Sunday, August 1, 2021

MISS AMERICA by Janet Lambert


 Oh my gosh, you guys - Tippy's back!! We last saw her as the Jordans were stalking her as she flew in from Germany with her parents in CONFUSION BY CUPID. But now we see the same scene from her perspective and it is lovely to have this little nut-job back in the best gol-dang country in the world!

Frankly, this book is a lot of Tippy being Tippy. She wants everything to be chill. She can stay with Penny or Caroll, but I can never keep track of which one she chooses. There is a dash of Trudy giving her solid advice. It turns out that the David Parrishes and the Josh MacDonalds have going in on a house near theirs for the 'rents. Tippy makes a project of turning it into a home to take the pressure off the older Parrishes. 

But mostly there's a lot of Peter Jordan. He looooooooooves her! And she loves him. But she still pines for Ken Prescott. He's always there, in the back of her mind. Talking about little men, assuaging her fears and calling her (barf) cherub. 

In the meantime Alcie lets slip that she intends on marrying Jon Drayton - Well that was fast! - and Tippy's dream of them marrying each other's brothers dies a quick death. Peter wants to take Tippy to the kissing rock - it's a West Point thing - but she demurs. Then later when she decides to bite the bullet, he realizes that she might not be all in. He decides to wait until he knows he is her one and only. I don't know, Peter. It looks like she and Ken are going to last forever. 

At the end she sits on her dad's lap - CAREFUL, HE'S WOUNDED!! - and finds out that Ken is headed to Korea. But first he will be in Washington DC where the Parrishes will visit, should Tippy desire. Tippy desires. And then she feels all funny inside and we are headed to the next book. I kind of want to leap over STAR DREAMS. It's about a horse, for heaven's sake, but needs must and I will power through so that I can find out what happens when Tippy and Ken meet again!

I should mention that this book seems to take the Korean conflict far more seriously than history does and it is nice to see it get some respect. Lambert does love our military! And there are some interesting bits where Penny opines that women could cure the world of war if they got more involved in politics. Gosh, I hope that happens! 

All in all, it wasn't Tippy's best.  I'm going to claim LITTLE MISS ATLAS as that. But the set up for the romance with Ken has me tingling. In a very chaste and Lambert-like way...

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