What a treat! Growing up, whenever I read the Betsy books, these two (and Emily of Deep Valley) were listed, tantalizingly, along with Lovelace’s other titles - but I could never get my hands on the books. I’m pretty sure they were out of print at the time. I’m so glad they’re available now.

These were lovely. While I was getting into Carney’s House Party, I initially felt like it was too hard to shift to her perspective. I missed Betsy and all the rest of the Rays, I think. It’s similar to how I feel when reading Betsy & the Great World - it doesn’t feel quite right to not have all the other characters along. But! As with Betsy & the Great World, I ended up loving this.

And I loved Winona’s pony cart, too! What a fun glimpse into an incidental character!

I find that this is the first really "subtle" book of the Deep Valley series. It is definitely more adult. These are people who are thinking of their personal futures. As a group, they have each other's support, but they realize that their futures are what they as individuals make them --- that is, they must choose alone aided by their own native wit and feeling. Thus, Carney makes, first, the "small" choice to have Isobel out to Deep Valley as a relatively long term house guest, even though it is evident that Isobel is someone that she does not really like. Second, she is wise enough to reject Larry with honesty and to "choose" Sam --- a surprise to her and to everyone else.

As to feelings, it is a nice surprise in this book that the practical and cheerful Carney, with her family's Vermont and Presbyterian background, can recognize so immediately the genuineness of the emotions that bring her to recognize her love for Sam. And I believe this is the first time that love (outside of family love) has made an authentic appearance in the Deep Valley books. Hitherto, not even the relationship of Betsy and Joe has displayed this kind of maturity.

The "love" aspects are realistic because Carney's House Party is full of sexual tension. We see this mainly from the girls' point of view as the series is really essentially a girls' series. Suddenly, the boys are seen as men, as different, as equals, as autonomous, and as having their own places in nature and life. There is a lot of description of men's clothing in this book (i.e., men's bodies). The girls are also made more realistically sexual. Ms. Lovelace signals this at the beginning with the description of the restrictions and rules of Vassar life. These rules show how real life has become.

Also, Ms. Lovelace uses her art or technique in a move advanced way. At last, we are out of the high school and into a world with somehow fewer rules and more uncertainties. Ms. L. "misleads" the reader very well as to Isobel's situation and intentions. She works very well with the tensions between Sam and Carney. She creates a nice triangle of these three characters who each have different concepts of what is happening. Hence, the suspense. Brava, Ms. Lovelace.

Can you believe I never read the Betsy-Tacy books? I think they just weren't at my library and so I never saw them or knew about them. I knew from all my librarian colleagues who are B-T fans that they seemed like books I would like, but I just never tried them. So while this book was not about B-T per se, it's still in Deep Valley and features I guess all the regular characters (or, in the book's parlance, "the Crowd.")
Oh my goodness was this ever an incredibly old-fashioned fascinating treat. I enjoyed so much all the details of life at Vassar College, and what they wore, and the gay house party and socializing and customs and really the whole thing. Reminded me of Anne of Green Gables + Daddy Long Legs + any other old books. I especially enjoyed the 1911 fashions. I looked at the first B-T book at the library last night and saw that Lois Lenski illustrated it! Had I known that as a child I definitely would have read them and I'm sure enjoyed the friendship adventures of the girls.

I've been enjoying my Maud Hart Lovelace readings for the most part. While Carney's House Party started off promising, it toppled in the final chapters.

See: love triangles. Evidently not just symptomatic of contemporary YA.


See: falling in love with the guy I didn't like


While Lovelace evokes the period wonderfully (I'm fairly sure it was supposed to be 1911, since there's a reference to the theft of the Mona Lisa), I just...didn't like the story. And I know Lovelace wrote from life, for the most part, but the romantic portion of the novel was extremely flat for me. Carney has had a long-distance, letter-writing, non-romantic relationship with Larry for years. She meets Sam and dislikes him at first, being oblivious to his advances toward her. Sam begins to change himself for Carney. Carney decides she wants to be friends with Larry, and quells any romance there. Sam forcefully kisses Carney without her permission, and she...falls in love with him?It's made clear that she feels comfortable with talking to Sam about things, and likes his family for the most part. Yet, she doesn't like spending time with him, regrets oversharing, constantly casts up Larry's upright behavior to Sam's less-than-desirable behavior, and the spark just isn't there. It feels like Carney decided she wanted Sam after discovering she didn't have feelings for Larry. I wasn't convinced that she really loved Sam, because we never saw any narrative witness to it besides Carney's admissions. I was glad to learn that in real life, while Carney/Marion Willard Everett did correspond with a friend and stay friends, there was no love triangle, because she met her future husband a few years after the dramatic summer. The intensity of my opinions about this novel have made me up my rating, because I obviously care! I may return to it in the future, steeling myself against the love triangle.

Read as part of my personal 2020 reading challenge: getting around to my fiction collection.

I LOVE HER BOOKS. this one made me so happy. BUT WHY OH WHY DID SHE NOT END UP WITH LARRY. SAM IS NOT THE ONE. HES JUST A SILLY GROSS BOY (okay technically he does wrong it’s only that Larry is better) like Larry is her old friend and Sam is just some guy. And the only reason she said no to Larry is because she doesn’t feel like BETSY feels? Like all you had to do was spend time together and you would’ve. But you didn’t get the chance to because of that stupid rain storm and also the fact that you, Carney, had shut yourself off. SAM ONLY GOT YOU SOME FLOWERS AND LARRY GAVE YOU A BOOK IF THAT ALONE DOESNT PROVE TO YOU THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE ENDED UP TOGETHER NOTHING WILL. Okay other then the horrible ending this book is perfect so star deducted for that. thanks for reading my rant

I enjoyed reading about Carney. I was uninterested in her while reading the main series but this book made me fond of her practical , cheerful , self. I loved seeing Betsy again and this book does fill in some of the gaps of Betsy 's lost college years .I 'm considering reading Queed.

I had read all of the Betsy books but never this one. Lovelace does such a beautiful job of providing the detail of life in 1912, with the clothes and the parties and food. The role Vassar plays in this story is also fascinating and I spent a silly amount of time looking things up to see pictures and see old Vassar history. I started it as a quiet read before bed book but liked it so much that I finished the second half in one sitting. I really enjoyed it.

This is probably the weakest Deep Valley novel, sad to say. I read it years ago and wanted to reread it since I just reread Emily of Deep Valley. But I don’t regret reading Carney’s because I got lots of information on the other classic characters (Betsy, Joe, Tacy) and it’s always so cozy to read about the comfort and cozy lifestyle that is described in Deep Valley. I found Carney a bit obnoxious and didn’t understand the connection between her and Sam. And definitely didn’t understand her approach to being kissed by Sam. So yeah, it was weak, but the vibe made it worth it enough.

I Liked so much this book.

My girl and I loved this one. Carney was always one of our favorite side characters so it was lovely that Lovelace gave Carney her own story. And it ended just the way we wanted it too!

Re-read for 2014 VSC discussion.

05-22-2010 review:
**slight spoilers toward the end**
This is a particularly fun one to discuss at the VSC, because it's a strong favorite among the NY Chapter members, and that invariably leads to a raucous discussion.

I always enjoy my glimpse into Carney's sensible perspective. (I like things settled, too!) With my last read, I remember noticing what an excellent job MHL did with the tightened time frame of just one summer. This time around, I found myself comparing the Carney-Bonnie friendship with Betsy and Tacy. Although I'm no huge Bonnie fan, I love how MHL shows us that the C&B friendship is as strong as B&T's.

I also wonder what would have happened if Sam had never showed up. Would Carney and Larry have gotten engaged? Would they have been happy together? I think they would have been content with one another but would have never known the passion that Carney and Sam had.

Last read:
5-22-06 (has it really been that long?)
7-7-05

This was the first book by Maud Hart Lovelace that I've read where Betsy was not the main character so I was not sure how I would like it. Happy to report that it was a true delight. To anyone who likes historical fiction, these books are truly illuminating as to what life was like for ordinary girls at the turn of the century (and there is a good sprinkling of historical references).