A Dream for Susan

Jordon Family #4

by Janet Lambert

Book 4 of the Jordon Series. After years of life in boarding school, Susan dreams for a happy homelife. Will her dreams be shattered? Or will the Parrish family help? The Jordons are a large military family. General Jordon, a widower with two children–Jenifer and Peter–marries a woman who has two daughters–Gwenn and Alice. From this marriage, an additional four children are twins, Susan and Neal, Vance, and Bitsy. General Jordon's second wife dies as does the General's brother and sister-in-law. The General's nephew, Donny, then joins the Jordon family creating a family of ten–the General and his nine children. As the General is often away, the eldest child, Jenifer, must care for the entire family. This is the point at which the series opens. Mrs. Lambert's writing maintains a steady timeline as the Jordon children become adults, enter their careers, marry, and raise their own children. The Jordon family's adventures, heartaches and loves are intertwined with that of the Parrish family throughout the series creating a very rich, amalgam of stories and characters.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Romance

189 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Janet Lambert, born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, was a popular girls' story author from 1941 through 1969 (and beyond to today). She wrote 54 books during that time about a number of different girls and their families. Her most popular series were about the Parrishes and the Jordons. These stories, and many of her other series, became entwined as the various characters met each other, married, and then had children of their own!

Janet, having an interest in both the theater and writing, decided to write her own plays in which to act. She did achieve her goal and appeared on Broadway. When she married a career Army officer, her life on stage came to a close, but her stories were still flowing. Knowing well the "life of the Army," many of Ms. Lambert's books are set on Army posts throughout the United States.

Legend has it that her stories started as bedtime stories for her children while they were overseas. Each night, the author would tell the next "installment" of the series. Later, after her kids were grown, she penned one of her stories (Star Spangled Summer) and—according to legend—it was sold to a publisher the very day after she sent it to them.

Reviews

[Meg W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book for Christmas, I was so happy! I have the Penny Parish and almost all of the Tippy Parish collection and can't wait till I have all the Jordan books. Susan is 15 years old and yearning for a family life. Do to her widower father's devotion to his job (he is a General in the army) she and her younger siblings are neglected and sent to boarding schools. The older Jordan's are married and are all over the world. Susan gets a chance to have a family life when the Parrish family invites her stay with them, Mrs. Parrish is missing Tippy who was just married. I’m a little disappointed that Mrs. Lambert is having Bobby fall for Susan since he is definitely not a favorite of mine. I like Susan Jordan as a character and can relate to her the most out of all the Janet Lambert girls. Can't wait to read what happens next to her!

**I now own all three series

[Karen Plummer · Rating 5 out of 5]

15-year-old Susan Jordon is excited... she's going to leave her boarding school and go to Turkey to live with her father, General Peter Jordon. She's been longing to belong somewhere, to be with family again and have a more useful life than she has in school and this trip to Turkey seems like just the answer. Unfortunately for Susan, her father is suddenly reassigned to the Far East and can't take Susan with him. Susan feels that she just can not stay at her school so she sort of runs away to her sister Alice in Pennsylvania to figure out what to do next.

No one seems to quite understand Susan's need to be away from the regimented life she had at her school or her need to set up house somewhere and be needed by family as she was when she was a kid, before Jenifer moved away and Alice got married. With help from the Parrish family, Susan's dream of a home comes closer than she ever imagined.

I really loved Marjorie Parrish in this one. She's just an awesome mom and really enjoys having Susan around and being able to help her make some important decisions. Bobby Parrish is both an annoyance and a help to Susan. He's taking over being a brother to her (although he's obviously falling in love with her too) and "letting" her take care of him because he seems to recognize that she needs to be able to take care of people. He's a bit overpowering, but he seems to mellow out a bit as the story goes on. And Susan gives as good as she gets so she doesn't let Bobby get away with much. Their interactions are interesting to follow.

[Lori Baldi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first Janet Lambert book that I read as a young adult. I fell in love with the Parrish & Jordan family. I'm so pleased that I have a copy of this favorite now. I need to look into completing the set.

[J.M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took a break from Lambert books for a few months, mainly because I needed to read more books in another genre, but also because I don't want to finish them all too quickly! I love these characters and this story world, and I don't want the fun to end.

I'm enjoying reading about Susan, a sweet, level-headed girl whose dream is to live with her family again instead of being stashed in a boarding school. When her busy father disappoints her hopes, she reacts rashly, but other Jordons plus the Parrishes band together to help her achieve her dream. As always, I love seeing characters from other books and series reappear. Hoping for Carrol and David to have a girl!

I know Bobby Parrish is an immature, self-centered jerk most of the time, but I like him! He makes me laugh, and he seems to be a good guy at heart. I'm interested to see how badly he train-wrecks in coming books. Even at fifteen, Susan handles him quite well, although she doesn't have a clue about his intentions. I hope he develops into a responsible man with a thought for someone besides his all-important "Me."

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love all of Lambert's Parrish and Jordon series but this was my favorite one so far. I'm surprised. I loved the Tippy stories and didn't think I'd like stories about other girls as much. This one is about poor motherless Susan Jordon. First older sister Jenifer held the family together when their father, General Jordon, who knows nothing about raising a family,was fighting in World War II. He has 8 children plus took in an orphaned nephew. Then Jenifer married and took the youngest child and the cousin to England with her. That left Alice to take care of the others. Gwenn married (no loss to the family!), Alice married, and Peter married. General Jordon went blithely off to Turkey placing Vance and Neil, Susan's twin brother, in military school. Susan went to boarding school. She dreamed of living in a house with her family. Her father, the General, told Susan that she could come to Turkey and be his hostess but on the eve of leaving boarding school, Army orders sent him to Japan.

I was often tempted to wish that someone would slap this man! A secondary theme: Bobby Parrish, who is much older than Susan, meets up with her. Big Bad Wolf meets Little Red Riding Hood. It isn't meant to be creepy but I felt like it was. Teaching her to "serve" him? Really?

It's a testament to Lambert's excellent writing skills that I can feel so much for this book and its characters.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I recently re-read this after many years. In my opinion this book doesn't hold up as well as some of the others. Bobby comes off as somewhat creepy--I suspect I might have a similar reaction to the next Susan Jordan book I read.

[CLM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps someone should have warned Susan about Penny's troublesome brother Bobby!