Jo & Laurie by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz is a Little Women fanfiction about Jo and Laurie’s romance. When story opens, Jo March has just written the first part of Little Women, about the four March sisters, with their real names and semi-real stories, and her editor is asking for a sequel.

This was a strange read. I love Little Women, and I’ve enjoyed some spinoffs, like Virginia Kantra’s Meg & Jo. I knew the story would bring Jo and Laurie together, and I wanted to see how it unfolded. Their years of strong friendship could be the basis of a romance, and when I read Little Women as a preteen, I couldn’t understand why Jo and Laurie didn’t get married. (As an adult, I love sweet, intelligent Professor Bhaer, and I think Jo chose well in building her life with the thoughtful older man.) So I was really excited to see what happened in the world where Jo did fall in love with Laurie.

It must be hard to write a story about these beloved characters, simply because they are so loved. I kept reading things that seemed out-of-character. Jo made up the name Marmee, adding uncharacteristic cuteness to her story, for unexplained reasons. Not privacy, since in this retelling, Jo made up Meg and John Brooke’s romance and published it in her book, using their full names, although real Meg and John had barely spoken. Even though the Little Women has scenes of sisterly unkindness (hello, Amy and the manuscript?!?) this level of accidental cruelty goes entirely against Jo’s character. But then, John and Meg were both secretly into each other the whole time so, uh, they get together anyway.  It’s a weird fanfiction take, is what I’m saying.

I guess I wanted more of a Shakespeare In Love kind of story, full of imagining the connections and inspiration behind the well-known work.  Instead, for most of this book, Jo storms up to the garret and returns with another disappointing draft for her ever-patient editor. At one point, key moments of Good Wives are pulled out of the air, as the sisters work in the garden and discuss Jo’s plans for the sequel, but it was then dropped in favor of scene after scene where Jo wants to know why writing is hard and feeling feelings is hard. (I mean, correct on both counts, but it doesn’t make an engaging story.)

The romances dragged, with too many misunderstandings and jealousies, repetitively resolved with grand speeches, so by the time I got to the payoff, with Jo proposing to Laurie, I’d gone from now kiss to ok, fine, whatever, just stop wallowing.  I wanted to like this a lot more than I actually did.