Blog Tour: Jo & Laurie by Melissa de la Cruz and Margaret Stohl (Interview + Giveaway!)

Happy Tuesday and welcome to my stop on the Jo & Laurie blog tour!! I am so excited to be a part of this tour, and I’m even more excited for you to discover what Melissa and Margaret would do if they spent the day with Jo and Laurie! Read on to find out more about the book and authors, plus follow the rest of the tour and enter to win a print copy of Jo & Laurie!

1869, Concord, Massachusetts: After the publication of her first novel, Jo March is shocked to discover her book of scribbles has become a bestseller, and her publisher and fans demand a sequel. While pressured into coming up with a story, she goes to New York with her dear friend Laurie for a week of inspiration—museums, operas, and even a once-in-a-lifetime reading by Charles Dickens himself!
But Laurie has romance on his mind, and despite her growing feelings, Jo's desire to remain independent leads her to turn down his heartfelt marriage proposal and sends the poor boy off to college heartbroken. When Laurie returns to Concord with a sophisticated new girlfriend, will Jo finally communicate her true heart's desire or lose the love of her life forever?

If you could trade lives with any YA character for a day, who would it be and why? What about a week? A month, year, or forever?

Hermione, she’s my favourite and Ron is great. I’d be one of the cleverest witches in the world. I like my life though, so a day is fine.

What would you do if you spent the day with Jo and Laurie? Where would you go to eat, hang out, relax, etc.?

I’d like to go to New York with them, go to the opera and the theatre and a fabulous ball. Laurie can pay for everything and Jo and I would be BFF’s.

If Jo and Laurie were to hang out with characters from other YA books, who would they be and why?

Jo and Laurie would enjoy Alex and Eliza’s company very much. Lots of scintillating conversation!

What was your favorite bit of research you ended up not using?

It would have been nice to set some of the book in Europe, as Louisa May Alcott travelled a lot, but there was no place in our story for that.

What books would you recommend to Jo and Laurie?

Jo is a great reader so she’s probably read them all. But if she were alive today I’d give her a copy of Sally Rooney’s Normal People. She’d love it!

Do you have a favorite quote, scene, or moment from Jo & Laurie?

Chapter Seventeen: Heartache. That chapter meant the most to me because the original Heartache Chapter from Little Women literally BROKE MY HEART. So I wanted to rewrite it and show how it ‘really’ happened. To me that chapter ties our book with the original, and then the stories diverge…

If you could trade lives with any YA character for a day, who would it be and why? What about a week? A month, year, or forever?

Jo March! And we did in the book, I would take advantage of that trade to get her to take another look at the boy next door ☺

What would you do if you spent the day with Jo and Laurie? Where would you go to eat, hang out, relax, etc.?

I’d go with them to see Dickens. Then we could all meet up with Mel and crash her ball. Trust me, Mel has great taste in balls.

If Jo and Laurie were to hang out with characters from other YA books, who would they be and why?

Jo and Laurie would love Lena and Ethan. They could all commiserate with each other about the rocky road to true love!

What was your favorite bit of research you ended up not using?

We went down a rabbit hole about Concord, Massachusetts—where both the Alcotts and the Marches lived. I can, in fact, describe in great detail the typical Concord 19th century Fourth of July celebrations, for example, if only someone wants to listen, lol.

What books would you recommend to Jo and Laurie?

Emily Dickinson’s poetry. They had the same publisher—though Emily was published posthumously—and I think she’d really like Emily’s funky/bold modernist syntax.

Do you have a favorite quote, scene, or moment from Jo & Laurie?

I loved writing Chapter Four: Vegetable Valley. I love how the sisters tease and soothe each other… and plan out each other’s lives…in the garden. It felt so real and also so true to the book. I guess that’s why the original stands the test of time. It really feels like a family!

Melissa de la Cruz

She is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of many critically acclaimed and award-winning novels for teens including The Au Pairs series, the Blue Bloods series, the Ashleys series, the Angels on Sunset Boulevard series and the semi-autobiographical novel Fresh off the Boat.

Her books for adults include the novel Cat’s Meow, the anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys and the tongue-in-chic handbooks How to Become Famous in Two Weeks or Less and The Fashionista Files: Adventures in Four-inch heels and Faux-Pas.

She has worked as a fashion and beauty editor and has written for many publications including The New York Times, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Allure, The San Francisco Chronicle, McSweeney’s, Teen Vogue, CosmoGirl! and Seventeen. She has also appeared as an expert on fashion, trends and fame for CNN, E! and FoxNews.

Melissa grew up in Manila and moved to San Francisco with her family, where she graduated high school salutatorian from The Convent of the Sacred Heart. She majored in art history and English at Columbia University (and minored in nightclubs and shopping!).

She now divides her time between New York and Los Angeles, where she lives in the Hollywood Hills with her husband and daughter.

Margaret Stohl

Melissa

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Margaret

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Enter here to win a print copy of Jo & Laurie by Melissa de la Cruz and Margaret Stohl!

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