Love Taps Gently

Jordon Family #5

by Janet Lambert

Book 5 of the Jordon Series. Susan spends her summer working in the Parrish home. Romantic questions ensue. Bitsy returns home from England a different girl. The Jordon family copes with family problems...and love.

Genres: Childrens

196 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1955

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

[Rebekah Morris]

3.5 stars
I do love Susan, and I don’t like Bobby! Oh, sometimes he can be nice, but most of the time he’s a self-centered man who thinks only of what he wants no matter what others say or advise. It was fun seeing Susan, Neil, and Vance all at home again with General Jordon. And then Bitsy came. Oh, Bitsy. She is so young and yet so grown up, so self-reliant yet in great need of family that is loud and fun and somewhat crazy at times too. And then we had to put up with Gwenn. That was drama! But I loved how the family all pulled together and the ending was perfect.
This is not a Christian book and there might have been some swearing in it.

[Karen Plummer]

Susan now has the home of her dreams, with her father now retired from the Army and two of her brothers living with her. She loves her new home and life is close to perfect so, of course, things begin to churn up to bring a bit of chaos back into her life. First, her sister Gwenn is suing her father for mismanagement of her inheritance (from her biological father). Next, the youngest Jordon, Bitsy, is moving back home after years of living in England with the eldest Jordon, Jenifer. Bitsy has some problems and is not settling into life in the US very well. She's disrupting Susan's life as Susan tries her best to help Bitsy get used to the family she's been away from for many years. Also, Bobby Parrish has declared his love for Susan even though she thinks she's too young to be involved with him in a romantic way (she's 16, he's in his early 20s). Finally, Gwenn shows up yelling and screaming and generally having some kind of breakdown. How is Susan to handle all of this?

[Kate Donnelly]

The war is over. General Jordon is retired. Four of the Jordon children are married, three are in boarding school and the youngest is living with Jennifer in England. This story revolves around Susan who feels at loose ends, she has no place to call home and no 'family' anymore. She is determined to have a 'family' again.

[Linda]

I would give this book 4.5 stars. It was really good but not quite as good as the previous book "A Dream for Susan". Lambert's characters really pop and she has such a genius for entwining her characters from various series so that they all meet, become friends, and inter-marry.

In this book General Jordon has retired and they live in a country house close to the elder Dave Parrishes and the younger David Parrishes. This is also Susan's book. "Baby" of the family, Bitsy, comes home from England to live with them but she's an aloof shallow 13 year-old that 16 year-old Susan can't understand. Then Gwenn, who is suing their father for her money that she received at age 21 and spent, comes home and she is a REAL problem. With all Susan's family problems she also has to fend off 22 year-old Bobby Parrish (run, Susan, run!) who insists he's in love with her. Or maybe she likes her sister Alice's brother-in-law Keith Drayton (from that series) better. Who knows at age 16?

The love in the title is that for family, I believe.