Written by Linh Le JamesI loved it! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
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Today I would like to welcome back to my blog author Linh Le James, and thank her for writing a Guest Post about how she is finding 2020.
I would also like to thank Linh for the free digital copy of #SkinAndBlisters for my review.
#SkinAndBlisters is Book 2 in the #Toots series.
I would also like to thank Linh for the free digital copy of #SkinAndBlisters for my review.
#SkinAndBlisters is Book 2 in the #Toots series.
The blurb:
#Toots Book 2.
Jess drives herself insane, trying to prove her husband's affair. Timing his trips to the shops? Check. Looking for burners in the toilets' cistern? Check. Can she stop herself before she breaks her own marriage?
Louise pretends to be vegan, spiritual, and teetotal. Only vino and fags can ease the stress of wedding preparations, but she bravely decides to give up on her vices. Can she turn into a saint before her fiancé finds out who she really is?
Carla is falling for her very young assistant. Will she follow her heart or her head?
Emily is a magnet for psychos and losers. Her new, normal, seemingly-nice boyfriend asks for a break. Will she get back with him? Or at him?
If things can go wrong, they will. Luckily, there's nothing that cocktails, lousy sisterly advice, and friendship can't fix.
Fiction
Humour
My thoughts:
#SkinAndBlisters is the sequel to #Toots, and I'd forgotten how much I'd enjoyed that story until I started reading this one. And not just because each chapter begins with a cocktail recipe! We pick up the story with Jess and Scott now in counselling. Jess firmly believes Scott is cheating and is determined to prove it. At work, Jess has taken Pat, AKA Shneck, in hand, and is helping her with her ambition to date the contemptible Albert. Jess's plan involves getting Pat to see she deserves better than Albert, and I was highly amused by this sub-plot.
Carla is pregnant and needs to know whether it's Ben's or Freddie's. Either would present a problem as her ex, Ben, had never seen her as 'The one', and Freddie is almost a decade younger than her. Carla is also suffering from baby brain, resulting in a terrible mix up at work - another hilarious sub-plot, which is re-enacted at Louisa's hen party.
Louisa is engaged to Nick, the extremely wealthy fitness centre owner, and is planning their wedding. She continues to smoke, drink alcohol, eat meat and pretend to be something she is not, in order to appear to be the right woman for Nick. Louisa's smoking habit gets her into serious trouble, but she is rescued in time and rethinks her behaviour.
Emily has moved on from Max who was not what he seemed, and is now dating Josh. Penelope at the gym seems interested in Josh and when Josh says he needs a break, Emily thinks she's being replaced in his affections by the perfect Penelope.
Of the secondary characters: Crazy Lola is still a catalyst for trouble, although slightly toned down in this story - well she did keep her promise not to get them all arrested at Louisa's hen party! Albert is still detestable, with a day of reckoning looming. I am warming to Pat, who needs to believe she is worthy of decent, caring man in her life, not the obnoxious individual she has set her sights on.
#SkinAndBlisters is another humorous look at the four sisters, their lives and relationships, and is told from the perspective of each of the sisters. The main characters are realistic and likeable, even Louisa by the end of the story. I particularly enjoyed Jess's sarcasm, Louisa's naivety, and there were several points in the story where I laughed out loud imagining the events being described.
I really enjoyed catching up with the sisters, and would wholeheartedly recommend #SkinAndBlisters to readers who enjoy a humorous peek into modern relationships.
Guest Post from Linh Le James
2020
2020 has been the strangest year so far. I mean, I should have seen it coming. I’m superstitious like that. I believe in angel numbers. I smile when I see 11:11 on the clock. 4:11.
2020 had to be different. Good different, or bad different. Different, for sure.
We were all dreading 2000 – yes, I’m that old – when computers would crash, pigs would fall from the skies and the San Andreas fault would break open and swallow half of the earth. Nothing of the sort obviously happened. On the stroke of midnight, I was stuck in the subway on my way to the Eiffel tower to watch the fireworks. The city was so crazy busy we didn’t make it until half past one in the morning. The police had cordoned off the city and there were no taxis. We hung out in the freezing cold until the metro started running again at six am and we could get home.
2020 snuck in unnoticed.
Early January this year, Nacho, my little Chihuahua, was viciously attacked by a big dog. It all happened so fast and so slowly at the same time, like in those movies when you see the mum driving the kids to school on a rainy morning. Everything feels so familiar and normal it feels wrong. The children are arguing about something random. Then the truck hits.
It lasted an eternity and a split second. Not all seconds are created equal, though. The owner didn’t do anything to make her dog stop. She told me to step away unless I wanted to lose an arm. I listened. I was scared. I was a coward. Every time I replay it in my head, I come up with ten ways of saving him. But I didn’t. Once the attacking dog was done shaking Nacho like a rabbit, he dropped him to the ground. His little body was motionless and shred to pieces. His tongue was blue. He was still breathing. I picked up what was left of him and rushed to the pet hospital.
Every time I get in my car, on the passenger side, and I buckle up, I get a punch in the chest. There’s a blood stain on the seatbelt, at heart level, where I was cradling his lifeless body. I’ve never bothered to clean it. Maybe I want to remember that, sometimes, when hanging off the carriage of a running train, thinking before jumping will make you miss the spot you were aiming for.
I cried. I fervently prayed. For hours. For three days. My friend Nikki sent him healing. Nacho fought like a brave little soldier. Just after the vet said he had been through the worst, he gave up. By leaving on Lyra’s birthday, he was telling that his time being my “baby” was over and he had to go.
The blame and guilt will never go away. His horrific painful death will haunt me forever. He was my baby and I loved him like a child. I do not expect people who do not have a pet for a companion to understand.
February rolled over. COVID happened. My nan was in a rehabilitation centre in Washington DC. COVID spread like wildfire there. My family took her home for her last days. Like knights clad in PPE, my cousins took turns to feed, wash and look after her. They organised video calls with family who were in lockdown. The last words she whispered before she passed were “I love you.”
#SkinAndBlisters was born this year from fear, love, pain and forgiveness, and from the need I have to make people laugh, because life is too short for tears.
| Author Bio – Linh Le James |
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 Linh is Vietnamese. She was born and grew up in France. After college, she moved to Southern California and lived there for a few years before settling in the UK for 15 years, first in Wales, then in Surrey. In 2018, she packed all of her shoes, her kids, hubby, and the Dog and moved to the UAE. Storytelling is her passion since childhood. Things about her she doesn't want you to know: She forgets to pack the girls' snack and then has to run to school to deliver it. She has two alarms set on her phone for the school pick-up. She pretends to have meditation sessions in order to have a nap. Her kids eat more greens than she does. 80% of her daily water intake is made up by coffee, the rest by wine. |
| Social Media Links – | |
| Web site | http://www.linhle.co.uk/ |
| Facebook Author Page | Linh Le James Writes |
| X | twitter.com/LinhLeJames |
| https://www.instagram.com/linhlejames/ | |
| Goodreads | .Linh Le James |
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