Just an FYI for anyone interested in the Deep Valley books, this should be read between Betsy-Tacy #8 (Betsy and Joe) and the other Deep Valley bonus book, Emily of Deep Valley, for best plot continuity (This was also the original publication order).

This is only peripherally a Betsy-Tacy book - that's really marketing hyperbole (gee... that's unusual.)

However, it is a really good story. Betsy and Tacy's friend Carney is done with her first year at Vassar, and heading back to Deep Valley for the summer. In order to make sure that she has a chance to visit with all her friends, and keep her posh Easterner room-mate entertained during her visit, Carney arranges a house-party...

This is a great example of my comfort reading. It is sweet, and safe, and while not everyone in it is always nice, there is nothing scary or threatening. It is also right up on my list of frequent rereads.

I think it was good

Such a cute, old-fashioned, refreshing story!! On the order of Nancy Drew. I plan to read more in the series.

I liked this one a lot!

Don't laugh at me for reading - and reviewing! - a book written decades ago for little girls. I have loved Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy and Deep Valley books ever since I was a little girl and every so often, as an adult, I re-read one as a nostalgic comfort read. But I don’t think I had read this one since I was 10 or 11.

Aimed at adolescent or pre-adolescent girls, this novel portrays a “house party” of four college-age young women in the summer of 1911. Carney is a student at Vassar who invites three friends to stay at her home in Deep Valley Minnesota for the month of July: her college roommate Isobel, and her high school friends, Betsy and Bonnie. The girls have lots of fun together, going to parties and on picnics. In those days, if a family in a small town had guests from out of town, lots of people wanted to meet them. And, if they were pretty young women, lots of young men wanted to meet them.

But Carney’s high school boyfriend is also coming back to town. Will he propose to Carney? And should she accept?

Carney is a delightful character, serious and well-meaning, but also full of fun. Her family life with her parents and three younger brothers is warm and loving. She faces a big decision and finally follows what both her heart and her head are telling her.

If the novel had been written 20 or 30 years ago, the question would have been: should Carney get married at all? If it were being written today, Carney might wonder if she’s even cisgender. The kinds of problems and issues that youth and YA fiction are often concerned with today were ignored in fiction written in the 1950s about the 1910s. The fiction of earlier eras sought to show young women role models for an idealized life. I loved this book as much on re-read as I did as a pre-adolescent girl. But I recognize that it is very old-fashioned, and I believe it is out of print.

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Author of The Saint's Mistress

This was my first book by this author. I've had the Betsy-Tacy books on my list for a long time. I really enjoyed this college summer break story based in 1911. It was fun hearing about normal life back then. It reminded me of a more lighthearted Anne of the Island or Anne of Avonlea. Parts also made me think of the beginning parts of It's a Wonderful Life. I'll definitely read more of this author for some lighthearted classics.

Pretty good! I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this one given it has a main character being torn on whether she wants to be with her long time boyfriend or if there is something between her and the new guy in town. I didn’t mind it in this book and I had fun reading about her and her friends!

In the summer of 1911, Carney Sibley (a friend of Betsy Ray of the Betsy books) comes home from Vassar college. And is visited for a month by several friends, one of whom is new to the midwest. The description of Vassar college in 1911 was charming, the old fashioned entertainments that the girls enjoy are fun to read about.

The freedom the girls enjoy, make it seem in some ways very modern, so that it was a shock at the end when Carney is outraged that a boy she likes has kissed her!

I enjoyed this book, but I thought that the main character Carney was slightly puritanical, and didn't really suit the man she ended up getting engaged to. She was always complaining that he bought things on credit!

It's kind of bittersweet to read these books, knowing that World War I is looming on the horizon.

Although this book isn't part of the Betsy series, it contains a lot of the same characters. It was fun to read, and as with the other books, contains a lot of interesting details about daily life during that time period.

Good story. Made me think of tradition and my childhood, fondly. The cover is deceiving as it is about college kids and not preteens or high schoolers, as one might guess. The better for it and, like I said, a nostalgic good time.

An absolute must for summertime reading.