This entire book seems unnecessary, but the chapter titled "Too Much Wild" is not only a waste of time but it is actually one of the worst pieces of writing I have ever encountered.

It is crazy to me that the woman who wrote The YaYa Sisterhood, a book that I loved so much, could be the same person who wrote this abomination.

EXCERPT: A LITTLE LOVE GIFT – Vivi, January 1994

My name is Vivianne Abbott Walker. Age sixty-eight, but I can pass for forty-nine. And I do. I altered my driver’s license and kept that gorgeous picture of me when my hair was still thick and I looked like Jessica Lange, and glued it onto every new license I’ve had since 1975. And not one officer has said a word to me about it. I like to think I am Queen of the Ya-Yas, the sisterhood I’ve been part of since I was four. But the fact is that ALL of us are Queens. The Ya-Yas are not a monarchy. We are a Ya-Ya-ocracy. Caro, who is still more alive than anyone I know, even though she is yoked to an oxygen tank most of the time because of her emphysema. Teensy, who is probably the most sophisticated of us, although she doesn’t know it, and still cute as a bug. I never know when she’ll be home in Thornton – right smack in the heart of Louisiana, where we were all raised – or in Paris or Istanbul. And Necie, our dear, kind Necie, who is still Madame Chairwoman of every charity in the parish, if not the state.

As Ya-Yas, we’ve grown up, raised our kids – the Petites Ya-Yas – and welcomed our grandchildren, the Très Petites, into this sweet, crazy world. We’ve helped one another stay glued together through almost any life event you can imagine. Except we haven’t buried our husbands yet. Well, Caro tried to bury Blaine when she found out he was gay, but decided he and his boyfriend were too much fun and Blaine too good a cook to kill him.

ABOUT 'YA-YAS IN BLOOM': Rebecca Wells's wonderful third book in her Ya-Ya trilogy, which includes Little Altars Everywhere and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood , is sure to provide reading that makes you laugh and cry, a book that will break your heart and mend it again. Ya-Yas in Bloom reveals the roots of the Ya-Yas' friendship in the 1930s, following Vivi, Teensy, Caro and Necie through sixty years of marriage, child-raising, and hair-raising family secrets. When four-year-old Teensy Whitman prisses one time too many and stuffs a big old pecan up her nose, she sets off the chain of events that lead Vivi, Teensy, Caro, and Necie to become true sister-friends. Using as narration the alternating voices of Vivi and the Petite Ya-Yas, Siddalee and Baylor Walker, as well as other denizens of Thornton, Louisiana, Wells show 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, the Ya-Ya values of unconditional loyalty, high style, and Louisiana 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 hold families together and endure. After two bestsellers and a blockbuster movie, the Ya-Yas have become part of American culture -- icons for the power of women's friendship. Ya-Yas in Bloom continues the saga, giving us more Ya-Ya lore, spun out in the rich patois of the Louisiana bayou country and brim full of the Ya-Ya message to embrace life and each other with joy.

MY THOUGHTS: I have lost count of how many times I have read this book over the years since it was first published (2005), and it never fails to lift my spirits along with the earlier two books in this series, Little Altars Everywhere and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.

Sometimes one is my favorite, sometimes another, but I always manage to find something new every time I read them.

My favorite moment is the Christmas Pageant, which never fails to bring a tear or two to my eyes - sometimes of laughter, sometimes just raw emotion.

If there is one thing this book embodies it is the value of friends and family; almost indistinguishable in this case. I just love to immerse myself in this madcap but loyal and loving group of family and friends.

I have read some criticism of the parenting style in these books - no, they are not perfect parents, but it does pay to remember that the era these books were set in is totally different to now and to read them keeping that in mind.

The three books that makes up this trilogy sit firmly on my KEEP FOREVER shelf.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#Ya-YasinBloom

THE AUTHOR: Born on a cotton farm in Rapides Parish, Louisiana, Rebecca Wells comes from a culture where story telling is as essential and as rich as gumbo. As Rebecca puts it, “I came from loud, funny people who would fight over who got to read the latest volume of Readers’ Digest Condensed Books. When my novel Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood became a bestseller, I couldn’t help but think of how I used to get confused that both books and milk could be condensed. This confounded me as a girl and still does.”
Rebecca lives on an island in Puget Sound in Washington State where she writes, hikes, reads, dances, and is a student of trees. She is available for one-on-one coaching sessions on the The Soul of Character. She looks forward to resuming performance of her one-woman show, "Divine Daughter of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood", once the virus burns out and the world is safe enough. Rebecca is at work on a new book.

DISCLOSURE: I own my copy of Ya-Yas in Bloom by Rebecca Wells.

_Ya Yas in Bloom_ was very emotionally satisfying after having read _Little Alters Everywhere_. Seeing the Ya Yas and Petit Ya Yas as children restored some of the innocence that was lost in the previous installment. Watching the Vivi and her friends meet for the first time and seeing their friendships unfold was a wonderful salve to the stings of Wells' last book.

_Divine Secrets_ is still probably the best of the three. This one was a little too saccharine at times, and it lacked much of the Ya Yas' caustic wit (probably because they are small children for much of the book). Also, I don't know if I would like it as much if not for the heartbreaking revelations in the last book. I wanted to love Vivi again, so I may have embraced her childhood too enthusiastically.

Basically, if you've read the other two, you need to read this one for closure. If you have only read the first one, it's fine to give this one a miss.

Somehow better than "The Divine Secrets" but still, not a book I would necessarily recommend. The timeline gets super confusing and there are so many irrelevant details. I have the feeling that Wells just didn't realize that the story should have finished with the second book, so she just wrote this trying to give us EVEN MORE insight on the characters, which was a failed endeavor from the start. We already knew everything there was to know about the Ya-Yas and the Walker children, so this book ended up being not difficult to read, or disturbing, or boring, but simply useless. Also, there was no point in trying to emphasize the good side of Vivi (which is something the author also did in the second book) because anyone who has read "Little Altars" will remember her as a vicious child abuser. I liked how the book tackled some issues that are still plaguing the Deep South today such as racism and gun control. I liked the fact that we got to see Baylor develop as a character but I would have really loved it if the same had been done for Lulu.

A measly two stars deserves an explanation. I was really disappointed in this book. I think the author should have left well enough alone. While I loved the previous two books, Divine Secrets and Little Altars, this one had NO plot and it was 50% boring and 50% amusing. It may be partially my fault for waiting so many years to read the third book, but I think I would feel the same had I read it sooner. As a conflicted Southerner raised with all the same racism and religious craziness, I can appreciate many of her story lines. The problem is there were too many characters, not enough was wrapped up, and some of the stories were just so terribly boring.

I recommend this.

Okay, it may be to my, or the book's disadvantage that this is the first in the series for me to read. After enduring this, I doubt that I will try the other Ya-Yas.
Yes, there is some humor, which I enjoyed, but way too much religion: roman catholic christianity, or at least the ya-ya's version, and some parts of the story line, mainly, Baylor, were so drawn out I was ready to pull out hair. The chapters jumping back and forth in time and history was somewhat confusing. The cast of characters, large, but fairly easy to keep up with. Glad for the family trees on the book covers.

I read this because I had read the others in the series. This just seemed like a series of short vignettes that barely held together. It's been a while since I read the others and it was bit tough to keep track of everyone.

I liked it, but not as much as the first in the series. I do like to read books set in the South/

The familiar and much loved characters of the Ya-Ya series return in a collection of short stories. As always, I enjoyed the writing style, rich characters and Louisiana setting (a personal favourite of mine). I felt the additional character development of Baylor particularly interesting - a sensitive man who refuses to carry a gun or kill a deer but still goes hunting with the other masculine characters. The closeness of Baylor's relationship with his wife and children was touching. I was left wanting a little more of this character.

Sadly there were moments when it did feel as though the stories were scenes culled from the other books during editing. This book will separate the true die hard Ya-Ya fans from the casual reader. The real fans will enjoy the characters and little bits of back story which add another piece to the colourful Ya-Ya puzzle we fell in love with in the first two books. The casual reader will not be satisfied with the assumed background knowledge of the crazy Ya-Ya way which was so beautifully crafted in the other books.

At times the religious side was a little too tick and failed to resonate with me for some reason, at one point I actually wanted to skip a page! For Shame!

The very end was sweet when all the stories came together.

I’ve now read the YA-YA trilogy three times through. I just do not understand when people do not love these books.

Divine Secrets made me crave these friendships. Then Little Altars broke my heart for them. And finally, Bloom made all of it feel so complete and beautiful. These three books are BY FAR my most beloved of all Books, with Altars at the very top.