A nice, light read, but I didn't enjoy it as much as some of the others.

The last book in the series. What a wonderful book to end with. This is the third time I have read the series and I have loved it all every time. My thanks to the author for lots of fun and relaxation during my time spent on these lovely books set of in the early 20th century.

So glad I discovered the HS/young adult Betsy books this spring! I felt myself racing to see what unfolded next. I felt like I was part of the Crowd and was rooting for Joe through it all!

Next up: the Deep River trilogy and a visit to Mankato MN this summer!

Probably my least favorite of the series.

And I have now read all ten Betsy books! Of the older-Betsy books, this was the best. It’s nice to see everyone grown up and yet still themselves; Tib is still gloriously quirky, Tacy now finally seems confident in who she is and the role of wife and mother suits her perfectly, and Betsy is still a writer, still laughs at herself, and is still learning from her mistakes. Molly and I didn’t appreciate the pressure we felt from married Betsy and Tacy toward Tib to join their ranks. Let Tib be Tib! However, this was 100 years ago and obviously there are a lot of old-fashioned gender roles in a book in which the main characters marry and learn how to become “domestic”. I hated that Betsy made a big internal fuss over Joe’s Aunt Ruth coming to live with them. That was selfish, and even though they worked it out, I still got the impression that they weren’t too sad to see her go.
The ending was perfect and the last few lines were the reason Maud Hart Lovelace stopped at book 10. Pixar could have learned something from her... if you reach a good endpoint, you don’t need to keep going (cough cough Toy Story 4).

After growing up my whole life on this series, it made me cry. And books don't normally make me cry.

Oh Betsy. This charming turn of the 20th century Minnesotan girl satisfied all my comfort reading desires: old-fashioned and Midwestern families; a childhood sweetheart-cum-adult lover; gobs of buttery, meaty, potatoey food porn; silk dresses, hair ribbons, and fur muffs; and most importantly, girls with ambition, girls who aspire to be more than a wife.

It is that last point that ended up marring the series for me. Throughout the ten books, we watch Betsy grow from age 5 to age 25. The one constant is her love for writing. She may be distracted by various beaux, but she returns to her writing again and again, aspiring to make her living by selling stories to the magazines. But in Betsy’s Wedding she largely abandons that goal and turns to wifely pursuits: darning and mending clothes; matchmaking her single and independent friend Tib against her interests; and preparing the best pot roast in the world for dear Joe, whose income supports the family. There are superficial references to Betsy’s writing but it’s all secondary. Betsy is now all about being a good wife.

It’s an incredible disappointment. Somewhat unexpected too considering the level of biographic influence on these novels. Maud Hart Lovelace’s own life inspired the series (a favorite part of reading them was the back matter which detailed the fictional characters’ real life names). It’s then surprising that Betsy is so enfeebled at the story’s end considering Maud herself found remarkable career success with these books.

I had fun reading these books and witnessing Betsy’s various scrapes with Tacy and Tib (Tib! who will always be my favorite no-nonsense German waif!) but they will not supersede the Little House or Anne of Green Gables books as my favorite old-timey comfort reads. Oh Betsy, how I wish I could have loved you like Anne and Laura.

Thank goodness for books that show us the "AFTER happily ever after." Am I right?
Things are never perfect, but this one is sweet and true to life. From learning to cook to admiring the tree out the window, this novel is a sweet and true to life exploration of living and making joy with one another.
I loved the descriptions of when Joe's "aunt" came to live with them and how Betsy would meet Joe on the porch when he got off in the middle the night. They would eat a meal and chat until the dawn. It wasn't perfect, but it was theirs.

[4 stars]

Elizabeth, I agree with you that this a bittersweet book. My buddy Betsy was all grown up and married. It is a sweet story and I love the struggles they face. I also belong to Shelfari and some of us started talking about the B/T books and how we discovered them.

My least favorite of the Betsy-Tacy books, only worth it if you've read the whole rest of the series and can't bear to leave one unread.

I never thought of the Betsy-Tacy books as progressive - but at least Tacy was never boy crazy and at least Betsy always wanted a career but this one is really hard to swallow. She's a determined homemaker (despite a woeful lack of homemaking skills) and really sets everything aside for Joe and his dreams. It gets a bit better as they've been married longer and she gets a bit of time to write, but it's pretty rough going in parts.

Also - it's not truly fun of Lovelace to leave the book with Joe headed off to war. We know it's okay because the books are based on Maud's own life and her husband certainly wasn't killed in war, but the eve of WWI is not a bright moment to be leaving a young man in.

I always had a literary crush on Joe Willard. He was up there with Gilbert Blythe and Theodore 'Laurie' Lawrence as far as crushed for me. This book was lovely...although I do wish that Besty was a little less of a homemaker. Granted, this was the time period and that did change by the end of the book.

I do wish we had one more book for when Joe came back from the War.