YA-YAS IN BLOOM

Author: Rebecca Wells ISBN: 0060953659 4/2006 FICTION Publisher: HARPER COLLINS
Time Period: 1930's through 1994

An emotionally charged addition to Rebecca Wells' award-winning bestseller Little Altars Everywhere and the #1 New York Times bestseller Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Ya-Yas in Bloom reveals the roots of the Ya-Yas' friendship in the 1930s and roars with all the raw power of Vivi Abbott Walker's 1962 T-Bird through sixty years of marriage, children, and hair-raising family secrets. When four-year-old Teensy Whitman prisses one time too many and stuffs a pecan up her nose, she sets off the chain of events that leads Vivi, Teensy, Caro, and Necie to become true sister-friends. Told in alternating voices, Ya-Yas in Bloom shows us the Ya-Yas in love and at war with convention, through crises of faith and hilarious lapses of parenting skills, brushes with alcoholism and glimpses of the dark reality of racial bigotry.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Wells treats her fans and newcomers alike with another look into the unique group of friends who call themselves the Ya Ya Sisterhood. She gives us a glimpse into the past of the funny and heartwarming antics of these outrageous characters when they were children in the 1930's. We follow their lives through the volatile 60's. Then we move forward with them to years later as they raise their children, "The Petites", and watch their granchildren, "The Tres Petites", grow.

This Ya Ya tale shows us how four remarkable women keep it together through the bonds of their friendship while dealing with racism, alcoholism, questioning of faith, and funny lapses in parenting skills.

I, myself, am a newcomer to this series and genre, and I am so grateful I took the opportunity to read this novel. Needless to say, I have already ordered the first two "The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, and "Little Altars Everywhere". These women will make you cry, make you laugh, and most importantly make you admire the strength of loyalty they all share.

So, if you are revisiting the Ya-Yas or visiting them for the first time, grab a hanky and a cool drink and get ready to laugh out loud with these incredible free spirits!

Deana Monteleone