Finding Beauty in the Unexpected

Bloom by Kelle Hamtpon
Before I even start talking about the words in the book, I have to talk about how it actually looks. This book is gorgeous! The entire thing is on photo paper, and there's at least one image every page or so. Which means as you read about an event in the author's life, you actually see a photographer of it happening. I guess that's what happens when you're a photographer, and your blog gets turned into a memoir. But as beautiful as the pictures are, the words that accompany them are even more so.

This memoir documents a year of Kelle's life. The year that she gave birth to her second daughter, Nella. A daughter who has Down syndrome, which no one knew until after she was born. I have no idea how I would react in a similar situation, but I have to imagine I would go through similar emotions.

I know when my mom was pregnant with both my brother and me, when asked if she wanted a boy or a girl she'd response, "It doesn't matter, as long as they're healthy." And while nothing life changing happened to either one of us, I was hospitalized with jaundice, and my brother had surgery to separate the bones in his skull as an infant. My mom had told me that it almost like some form of karma, where the only thing she really wanted, she didn't feel like she had.

While I don't have children yet, one of my biggest fears is that they won't be healthy, that something will be wrong, and I don't know what I would do. And I realize the likelihood of that happening is slim, but still you never know. Which is why Bloom hits such a nerve. Because Kelle, never expected to be here. And yet she is, and her memoir is her coming to term with what life brought her way.

I really did love this book, but if I had to name a negative aspect it would be that at times the progression is too quick. It seems one chapter she still hasn't quite accepted that her daughter has Down syndrome, and yet the next she's being asked to speak at conferences as an advocate for the community. Although I have to imagine part of this is based on how her blog must have grow overnight once she gave birth to Nella.

Speaking of the blog, I really loved the references to the blogging community. I think only a blogger can read about how she flew cross-country with her two daughter to meet an never-before-meet blog friend and really get it.

I feel like I've gone on and on in this review, without really getting to the point. So what I'm trying to say, is if you read this, I promise it will leave an impression.

4.5/5

Disclosure: I was provided this book through TLC Book Tours. All opinions expressed are my own.