A delightful book. The characters are descendants from Louisa May Alcott's Little Women - Jo March's great-great granddaughters. Ms. Donnelly makes the characters absolutely live! A very entertaining read. The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly Touchstone June 2011 Lulu Atwater is the middle daughter of Fee Atwater - a descent of the March family in Little Women. Jo March is her great-great grandmother. Lulu has a very good education - - having earned a university degree in science. She doesn't like science or anything else to do with university. She is content to go from one small job to another. She will decide her future at a later date or not at all - it makes no difference to her. One day her mother Fee asked her to look in the attic to find some receipts for her Aunt Amy. These are recipes the March family used decades ago. Her great-Aunt Amy wants to have them published in some society newspaper. Lulu doesn't find the recipes, but she finds something much more important which enriches her life. Lulu has two sisters - Emily and Sophie. Emily is planning her wedding and Sophia is trying to launch her career on the London stage. Lulu is sort of in limbo. She is presently employed in an antique art shop. But the owner is selling the place. She doesn't have a clue what she is going to do and is not too disturbed about the fact she will be jobless. One day when she and her sisters are having tea with their mother at the family home. Fee asked Lulu to look in the attic for some family recipes. Lulu is reluctant to go into the dirty attic, but does so at her mother's urging. She can't find the recipes, but stumbles across letters written by her great-great grandmother Josephine March to her sisters. There were four March sisters – J,. Amy, Meg and Beth. Beth died very young, much too soon, but the family never forgot her. Jo would write long letters to her - telling her about the happenings going on in the March family. Lulu spends every spare moment she can in the attic reading the letters. She is keeping her find a secret from the family. She wants to keep Jo's letters all to her self. Lulu and Sophie live with Charlie - a good friend. Lulu takes several uninteresting job, Sophie gets a small part In a TV soap opera and Emily continues to plan her wedding. Lulu spends a lot of time in the attic reading Jo's letters. Her great-great grandmother, like Lulu, despaired of every finding love, having a home and family. Lulu meets Charlie's brother. Sophia gets her big break and Emily has a wedding that will be remembers by all for a long time. Lulu has decided to show the letters to her mother and sisters. A letters falls out of the box - a letter written especially to her from great-great grandmother Josephine March. Can this be possible - Jo writing to her? If you liked Ms. Alcott's Little Women - you will thoroughly enjoy this book! Ms. Donnelly expertly binds the March sisters with the present Atwater sisters. You will live Jo’s frustration as she writes about love and love and Lulu's attempt to find solace and guidance in Jo's letters. A must read - a keeper. Highly recommended.