Review: Blow Me by Lennie Ross

Blow Me is the story of three single women—each close to forty and living a life they have long outgrown. Aware that the women’s magazines of their youth sold them a false bill of goods about having it all—the amazing career, the baby, the house, the husband—each woman is desperate to achieve some sense of stability. Skylar, a hairdresser/executive assistant who lost her job and burned down her apartment after a fondue party, is living out of her car; Chloe, a struggling actress/real estate agent with a French Canadian accent who has never sold a house and doesn’t have her SAG card, struggles to get a Green Card; and Dawn, an MBA-educated dating matchmaker, is hedging her bets against the ticking clock by freezing embryos. Their lives are in chaos and their only hope is to be rescued through marriage or by a Hairy Godfather. Situated in the shallow world of Los Angeles, this provocative novel in the style of Sex and the City provides a humorous look at aging, dating, and being single in the new millennium.

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Let me just say, Lennie Ross, you wrote one entertaining book!! I was fascinated with the lives of Skylar, Dawn, and Chloe. Set in the glitzy setting of Los Angeles, three very different women have forged a life for themselves and a tight friendship. (At least two of them did anyway.) Skylar's journey to finding herself and her purpose in life was rocky. Losing your job to two Barbie dolls and then burning your apartment down (hey, it was in the proverbial heat of the moment) is definitely rough. Living in her car, she had to work out where she could park for a night, where to find free food, where to grab a quick shower, all the while avoiding letting anyone know that she was, in fact homeless. Enter a man that seemed very unlikely to catch Skylar's eye, but helped her grow and find her dream job. Dawn's path was filled with an overbearing mother that just wants to see her married with children and possessing a hesitance to live her life. Her mother finally takes matters into her own hands and signs up, posing as Dawn, for a dating service and arranges a date for her daughter. Enter Jake. Dawn, as much as she likes Jake, is privately going through the process to freeze her embryos to keep up with the biological clock that is ticking away. And then we have Chloe. Honestly, I didn't find her likable. She felt fake and too materialistic. As she schemed to find herself a husband to stay in the country, I couldn't get behind her character and root for her.

Lennie's debut novel is full of heart and fun characters. The supporting cast is made up of some incredible men, some downright sleazy men, a mother that makes you want to yell at her in Dawn's defense, and a couple of cute kitties. If you've been to LA, you can envision clearly a lot of the places that are described, which helps bring it to life. I have to agree that if you love "Sex and the City", you are going to enjoy "Blow Me", a great debut from Lennie Ross.

If you want to learn more about Lennie, please check out her website, you won't regret it!