Readers' Advisors Book Review

Wells can tell a story and, as anyone who has read her Ya-Ya books knows, she’ll take you from laughter to tears to anger and back to laughter in a heartbeat. She also knows about the gift of true friends and shows us the nurturing effect these friendships have on us through her protagonists who have such enduring alliances.

In Wells’ latest, Calla Lily Ponder, daughter of a musician/teacher father and beautician/dancer mother and product of a happy home grows up in tiny La Luna, Louisiana. Calla comes of age with her best friends Renee and Sukie and believes she and her boyfriend Tucker will be together forever. Upon high school graduation, however, she finds herself going in a different direction from her friends and boyfriend and must find the strength to pursue her own dreams in the big city of New Orleans.

At times sweet, funny, poignant, and tragic, and with a setting so authentic that it seems to be another character in the novel, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder is not to be missed by fans of southern women’s fiction.

Readers' Advisors