(I do like Francine a bit better than Francesca as a name, I've got to say.)

Yeah, it comes across rather perfunctory. The characters could be interesting enough, and having Kira interact with them is a good way to bring potential out of them, but family really isn't the way to go about doing that, and so when Paolini does try to do it that way, it comes out quite wrong (and his absolute lack of understanding of how to do so doesn't help, either). He presumably copied this aspect from some other work and tried to apply it here, but the mould doesn't fit on someone with motivations that are often quite abstract and not very personal, and filling the mould up with foam doesn't hide that fact. I'd just have liked to see more of Kira bonding with people over a shared appreciation of life or something; that'd fit her character better.