Ya Yas in Bloom - Hardcover

Wells, Rebecca

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007201095 ISBN 13: 9780007201099

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2005

Synopsis

An emotionally charged addition to Rebecca Wells’ bestselling and much loved previous novels, Ya-Yas in Bloom reveals the roots of the Ya-Yas' friendship in the 1930s and roars through sixty years of marriage, child-raising, and hair-raising family secrets.

When four year old Teensy Whitman stuffs a pecan up her nose, she sets off the chain of events that lead Teensy, Caro, Vivi and Necie to become true sister-friends. Told in alternating voices of Vivi and the Petite Ya-Yas, Siddalee and Baylor Walker, as well as other denizens of Thornton, Louisiana, Ya-Yas in Bloom shows is 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, the Ya-Ya values of unconditional loyalty, high style and Cajun sass shine through.

But in the Ya-Yas' inimitable way, these four remarkable women also teach their children about the Mysteries: the wonder of snow in the Deep South, the possibility that humans are made of stars, and the belief that miracles do happen. And they need a miracle when old grudges and wounded psyches lead to a heartbreaking crime – and the dynamic web of sisterhood is the only safety net strong enough to endure.

About this title

Review:

Those sassy southern belle-dames are back. Hallelujah. Fans of the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood will leap for joy. And, to be fair, if you didn't get swept along in the divine madness of the Ya-Yas first time around, there's still plenty to hold your interest in this latest look at the Louisiana lives of the four gals and their increasingly blooming offspring, dahling. That's if you like your words candy-coated and sweet enough to calm a honey-bee. For the rest of us, a good flossing afterwards won't go amiss.

Rebecca Wells quite rightly recognises where her bread is buttered and delivers another slice of the four ladies and their inimitable style of living, hot on the high heels of a Hollywood script. Find out how the Ya-Yas first met, way back when, and how they got all grown-up and married. There’s kids a plenty--well, for the sisterhood anyway and, against some odds, most of them turn out pretty decent folk.

Parts of Ya-Yas in Bloom is told from the point of view of Vivi Abbott Walker’s children, particularly Siddalee and Baylor. So while we swing back in time to the thirties and the early days of the sisterhood, we also travel through the sixties and the arrival in the good ol’ USA of four lads from Liverpool and on into the present day and the modern trials of career women.

There’s even a plot of a kind, although not much to speak of--you can see it coming from afar--and its outcome is as predictable as Vivi’s lipstick. It seems that if you’re not in the sisterhood, then you’re out. And life will just never be as much fun. ---Carey Green

Review:

"Uplifting, uproarious, saucy and smart, the Ya-Ya sisterhood sequel lives up to the highest expectations" Booklist

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0007201095
• ISBN 13: 9780007201099
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400