It was published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869 and later combined in 1880.
During the civil war era, father was away, leaving the women at home with mother. They seem to be pretty well to do and are concerned with boys and their future. Jo is the academic tomboy and enjoys writing. She later ends up marrying the German professor, though they were both awkward with it. There were various other courtships as well as reunions with family members. Despite it being a century and a half old, many of the themes remain current. (Though the way they would be carried out can be quite different.)
Half-Blood combines dystopian and vampire-like young adult tropes. Pure bloods are the "best". Half bloods are second tier. They can pretty much be servants or daimon hunters. Daimons are vampire-like creatures. They have super strength. They are typically killed and disposed of as soon as possible. The novel centers on teenage Alexandria. She had thought her mother died. Her uncle is the leader. She regularly gets into trouble and had been pretty much kicked out of Sentinel training, and was lucky to avoid being a servant. She discovers her mom became a daimon and so goes out to fight. She also has romantic relationships with people who she is not supposed to be involved with. It is filled with the typically action and romance. The book is fairly well written but not very original.
I had gone through most of the original Ender's Game series pretty close together. I wasn't super engaged with the first book, but I really liked were things went with the end and into the other books in the series. The post-formic wars exploration of the universe made for great stories. I also enjoyed the Ender's Shadow. Recently, I've listened to the new Formic Wars novels. However, it has been a while since I've listened to the core series. These events were not very familiar to me. I had some trouble getting engaged with this novel.