LMA Challenge: Good Wives Review

June is at an end, and thus so is our Louisa May Alcott reading challenge. Of course, it doesn't mean we have to stop reading (thank goodness for that)! ;) Thank you to Tarissa for hosting this entertaining and useful challenge.

     These sorts of challenges are always good for me, especially during the lazy summer months when I find I need something new and fresh to keep me inspired and focused, and this challenge was just the thing. Through reading L.M. Alcott's writings, I've discovered a few things about myself that I didn't have during my younger years when reading some of these books, and it was fun to see a wiser, more mature me and see how far God's brought me in building up my character. :) I don't often stop long enough to recognize those things in my life, so it was nice to do so this month. Miss Alcott's writings also hit a correct chord in this season of my own life, in the area's I'm trying to work on in my relationships, so it was very encouraging and I have lot's of new wisdom to take away with me and put into practice now!

Good Wives

by Louisa May Alcott

     This treasure of a book may not be known to you, as it was not with myself, for if you've ever read Little Women, you may not have realized you could have already read this book yourself! Both my sister Jessica and I have actually read Good Wives long ago, as it was included as a “part two” in Little Women – a collection book that also included Little Men. I never new it by this title so when I picked it for the challenge, I hadn't known I had read it before! ;) Haha!

What is It All About?

     Good Wives picks up where Little Women left off – Meg is just about to be married to Brooke, Laurie's former tutor; Jo is writing away then away to nanny in New York, Amy is off to Europe, and Beth is still “recovering” from scarlet fever, while Laurie is back from college.

     The story weaves a sad, beautiful, moving story as the four dear girls take on their womanly roles and manage their trials and struggles of love and marriage and friendship and sorrow. It completes the picture begun in the first book, with the girls marrying off and beginning their own little families.

~ * ~

     Oh, the treasure trove of lessons there are to be gained by old books! It's been years since I last read either Little Women (or it's unknown-to-me-sequel), and I'm much ashamed for it. Oh what I have been missing all this time! But still, sometimes it's nicer to wait and discover so many more treasures for the waiting in the meantime.

     Now that I'm all grown up – but as yet still unmarried – I enjoyed reading how the Little Women grew up and seeing Meg's daily struggles as a young wife and mother, Jo trying to fulfill and work on her big writing dreams, and Amy pursuing dreams, romance, and building of her character. 

     As an older girl I feared perhaps I'd outgrown the little women and this author too, but in this book I discovered old friends grown dearer for their absence and still a host of lessons I can take with me and put to good use in the future. 

     I have a feeling Good Wives will be pulled off the shelf and dusted off quite more frequently the older I get, and if I ever have the pleasure to court, marry, and have children someday, then the dear little women will be there to comfort, laugh and cry with, and teach all over again through every season of my own life. :)

     I actually found I loved this sequel story all the more now in my older years, then I did when I was a young girl of 15 or so... and perhaps if you felt the same way in reading this book the first time as I did, then maybe you'd like to give it a second try now or when you are a bit older too! :)

My Rating

     ***** 5 out of 5 stars

     If you've enjoyed these little reviews, please stand by for more this summer, as I have plans of joining Sarah Holman's Homeschooled Authors Read-To-Win challenge. Each week till the end of August, there is a new book on sale for only $0.99 written by a homeschooler, and then you can read it and review it and be entered to win a $100 Amazon Gift Card! And if you don't win, then at least you have a bunch of new books to read this summer. ;) Go take a look!

Right now I'm reading Family Reunion (Six Cousins book 1) by Kelsey Bryant and enjoying it immensely!

Everyone have a blessed 4th of July weekend - we'll be celebrating with my brother Nathan's 21st birthday! :)