Heaven To Betsy by Maud Hart Lovelace

 


Heavens to Betsy by Maud Hart Lovelace

| a bookish review | 


Hello, Sweet Friend! Today I’m sharing my review for Heavens to Betsy by Maud Hart Lovelace! This is such a cute book and I’m so excited to share my review with you! 

I feel like its finally summer now! I don’t know what it is (actually I think its that the heat is back and I’ve started doing summer activities) but I feel like only now does it feel like summer. 

I can’t believe it is already JULY! Friends, how did that happen? A lot of fun things are coming your way this month! I have some book reviews (like this one) and some summer themed posts and it’s also going to be my birthday super soon (on the 23rd)! I’ll be an official adult. *shock face* How did that happen? 

Anyways, I’m going to stop rambling for now and focus on the book review! Also, I have a question for you all. So, in May i forgot to do a reading recap of the books I read. My question for you is do you want to still see that reading recap? I’ll be combining both May and June’s reads and have links to my reviews if you’d like to see that. Anyways, I’ll probably still do it but I also want to know if it's something you’d like to see. 

Now that that question is out of the way…its REVIEW TIME!!!  

Also…last thought or rather videos! One summer activity I got to do was go to the lake while reading this book! Here are some videos of going to the lake and reading there! <3 


You can hear my little brother Lion pointing out all the trees as we go to the lake! He is so cute! <3




What would life be like without her writing? Writing filled her life with beauty and mystery, gave it life...and promise.” 

― Maud Hart Lovelace, Heavens to Betsy  



Rating: ★★★★

Cleanness: ★★★★*


This is such a cute book! I can’t believe I only recently heard of it (thank you so much Renée (@classicsandacuppa) for telling me about it)! 

I also loved getting to buddy read this book! Thank you so much Jennie (@jennie.in.fairyland) for reading this book (and series) with me! It's been so much fun getting to chat about these books and about writing! I’m so excited to continue on in this series with you! <3 

Betsy to Heaven has that nostalgic feeling I love like it's a book I’ve read before long ago and it's really comforting. It reminds me of reading Little Women and the Little House books! The relationships are all so sweet and wholesome, the descriptions (especially the food) are so good, and the story is immersive and you feel like you know these characters and are friends with them.


The Characters: 

Betsy is such a relatable character! Really all the other characters and the side characters were relatable and all felt real which is really wonderful to find in a book. Oftentimes I feel like side characters are underdeveloped and are just there because there needed to be more characters. This one felt like all the characters are real people. Reading the back of the book it's so cool to see that these books were based off of Lovelace’s childhood and growing up years! You can really see that in the characters and how well written and developed they all are (going back to my examples of Little House and Little Women, those both were based exclusively or somewhat on the author’s real lives. I love that trend in books and have used that in my own writing). 

Betsy is a writer. Though at the beginning of the book she kinda loses that love for writing because of the other teen girls. She tries to fit in but finds out (to some extent but I think she'll learn more in the next book) that it's okay and actually wonderful to be exactly yourself. You don’t have to fit into “The Crowd” to be valuable. One of my favorite parts is at the end she has to think through that if she really loves her writing then she needs to write and not care about fitting in or being at all the parties. I really like that she is learning to prioritize her writing. 

It was also fun seeing all the guys she likes and T.D.S. XD Joe by far is my favorite of the guys and even though he wasn’t much in this book I can’t wait to see him more in the rest of the books! 

I love Betsy’s relationship with Tacy and her family. I love that even with new friends and relationships she still prioritizes that special relationship with her best friend. I don’t feel like you often see that in books nowadays, so that made me very happy. 

I LOVE how supportive Betsy’s parents are! There is a moment in chapter 23 that is my favorite! I love how supportive and involved and close the Ray family is! It reminds me of my family and ahh! I just love close big families! 

I also loved seeing the relationship between Julia and Betsy! Sister relationships written well are my FAVORITE! They reminded me a lot of my sister and me. I am more of Julia's personality but then I have Betsy’s writing. My younger sister has Betsy’s personality a bit more but Julia’s love for music! I loved that! 

Honestly, and this is something I love, I feel like the characters are good role models. I had a friend talk about having role models in stories and the importance of it and since that conversation I’m actively looking for books with good role models and I feel like this book has it. *clapping* The main character has flaws and makes mistakes but learns from them and grows. Even the side characters most of the time are really good role models. I love that! 



The one part I didn’t like: 

(the reason why this is 4 stars) 

Now, I will say there was one part I did not like and thus it took down a star for me personally. I would also put this as a clean warning (usually when I don’t like something in a book it is due to a clean warning) and a caution possibly to readers who might find this uncomfortable. 

So there is a ouija board. 

Now usually I’m not bothered by ghosts or Halloween or things related to that (though Halloween is not a favorite holiday it typically doesn’t bother me). But anything demonic or treading on that line makes me uncomfortable and I try not to read those things. Ouija boards kinda are on that line to me and I just find it creepy and disturbing. It ended up being in a lot of the second half of the book and I tended to skip or skim over whenever it was brought up. Personally I just didn’t feel the most comfortable with it. It was put in an innocent playful light in the book but still I just…I didn’t like it and took off a star. 

I did really appreciate that my friend Jennie who is reading with me warned me about this beforehand! I thought that was really sweet of her and helped me know what to look out for when reading. Hopefully with this little guide I can be that friend who helps you too! That honestly is my goal when writing clean guides. It's to warn you but like a best friend would when reading a book. <3 

Anyways, if that is something you aren’t comfortable with then maybe skip this book or just know ahead of time that there are some chapters to skim over. 

I do really love this and I’m loving this series so I still think it is fun to read! (I also just finished the second book at the time of this review going out and there are no more mentions of things like this and honestly I like the next book even more than this! I can’t wait to get that review up to you NEXT WEEK)! 



Quotes I love:

The most important part of religion isn't in any church. It's down in your own heart. Religion is in your thoughts, and in the way you act from day to day, in the way you treat other people. It's honesty, and unselfishness, and kindness. Especially kindness.”


“... the poorest guide you can have in life is what people will say.”


“You can't hand boys around as though they were pieces of cake," she said. "Don't worry about getting a boy for me, Betsy. Boys just don't seem important to me. They don't seem any more important to me than they ever did."

"Tacy!" said Betsy. "You're beyond me!"

"Well!" said Tacy. "That's the way I am.”


“Why doesn't Tacy like boys?” asked Alice. 

“But I do like them,” protested Tacy. “I just don't think they are little tin gods.”



*Cleanness: 

Besides the one thing I noted above, this is a clean book! Hurray! There is no bad language. There are some kisses on the cheek and crushes and talk of beaus but that's as far as romance goes. It's clean and cute and I loved it! There were a few moments of fibbing or lying but that was a small thing. 




I’ll talk to you later, friend! I hope all of you have been doing good and that your summer has been happy and blessed! 

Meet me in the comments and a book you have been loving lately? Have you read Heavens to Betsy or any of the books in the Betsy-Tacy series? This is my first one and I’m so excited to read more! Also, if there is a specific summer post or just post in general that you’d like me to do, then please leave your request in the comments below!!! 

If you have any questions or want to talk, make sure to comment down below! Be sure to subscribe to this blog to stay in the know because I post new content here every week. ALSO, If you want to hear more about my writing and read snippets from my stories, make sure you are subscribed because I am doing special updates for BLOG SUBSCRIBERS ONLY! 

Love, Moriyah 💛


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