Reread (2023):
I had my phone read the book aloud so I didn’t notice some of the grammatical stuff that I was annoyed by last time.
Still, it was highly entertaining even if ridiculous in parts.
3.5 Stars

Original Review (2019):
Oh boy, this book was not the best but for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to DNF it.
For starters, this seemed like it was not edited well. The author loved using exclamation marks! Every other sentence! Seriously!
Secondly, the flashbacks to when Bet was young. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do not believe that four-year-olds know enough to be mad at the world. And speak in complex sentences.
3 Stars ( )

I'm of two minds over The Education of Bet. On the one hand, this had all the makings of a historical novel I love. Feisty heroine, madcap adventures, romance, family secrets and its set somewhere in the 1800's. However, maybe due to the slim nature of the volume the story didn't feel complete. By the time the ending chapters occur I felt as if the author rushed to a conclusion too abruptly.

The story is very much like Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (of which Bet grows to love) or maybe more accurately the Amanda Bynes' movie from about half a decade ago She's the Man (in which Bynes dresses like her twin brother, and attends school in his place, all while he's off having some sort of musical epiphany). Actually that's an apt description; much of what happens to Viola in the movie (it is a direct update of Twelfth Night) is mirrored in The Education of Bet. That's not a bad thing! Amanda Bynes in general, and She's the Man in specific, entertains me a lot. It just made me feel like dejavu.

What works best for this novel is when Bet is struggling to be more 'boy' like, but ending up being even less so. To that point Bet lived a very sheltered life, having never left the estate since her and Will had moved in with their Uncle. All her knowledge of what boys are like come from Will, his stories and her books. She doesn't understand why there is so much social posturing, bullying, arguing and a sort of defeatism. While this makes sense, it also marks her as being very very naive. There's no doubt that at the all-girl schools similiar, if less hands-on and violent, things happen between the students. Just whereas boys will use their fists first, girls use their words. Bet never had that experience however, being the bastard daughter of a maid. She often will question things that happen or things that her room-mate, James, acts as if are ordinary.

The characters over all are shallow feeling, with very little depth given to the vast majority of them. Bet longs for an education and to go to school, but we're never shown exactly why (for the freedom of it? Just because she wants to? The author implies several different reasons, but doesn't seek to expand on them). Similiarly Will longs to join the military, but has such a romantisized view of it that it made me wonder at if he was at all intelligent. James is quiet, and feared and likes to keep a low profile--but until the end we aren't told very much of his backstory. I'm still wondering why the other students kept a wide berth from him (just because he was so weird?).

There is also a certain amount of uneveness to the narrative. For the first fifty pages Bet goes back and forth with memories and stories she was told of her family before moving in with Gardner. Once she's at the school, other than infrequent letters to Will, its almost exclusively dedicated to the present. This makes the news Bet receives seem like it come out of no where. Truly when she said "I hadn't thought about it" (that's the paraphrase, if I put the quote in it would be a spoiler) in a surprised manner I believed her. I certainly hadn't thought about it. The scattered clues leading to the revealation were just there in the story.

Though this is a critical review, I did enjoy the novel. Bet's interactions with Will and later James are amusing, as is her commentary on what its like to be a boy. Just reading about her trying to keep all the lies straight is entertaining. Unfortunately it suffers from being entirely too short. 192 pages was clearly not enough time for Baratz-Logsted to flesh out this story suitably.

And a minor pet peeve: the exact year this is set is never said or shown. Nor are there any clues as to when it is! While I don't think knowing whether it was set in 1804 or 1876 is critical to the plot, it would have at least kept me from trying to figure it out.
( )

Elizabeth is an intelligent young woman growing up within the constraints of Victorian society. To make matters worse, she is "the maid's daughter." After her mother and the owners of the house where she worked died, Bet is taken along with the heir, Will, to live with Will's uncle. Bet is treated as something between, neither family nor servant. She's allowed to read and study whatever she wants and develops a thirst for knowledge. When Will is kicked out of yet another school, Bet decides that they should each pursue what they want. She assumes Will's identity and heads off to school in his place while he runs off to join the military. But there's much more to becoming a boy than developing bad handwriting, and it's much harder to leave behind a girl's feelings than Bet had expected.

I don't have a whole lot to say about this. I am more than twice the age of the intended audience, hard as that is for me to believe, and so I didn't feel like I read anything new here. Younger audiences will probably feel differently. I couldn't help but compare this to [b:Alanna: The First Adventure|13831|Alanna The First Adventure (Song of the Lioness, #1)|Tamora Pierce|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255720760s/13831.jpg|1936544] by Tamora Pierce. The genres are different (historical fiction and fantasy), but the basic plot is very much the same. I think Alanna was more well-developed.

I liked Bet well enough. She was plucky and stood up for what she believed in, no matter how scared she was. She also pursued her dreams wholeheartedly, knowing that she would regret it if she didn't seize this one chance offered to her.

There's a "revelation" at the end that I saw coming from miles away. Again, though, I am a lot older than the intended audience.

The time line was a little jarring. A new chapter would flash forward pretty far, often in a letter, and then the events would go back to explain what I had just read. I don't mind stories that jump around like that as long as I can see a reason for it, and I couldn't find a reason for this. It just came across as jerky.

While I wasn't exactly thrilled with this book, I do think that younger girls will enjoy reading Bet's story. Even 150 to 200 years later, women and girls are still fighting against restraints, and every forward-thinking girl will probably find something to relate to in Bess. ( )

THE EDUCATION OF BET took me completely by surprise! Before this novel, I'd never read anything by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, but I was intrigued by the description.

I found the lengths Bet and Will go to in order to disguise Bet as a boy entertaining. I was skeptical that Baratz-Logsted would be able to make this aspect of the novel believable, but I actually found it very convincing. I especially loved that there were adults at the school aiding Bet in her quest for an education.

It was inspiring to see Bet fight so hard for something she wanted... something other than a boy. Don't get me wrong, I love a good romance, but it was refreshing to see the main character so passionate about something else. It definitely reminded me how lucky I am to have the opportunity to go to school... with all the stress, homework, and insane costs, it's easy to forget that.

But wait! There's romance too! Which, honestly, I should have anticipated, but I really hadn't. It was interesting an interesting and memorable romance, since, during the development of the romance, Bet is still disguised as Will. Understandably, this leads to some awkward moments, but Baratz-Logsted did a wonderful job making their story believable. ( )

Elizabeth could speak, write, and read as well as Will, but there is something that Will can do that she cannot: attend school. But Bet is determined and when Will confesses that he dreams to join the military rather than go back to school, Bet proposes that they switch places and in her case, genders.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted has a habit of underwhelming me with her books. The last book I read by Baratz-Logsted was Crazy Beautiful, stunning cover with a sinful synopsis, but it fell to impress. Now with The Education of Bet it has a pretty cover and an intriguing synopsis (I admit that I have several graphic novels with the similar synopses, but I cannot get enough) I was immediately excited. And I gave a half-hearted shrug once I finished.

In my past experience with first person narratives, I feel like they give the most extreme emotions. I felt like I can relate better to the main character yet with The Education of Bet there was distance between Bet and I. The pace of the novel is brisk and was written in mostly paragraphs detailing the adventure and what an adventure! An adventure, I felt, was over so quickly with not enough hoops to jump through and not enough trouble that makes a full-grin read.

A part of me still does not believe in the James and Bet relationship. It was so complete-180 for me that made me reluctant in the whole thing. Once I got over the quick turnabout I do so love their forbidden love as you will.

Quite frankly, however, The Education of Bet had nothing bad about it, least not a scene or subplot that made me tsk and shake my head over. It was just a lack of exuberance and energy that I thought I would read. There are two scenes that held great energy: the fencing and the climax, but those were two scenes out of many. ( )