Rating: 
Summary: Growing up Southern...
Review: The South is oft hard to capture in the pages of a book... yet Rebecca Wells catches the South easily with her writing and hands it to us to peruse, dream of, and encounter. Sidda is a three-dimensional woman who is attempting to understand herself through her past. The gentle stoning of past familial injuries are laid bare in this book for all to judge. Yet, we find, as does Sidda, that we don't want to judge... we simply want to take our gifts from the book...painfully wrapped though they may be. I found myself walking down old childhood roads when I read this book...the South is a world unto itself and "Divine Secrets.." is also a world unto itself... Fix some iced tea, play some Tanya Tucker, and read this book... I only wish it had been longer because I was sad to leave the bright world of the ya-ya's.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much Ya-Ya
Review: I liked this book, but I didn't fall in love with it. I probably will not read it again. I was very involved with the family struggles and the emotional plight of the main character, but the whole Ya-Ya bit got on my nerves. In this book, you have a mess of grown people walking around calling themselves "ya-yas" and "petites ya-ya's". It just wasn't realistic and I actually found it annoying and somewhat pretentious. I would have liked the book much better without all the insane Ya-Ya jargon. The main character is extremely well-rounded and very real. I liked her a lot.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable but long on words, short on story line ...
Review: The main theme is the difficult mother-daughter relationship and its many twists and turns. The Ya-Ya sisters are eternal friends who have connected doing girl to gal to grown up women activites. This group though likeable, seems to lack in education but make up for it in their southern bonding rituals. There were some pages of excitement and others that seemed mute. Although I enjoyed the read, I might have liked it better shortened. This was the first Rebecca Wells title I read, I did go on to read "Little Altars" later.
Rating: 
Summary: YaYa no.
Review: I read this book beacause of my book group, which I think is the only reason I finished it. First of all I think it's way too long. There are too many passages when I sit there "okey okey move on" and get bored. The story could be interesting, a difficult mother and a daughter relationship, but after we get that, it takes forever for something new to happen. Do we really have to know of every single party the YaYa girls go to? Second, it's always boring when you realise that the good people will always be good (and the good people in this book, they certainly are oh-so-good) and the bad people will be bad. No development whatsoever, and therefore no excitement. So, even though I value longlasting friendship and all of that, this book did not make me want to join the YaYa-clubs.
Rating:
Summary: this was such a great read...
Review: I'll admit that this isn't an absolutely perfect tour de force that will make a huge imprint in the literary community, but this book made a huge imprint on me. I'm not Southern at all, so I'm not attached to this book out of nostalgia. However, it did make me think of the spirit and magic of childhood. It made me remember why I love who I love, and why I will remember some moments of my life forever. This may be a chick book (it made me cry), but I don't care. If you are interested in a book that weaves in and out of past and present and different POV's, a book that makes you want to relive your childhood for a bit, then this is definitely for you. It's not all happiness and fun throughout the book, but in the end, you will have that warm feeling of reading the last sentence of a book, while thinking of how much you related to the characters in this wonderful book by Rebecca Wells.
Rating: 
Summary: A Dissenting Review!
Review: It's a good thing I'm hidden behind a keyboard, as I fear I may risk attack by publishing the fact that I think that this book had little to offer! I see by the glowing reviews that many people felt it was reflective of literary nirvana. I, on the other hand, was relieved it was loaned to me and I didn't spend any money on it! I suppose it was problematic for me because I got so tired of reading about women who had stopped taking responsibility for themselves. Maybe I'm just at an age where I'm still moving forward and haven't settled into a life clouded by memories and habits I force others to suffer. Maybe my reaction to the book is the deep seated fear that I could ever be like that! I passed the book along with explicit instructions not to send it back to me, or to the woman who sent it to me in the first place. I'm sure it's out there, delighting many more readers. I'm just sorry so many trees were impacted for the printing of this...whatever it was. Let me put it to you this way. If you try it, and you aren't immediately captivated, put it down. It won't get any better!
Rating: 
Summary: A divine and uplifting book!
Review: Although this book is a bit slow at first, it starts to pick up sooner or later, so hang in there! Siddalee, the daughter of Viviane Walker, a Southern belle with an air of mystery about her who belongs to a group called the Ya-Ya's (the nickname for her and her three lifelong best friends: Necie, Caro and Teensy), directs a play, Women on The Cusp. When an interviewer tricks Sidda into giving her more information about her life than necessary by acting like a warm friend, she uses it against her nationally: The New York Times cover page reads: Tap-dancing child abuser, referring to Viviane. Sidda thought the interview was going to be about her play, but this excuse isn't good enough for Vivi (her Ya-Ya name), who becomes outraged at her oldest daughter, and embarrassed since her small town now thinks of her as an unfit mother. The tension between Sidda and Vivi is too much for Sidda, and she has a lot of confusion in her life, which causes her to postpone her wedding plans to her fiance, Connor, and seek peace in a desolate cabin alone. When she requests any memoirs from her mother of her time spent with the Ya-Ya's so she can get ideas for writing a new play, Vivi (from the urging of the Ya-Ya's) sends Divine Secrets of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, a scrapbook with many treasures, mementos, and newspaper clippings from and about the Ya-Ya's. As Sidda flips through the pages of the well-worn scrapbook, she uncovers her mother's past, and her own, and many secrets are revealed, which has a tumultous effect on Sidda since many of the secrets are shocking and disturbing. The road to reconciliation looks tough, and Sidda is still pondering what she wants to do with her life, especially since she found out that her mother has such a stunning and heartbreaking past that involves her. In that desolate cabin, Sidda begins the search for herself, and wonders what is ahead of her now that she's discovered who she really is, what she stems from. Will things work out between Sidda and Vivi? Will Sidda wed Connor? Will the Ya-Ya's remain a sisterhood? Look for a rich, long, delicious novel...and this book is worth reading through the boring parts!
Rating:
Summary: A hot summer's day of a book!
Review: I loved this book. I cannot think of another way of describing my feelings about this truly wonderful novel. Ms. Wells writes from her own personal experiences of living in Lousiana, and does so so brilliantly! Although only women may understand the female relationships described in this book, I would recommend this book for anyone on a hot summer's day sitting a sun-glazed garden with a glass of oj by their side. I want to read it again!
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully Written
Review: You'll find yourself laughing and then next thing you'll know it, you'll find yourself crying. Rebecca Wells writes like no other author. This book is filled with beautifully written passages. Ex:"Mama and her buddies were the pillars that held up the Heavens." You'll quickly fall in love with these crazy bunch of girls.
Rating:
Summary: Yeah Ya-Yas!
Review: This book was great, I really enjoyed reading it. It was hilarious! I do wish I'd read "Little Altars Everywhere" first, but I didn't. This book is very hard to put down, it makes the reader lose all sense of time!
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