Historical fiction by and about women is my favorite genre, so I was looking forward to reading The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott by Kelly O’Conner McNees.  I enjoyed this book. The author did a lot of research about Louisa May Alcott’s life and sets the story during a summer she spent with her family in New Hampshire after being forced to leave Boston due to lack of funds. It imagines a love affair Louisa may have had during that summer. I loved being swept away by this story. There was nothing too challenging or intense in the story or the writing, and sometimes that is just fine. It should please fans of Little Women, and it makes me want to re-read that book as well.

One of the most fascinating parts of the story for me is Louisa’s connection through her father to Emerson, and Thoreau, as well as Walt Whitman whose Leaves of Grass was published in 1855 when this novel is set. It definately makes me want to re-read Whitman’s Leaves of Grass as it was so groundbreaking and controversial at the time.

 I would recommend this book to friends.