Betsy and the Great World and Betsy's Wedding by Maud Hart Lovelace

I don't have anything very eloquent to say other than I am so happy to have read this series and I loved every minute of it.

I loved traveling around Europe with Betsy in Betsy and the Great World and seeing where she went, particularly at that moment in time just before WWI started. I remember reading somewhere about someone who went to Europe in the decade of the 1900s and that book said that it was probably the most perfect time to go to Europe in the whole decade of the 1900s, before everything was changed and torn up by the wars. I loved imagining Betsy's travels and watching her do that. I felt like she maybe spent too much time on her trip in Munich and not enough in Venice or London--there were only about two chapters about London and I was most excited for that!--but it was all lovely all the same. I loved her whirlwind romance with Marco in Venice, and how the book ended with her reconnecting with Joe. I was surprisingly moved by the chapters in London when war was being declared and all of Betsy's friends there being affected by it, and I almost cried. Sometimes I forget what uncertainty and fear people must have felt before something so obvious and historical like WWI, when they didn't know when it was starting or if it was going to happen. That chapter felt very, very real.

And Betsy's Wedding was just a dream. While there were almost none of the familiar characters from the other books in Betsy and the Great World, it seemed like Betsy was right back in her home with all of The Crowd around her after she is married and settled down. I mostly loved her relationship with Joe and how they learned about being married and working together. It was such a sweet story but not mushy or fake, with some real heartache too. I kind of hated how it ended--spoiler, it was WWI and Joe ends up going off to war!--but since it's so based on Maud Hart Lovelace's life, it's pretty obvious that Joe is going to come home safely and that Betsy and Joe will live happily ever after like Maud and Delos, so it's not too hard to imagine. I wish there were at least one more book with Betsy and Joe having a baby to really complete the series, but this was a great ending place too.

I will definitely be coming back to read these again someday. These books were such a treat to read and they make me so happy.