Today I'd like to welcome Portia Macintosh to my blog as part of the tour for It's Not You, It's Them, today she's sharing three things to avoid at Christmas, so over to Portia:
Three
things to avoid at Christmas
Christmas
can be a very tense time, that’s why when I was writing It’s Not You, It’s
Them, I decided that it had to be set at Christmas. Emotions are running high,
everyone is working hard to make their loved ones happy – and all for one day
of the year.
Obviously
it would be nice if this one day was as joyous as possible, so here are three
things you can avoid if you want everyone to get along well.
1. Don’t
play games
No, I’m
not talking about mind games – although probably steer clear of those too.
Board games are one of the easiest ways to turn a nice day into a big argument.
There’s a saying, in my family, that a game of Monopoly doesn’t end until
someone has flipped the board over and stormed off angry. If you can do
anything else to amuse yourselves, then do it. Just like a roll of the dice,
how the game plays out will be complete luck. Don’t risk it.
2. No
debates
Politics,
along with debate of any description, is not something that should be discussed
over dinner. One of the fastest ways to fall out is to break out your
difference of opinion. Debates almost always lead to arguments, so avoid,
avoid, avoid.
3. Be
helpful
Even if
it isn’t your job to prepare dinner, offer to help in any way that you can.
When you have a lot to do, to please a lot of people, it can be hard, and
stress levels going up can cause tempers to get shorter. Do everything you can
to make sure that everything runs smoothly.
Review
I love Portia Macintosh's writing style as it's full of comedy moments and quirky characters that just make you want to love them. Her latest book It's Not You, It's Them is no exception to this with slightly sex mad Roxie whose about to meet the in-laws from hell.
Roxie's dreams have come true, she's finally met the man of her Prince Charming in Mark. A man who adores her just the way she is and is only too willing to help with research for her job as a lifestyle joyrnalist, even if it means dressing up and acting out sex scenes from some of the most iconic movies. When he proposes Roxie is shocked but happy, until she has to meet her news in-laws.
While Roxie's parents are over the moon to have Mark join their family, his family are a little less welcoming towards Roxie. The couple decide to drive up to Yorkshire to his family a few days before Christmas and surprise them with meeting Roxie for the first time and by announcing their engagement.
Roxie, a born worrier is concerned about this and rightly so as Mark's family do not give her the warm welcome she is longing for, they are not horrible just too wrapped up in their own problems to really care about her presence. Apart from two people, Bea Marks ex-girlfriend and his mother, both of whom seem to be determined to makes Roxie's stay as uncomfortable as possible. Unfortunatley Roxie and Mark get snowed in and have to endure his family a little longer than expected. Will their relationship survive?
I loved Roxie, she appears to be self-assured and confident on the outside but on the inside she is a born worrier and that for me made her adorable. She tries so hard to engage with Marks family but with disasters following her around she always seemed to make things worse. Mark was lovely but his family although appearing close-knit didn't appear very loving towards each other and I really felt for Roxie being stuck in her Christmas nightmare. The worst character was Bea and how she was always trying to make Roxie feel small and inadequate and if I'm honest I was praying something awful would happen to her to stop her being so perfect.
I really enjoyed this book, it was full of humorous comedy moments which had me laughing out loud and sharing with my husband, we are both blessed not to have horrible in-laws! It's the perfect book to put you in a good mood and one which I can see I will read again and again.
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