Good Wives - Louisa May Alcott

The sequel to Little Women sees the March sisters grow up and experience great love and tragedy in their livesIt is three years since we last met the inimitable March sisters and much has changed since we left them as little women. Meg, the eldest and most sensible of the sisters, is preparing to marry Mr. Brooke.

She no longer works as a governess, instead happily looking after her young twins, Demi and Daisy. Jo, as ever the life of any gathering, goes to live in New York as a governess. She is concerned that Laurie, the March girls' friend, may be planning to propose to her and she will have to refuse him because she doesn't love him.

Beth, the sweet and kind third daughter, has never recovered from the scarlet fever andis becoming more ill by the day. And Amy, the darling baby, seems finally to be catching up with her sisters. She goes on a tour to Europe, developing her considerable artistic skills and will end up surprising them all by marrying someone the family knows very well indeed.

This intriguing sequel is a more mature bookthat is ultimately just as uplifting as its better known prequel with a strikingly modern message of female empowerment. Includes an extended character profile of Beth.