So remember Cinda? She is the girl who has the superpower of fixing unhappy people. She fixed Paula last book. Paula's dad died in WW2 and her mom had recently remarried and Paula was pissed. But it all worked out. She shows up later.
It is coming on Christmas and War Horse, the oldest Hollister is coming home for the holidays with a friend from the Philippines. Everyone is older now - maybe a year, maybe 2 - it's hard to keep track. Money is tight-ish, the house still sounds beautiful, but it is old, which is bad in Lambert-land.
Paula is coming too and Jinx (middle brother) is thrilled because he fancies her.
Cinda has befriended a boy called Paul. Maybe her super-power isn't fixing unhappy people, but rather people whose first name begins with PAUL. Anyway, he is nice, if a little dull, but they strike up a friendship and she helps give him the courage to leave his very unhappy home (a formerly rich family who has lost anything, but is unable to stop keeping up appearances) and strike out on his own, to FLY AWAY, if you will.
The other children are there, but we shall ignore them because they are so forgettable that I seem to have forgotten whatever subplots they may have gotten themselves into.
So there is much talk of rice and homesickness and foreigners RUINING EVERYTHING for Christmas. Cinda worries, "He might even be a heathen." Good grief. Turns out that the person in question is the son of missionaries from Bangkok, Thailand - not even the Phillippines. Good grief. The whole thing is unnecessary and gross and so of the time.
Paula knows Jinx is into her but tries to get War Horse to come to New York with her. It comes to nothing. I think Janet is trying to make her into the snooty foil. I guess not everyone can be likeable.
I am sure it comes as no surprise that everything turns out lovely and Paul and Cinda are better friends than ever. I have to say I like Cinda, but am finding the books to be distinctly "meh". Perhaps I am a heathen.
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