alcott. The book focuses on four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy Spring. They live in New Orleans, on a military base, with their emotionally, unavailable, mother. The girls desperately miss their father, who has been fighting in Iraq, for several months. The characters come alive as the author brings the reader deep into the hearts and minds of the Spring sisters. The oldest Spring sibling, Meg, yearns to be a mother and marry well. She desperately wants to erase her past mistakes and ruined reputation. Having a wealthy and prestigious husband by her side, Meg feels, will do wonders for her self-esteem and social status. Jo, however, is just the opposite. She has no interest in finding love or getting married. She wants a successful career in NY as a journalist. Beth is the co-dependent workhorse of the family. It bothered me that Beth was allowed, and even expected, to pick up, clean and cook for the entire family. Beth was riddled with social anxiety, stayed in most of the time, and was homeschooled. Amy, the youngest sibling, was twelve and treated like a princess. All four girls would grieve their father’s absence differently, but the older three would face their demons and begin to emotionally grow and change. I enjoyed reading The Spring Girls but found the pace slow. The writing is very good, however, and the storyline captivating. Thank you, Gallery Books and NetGalley, for my advanced review copy.

Good but leaves so many questions. What happens now?

About the author

Anna Todd (writer/producer/influencer) is the New York Times bestselling author of the After series, which has been released in thirty-five languages and has sold more than twelve million copies worldwide, becoming a #1 bestseller in several countries. Always an avid reader, Todd began writing stories on her phone through Wattpad, with After becoming the platform’s most-read series with over two billion reads. She has served as a producer and screenwriter on the film adaptations of After and After We Collided, and in 2017, she founded the entertainment company Frayed Pages Media to produce innovative and creative work across film, television, and publishing. A native of Ohio, she lives with her family in Los Angeles.