The IE Mommy

Harper Collins

The Crowning Glory of Calla Lilly Ponder

Rebecca Wells

Synopsis: The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder is the sweet, sexy, funny journey of Calla Lily’s life set in Wells’s expanding fictional Louisiana landscape. In the small river town of La Luna, Calla bursts into being, a force of nature as luminous as the flower she is named for. Under the loving light of the Moon Lady, the feminine force that will guide and protect her throughout her life, Calla enjoys a blissful childhood—until it is cut short. Her mother, M’Dear, a woman of rapture and love, teaches Calla compassion, and passes on to her the art of healing through the humble womanly art of “fixing hair.” At her mother’s side, Calla further learns that this same touch of hands on the human body can quiet her own soul. It is also on the banks of the La Luna River that Calla encounters sweet, succulent first love, with a boy named Tuck.

But when Tuck leaves Calla with a broken heart, she transforms hurt into inspiration and heads for the wild and colorful city of New Orleans to study at L’Académie de Beauté de Crescent. In that extravagant big river city, she finds her destiny—and comes to understand fully the power of her “healing hands” to change lives and soothe pain, including her own. When Tuck reappears years later, he presents her with an offer that is colored by the memories of lost love. But who knows how Calla Lily, a “daughter of the Moon Lady,” will respond?

A tale of family and friendship, tragedy and triumph, loss and love, The Crowning Glory of Calla Lily Ponder features the warmth, humor, soul, and wonder that have made Wells one of today’s most cherished writers, and gives us an unforgettable new heroine to treasure.

Where do I begin? The Crowning Glory of Calla Lilly Ponder took me through so many emotions.

It was not a page turning, can not wait to get to the end type of book but rather a slow, warm, get to know the characters type of experience and I enjoyed the journey.

It is a definite coming of age book where a young woman journeys from being a child at her mother’s knee to knowing what and who she really wants to be in life.

I must warn you to have a box of tissue around as you read this book. I cried numerous times throughout this book. The book starts in Louisiana in the 1960’s. Calla Lilly is witness to a brutal racial attack on a young boy that brings tears and sadness to my heart.  My heart also breaks at the loss of her mother, at her first love and at the loss of true love. Calla Lilly is a gently, kind spirit but one that is strong, striking and resourceful.

Ms. Wells creates a world of color, mysticism and the gentle theatrics of a young girl discovering who she is away from the shelter of family and friends. As Calla Lilly matures through the decades of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s…she is introduced to a lot of “hot” topics such as homosexuality, voodoo, alcoholism and racism. Yet she remains true to what she was taught as a child by her family and friends.

You will gasp, laugh, giggle, blush and cry on your journey with Calla Lilly Ponder but you will definitely discover her Crowning Glory and the beauty of her hometown.

**See The IE Mommy Review on Amazon.com