Unprotected: A raw and punchy story of love, family and accepting yourself for who you really are.

by Sophie Jonas-Hill

She's fighting to save everyone else but will she have anything left to save herself?

Witty, sharp and sarcastic tattoo artist Lydia’s life is imploding. Her long-term relationship has broken down after several miscarriages and she’s hiding from her hurt and loss in rage. After a big night out she wakes beside a much younger man who brings complications she could really do without.

As her grief about her lost babies and failed relationships spirals out of control, she obsesses about rescuing a wayward teenage girl she watches from her window and gets more involved than she should with her charming but unstable young
lover.

Unprotected is a raw and punchy story of love, family and accepting yourself for who you really are.

426 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 28, 2019

Reviews

[Lel Budge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, when the publishers say this is raw and punchy they are not kidding. Lydia and Max have been trying for a baby, but after 5 miscarriages their relationship is troubled. When Max moves out, Lydia is a mess and she’s angry, hurt and when friend Cassie invites her out, she goes all out, drink, drugs and wakes up with a much younger man in her bed.

But, Martin is as troubled as she is.

Lydia also sees a young girl in trouble and tries to help.

When her sister gets pregnant, all sorts of family secrets come out.

Lydia, a tattooed tattooist tries to help everyone, but it’s her that needs the help really.

This is an incredibly emotional tale, the heartbreak and trauma of miscarriage, the secrets in families and some gritty truths around neglected, abused and abandoned children. Not always an easy read, but there is also hope and love. A remarkable, thoughtful and utterly engrossing read.

Thank you to Anne Cater and Random Things Tours for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour, for the promotional materials and a free copy of the book. This is my honest, unbiased review.

[Michelle Ryles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my goodness, what a flipping AWESOME novel. Reading books you wouldn't normally pick up has to be one of the best things about blogging; it's so easy to stick to your comfort zone with your favourite authors, but by doing so you're missing out on a wonderful world of outstanding literature with books like Unprotected. It's going to be hard to review Unprotected as it's so fantastic that I all I really want to say is "just buy it", but I'll try to portray some of the reasons why you should definitely do just that.

Lydia is Hurting and I mean that with a capital 'H'. Having miscarriage after miscarriage and yearning for a baby proves too much for her partner Max who kicks Lydia when she's down and leaves her. Oh I could have given Max a good kicking alright! Lydia has never really felt good enough so she takes the failure to carry a baby for longer than a few weeks more personally than most. When Max leaves her she spirals out of control, and I couldn't really blame her, but I feared that she would fracture into a million pieces if she hit rock bottom.

To take her mind off her pain, Lydia picks up an unshakeable one night stand who she refers to as 'The Boy'. As much as he keeps turning up when she doesn't want him to, it turns out that he is carrying his own pain and in order to help him Lydia needs to muster the strength she has deep inside. With Lydia's mind going round like a washing machine, it's no surprise that she suffers from insomnia. When she sees strange things with a young girl going on at the local taxi rank, Lydia's maternal instinct kicks in and she turns into a roaring lioness.

Lydia reminded me of Stieg Larsson's Lisbeth Salander, not only because she has tattoos and blue hair but because she is such a strong character and is willing to fight to keep people safe. It's absolutely astounding how Sophie Jonas-Hill has created a character in Lydia that is so personal and completely laid bare that I felt as if I could see the bones of her. Every flaw, pain and quip builds such a multi-dimensional character that makes it easy to forget that she is fictional.

Absolutely stunning, Unprotected is gritty, raw, emotional and surprisingly humourous. If you're looking for something different to read, you've definitely found it. Unprotected is so unique and painfully compelling; I've never read anything like it. Very highly recommended.

I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

[Cheryl M-M · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s raw, unfiltered and brutally frank at times. The author lays her main character bare and autopsies her mind, body and soul right in front of the reader. There is no unicorn fluff to bolster the hardness or any candy floss moments to make you melt inside. It’s just life as it happens to be for many people – sometimes it’s bleak and full of seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Lydia is probably her own worst enemy when it comes to enjoying what she has achieved, as opposed to dwelling on what she considers to be her failures. She feels isolated, misunderstood and quite frankly often patronised by those who are supposed to be her friends and family.

When her boyfriend demands a break, because he he is unable to cope with her obsession and need to have a child, which is exacerbated tenfold by her history of miscarriages, she feels abandoned. Lydia spirals and ends up picking up a romp buddy who turns out to be just on the right side of legal and dealing with his own baggage.

Simultaneously her instincts, as the mother she would like to be, start to scream when she notices something odd going on with a young girl in her neighbourhood. Everything starts to escalate and culminates in a conclusion Lydia could never have anticipated.

It’s women’s fiction and urban crime, it shines a light on the children who fall through the cracks of the system, which makes them vulnerable and targets for predators. At the same time the author presents the hypocrisy of society when it comes to motherhood, ageism and women embracing their sexuality and desires.

I enjoyed the honesty and the lack of need for approval. This is Lydia and she isn’t even going to try to be sorry for embracing herself. Why should she? Why would anyone want her to? Kudos to the author for this captivating and daring piece of work.
*I received a courtesy copy*

[The Lotus Readers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very personal response because I’m not sure I expected the visceral power of this book. Even though it was billed as raw and honest, I didn’t expect to feel emotionally wrung out by this character’s experiences. In a strange parallel I am currently writing about my experiences of recurrent miscarriage for the memoir portfolio of my MA and it could have been that these memories were at the forefront of my mind as I read. Lydia our protagonist, is a tattoo artist and as the book opens is going through her fifth miscarriage. She and Max are exhausted and raw, but instead of coming together in their grief, it blows them apart. More used to helping others, than accepting help, Lydia tries to avoid what has happened rather than face it.




Sometimes, when we try to avoid feelings that make us uncomfortable we show a ‘covering feeling’ instead. In Lydia’s case she is uncomfortable allowing herself to feel the pain and sadness of loss, for her babies and her relationship, so she acts out from anger instead. She goes on a wild night out, drinks and tries different drugs. The next morning she wakes up next to a much younger man. Instead of being an uplifting new beginning, he brings even more complications into her life just as she’s struggling to keep her head above water..Can she put this down as a one night fling or is she about to become more involved with this unstable young man than she should? In what seems to be another avoidance tactic, Lydia develops an obsession with a young teenage tearaway of a girl she often sees from her apartment window. She desperately wants to help, but with all the pain she’s storing up, does she have room to take on someone other people’s problems?

This a searingly honest portrayal of love and loss. I recognise the powerlessness of miscarriage; the knowledge that whatever you do nothing can stop it from happening. It feels life changing, but yet nobody else can see or know what is happening. I recognise the fear that this will never happen. The frustration that something other women can do without even thinking about it, or even wanting it, is not possible for you. Something stops you fulfilling the most natural function of being a woman - bringing new life into the world. You feel that something is missing from you, Something that makes you a real woman.

There is also the worry that physically your body can’t take much more. Or that mentally you simply don’t have the capacity to hold that amount of grief. The pull between trying just once more and drawing a line to save your sanity is constant. Just once more might work, but what if it doesn’t? Do I have the ability to keep holding it together? I also split from my partner at the time because I felt changed beyond recognition and I couldn’t see him grieving. He simply seemed to carry on regardless, whereas I locked myself in the bathroom to cry for hours at a time. It’s also no coincidence that after three miscarriages, I ended up with three cats. The urge that Lydia has to turn her pain into helping someone else is understandable. It’s turning her thwarted maternal instinct into something positive. The bravery of taking that risk shows how strong Lydia is and how she is able to find hope, even after everything she’s gone through.

For me, this was sometimes a painful read. However, as a multiple miscarriage patient I really appreciated the honesty in writing about the subject. Especially since it wasn’t sugar coated or wrapped within a happily ever after love story. The pain is written across every page and I found it deeply moving and above all, real.

[gill m · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story - shocking and touching at the same time. The narrator’s voice is unflinching as she works her way through the pain of miscarriage and relationship breakdown, explores her own part in the things that haven’t worked out in her life, and finds her own redemption.

[Ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absorbing, thought-provoking story of betrayal and bravery. Sophie Jonas-Hill probes the darkest corners of modern society with boldness and sensitivity. I loved it!