Readers across generations have fallen in love with Little Women. But how could Louisa May Alcott --- who never had a romance --- write so convincingly of love and heartbreak without experiencing it herself? In The Lost Summer of Louisa May AlcottKelly O’Connor McNees deftly mixes fact and fiction as she imagines a love affair that would threaten Louisa’s writing career --- and inspire the story of Jo and Laurie in Little Women.