I've only started reading Betsy-Tacy books, and have to read them as they come from the library, but I have to say I didn't particularly like this one. It didn't have much of a plot, and it's style was more anecdotal - little adventures that she was going through on her trip to Europe. I found it to be pretty boring, truthfully.

Part of me wants to read the version of the end of the story where Betsy stays in Europe and marries Marco. But then there is that wonderful ending and I remember how much I love Joe.

Going right on to the next one.

I missed Deep Valley so much, but I loved reading about Betsy's adventures abroad! I especially enjoyed her time in Italy. I loved Marco! Betsy was a strong woman to not fall in love with him - such a romantic italian. I mean, I LOVE Joe, don't get me wrong, but reading about Marco also gave me butterflies. She had a hard choice to make. She ultimately made the right choice, and now I can have Marco to myself.

It was interesting to read the book knowing that WWI was right around the corner. There were hints in the story that it was coming, but the benefit of historical fiction is knowing what's going to happen before it does. Her time in Europe (Germany and Italy especially) is mostly carefree and idyllic until she reaches London and the war breaks out. It lended some poignancy to the story knowing that those beautiful people and places she just spent so much time in are now caught up in the crushing hands of fate and will never be the same.

But oh my goodness does Betsy have some pride that she needs to learn to swallow. She knew she'd hurt Joe but refused to write to him and apologize which was just SO INFURIATING. Actually, both Betsy and Joe have a streak of pride in them that is not particularly flattering and they'll have to work on in their future marriage. Not to get all preachy, but fessing up when you're wrong and apologizing is like relationship 101. But no. Betsy needed to find an EXCUSE in order to write to Joe, and even when she does finally write him, she doesn't apologize. Just. Betsy. Come on. But, their reconciliation is still heart melting and Joe's response to her in the newspaper was swoony. Once I finished the book I had to pick up the next one right away just so I could witness their reunion immediately.

“A little list of things Miss Ray adores: islands, balconies, sunrises…Waltzing.” Betsy celebrates “A strange birthday with no cake or presents, just the wine of traveling alone…seeing strange places, meeting new people, struggling with a foreign language!” She saw herself “as a woman of the world who would travel and write for many years before she married–if she married at all…You don’t know how kind people are until you go traveling…Travel is very broadening.”

Betsy’s high school years are defined by the men she pursues, and her Great World venture is no different. When Betsy discovers her love boat interest has a wife and family of five, her Irish crush leaves her heart crushed. “She wasn’t…coming down with anything. She was getting over something…Not all married men are middle-aged and fatherly…skim milk masquerades as cream…The first lesson she had learned on her travels had left her feeling cynical…Was life always like that, she wondered? A game of hide and seek in which you only occasionally found the person you wanted to be?” But “it would be a pretty poor world if we couldn’t sweep up our mistakes, now and then, and go ahead.”

But Betsy also discovers the nuanced nature of relationships. “He had awakened her interest in…faraway places and strange languages, folklore and legends, pictures and books she might never have heard of, beauties of every sort. She would never forget him, although she wasn’t in love with him any more…The bad thing about traveling…was leaving people you got to like–or love…But what a difference, now that she had a friend!”

It was so much fun to reread one of my childhood favorites. I got more from it as an adult as I know more about Europe, the class system in Europe of old, and about the start of World War I than I did when I was a teenager.

Had hopes in the beginning but lost interest

This was my least-favorite installment of this wonderful series. Most of the book was perfectly lovely- just like the majority of the series. However...

The whole setup with the Joe breakup seemed tacked on. They were so beautifully in love at the end of Betsy and Joe. She could have traveled the world with her relationship in tact. It would not have changed the majority of the book. The angst felt forced on to an entirely unrelated plot. I would have given this a '4' had that not been the case. This wouldn't have been a '5' also because some of the descriptive chapters dragged a bit.

As always, there were some completely delightful parts, some realistically frustrating parts, and so on. Betsy is Betsy, and I am a fan. This just was the weakest book in an amazing series.

JANUARY 1914. In those last halcyon days just before the world went mad, Betsy boarded the S.S. Columbic with dreams of living in Europe for the following year.

AUGUST 1914. While Betsy was living in England, the Great War began.

This novel is autobiographical, like all the books in the Betsy-Tacy series. Just like Betsy, Maud Hart Lovelace started a magnificently gorgeous European tour in January 1914, was living in London when World War I started, and had to return home to the US early. She lived it, she felt it, and she shared it with me in this book. I loved it, and I'm so grateful for the experience.

Most of this novel is filled with wide-eyed wonder and light-hearted European adventures, evoking the feeling and atmosphere of some of the most wonderful places I’ve ever visited.

Munich: She went to the Hoftheatre straight from afternoon coffee, for the operas began early, sometimes as early as six. There was always a line of people waiting for “standing places”—shabby, humble-looking people, and soldiers, and students. Yet inside, the great auditorium glittered and shimmered with fashion. Everybody went to the opera in Munich.

Venice: There were no streets except canals. Walking, you went up and down bridges, and along tiny alleys, spanned by clotheslines full of washing, and across picturesque courts where people were always hanging out the windows in vigorous conversation. With Mr. Regali, Betsy explored every tantalizing nook. And always in the end they came out on the Grand Canal. The palaces lifted their airy arches, balconies, and columns above water that changed color all the time.

Only in the last 50 pages of the book do we start hearing the rumblings of war. My heart was in my throat during this section of the book, feeling all the feels.

Betsy worries about her dear friends in Germany: She thought of Tilda. What would this do to her [opera] career? She thought of Helena and Hanni. Each loved a soldier who would now be going to war.

And she worries about her dear friends in England, who are on the opposite side of the conflict. One of her British friends expresses it perfectly: “I can’t take it in,” Jean stammered. “Thousands of men marching off to be slaughtered. Ruin, terror, misery, sweeping us all. Why?” No one knew.

And how have I never heard about this mad-dash escape from Europe? Americans were rushing off the continent like leaves before a storm. They weren’t allowed to leave the railroad stations, even to eat. They were locked into the cars. They couldn’t get money. Many who arrived in London had left all their luggage behind and had only the clothes on their backs.

Confession: I skipped the previous two books in this series (Betsy Was a Junior and Betsy and Joe) because they sounded like plots recycled from Heaven to Betsy, which I didn’t enjoy. I’m so glad I didn’t give up on the Betsy-Tacy series. This book is a treasure and it’s officially on my “Want to Reread” list.

I was always sad, as a wee thing, that there were no more than five Betsy-Tacy books for me to read. There they were out in the world, more of them, and I couldn’t get my hands on them.

Beyond frustrating, I tell you.

But...I’m not sad I didn’t read them now. One’s first time reading a good book is a gift that’s never (or rarely) re-given, and sometimes books get to you at the exact right time in your life. Which is something I think these books did for me. Betsy-Tacy when I was very young, Betsy in Spite of Herself in my teens, and this one now. (This is a perfectly useless fact to put in a review, but after all my one joy in life is writing perfectly useless reviews.)

Anyway, the best thing about this book was the bathtub incident. But also I long to see Munich in the winter of 1914 now, and Venice in spring (or at all), and to be in London as the Great War begins. All of which won’t happen, but reading about it was beautiful anyway. And Betsy is just...does anyone not love Betsy? Because I will fight them.

Maud Hart Lovelace writes such amazing descriptions, and I feel like I traveled Europe with Betsy. But now I'm so nervous about World War One!

This was the one I wasn't interested in when I was a young teen because I thought what could be more boring than to read about someone's trip around the world? Plus, there would be no Tacy nor Tib. Then, I got older and read this. I adored it in my twenties.
Betsy drops out of college and travels Europe for a year. College hasn't really changed in the last 80 + years. Dropping out of college for lack of interest in academics. Traveling Europe before settling down.
Upon this most recent reread, I felt as I did when I struggled with this the first time. The cruise to Europe which is the first part of the book felt incredibly long,
So why did I give this book 4 stars? Because once Betsy did arrive in Europe, especially Munich, Germany; I was fascinated by how Betsy was experiencing the events leading up to World War I while living there. As carefree as ever, Betsy hasn't a clue that a War is about to erupt. Betsy starts this book, innocent and naive. By the end of it, she has wised up a good deal.
Hard to believe it's been 100 years since Betsy traveled to Europe and World War I began.