Pick me.Choose me.Love me. That is the theme for janjan untamed books so far and I will not be moving foward in reading any more (I also read "The View from the Bottom). The guys are always dirtbags who are rich, white, kind of racist and super cheaters who do not have any intentions on NOT hurting the main female character/love interest until the very end of each book where they realize they cannot keep causing pain. That does not excuse the Halima, in this case, from her own transgressions. Yet another rendition of a side chick book, this book could have been minimized from the never ending chapters you have to endure.
It is very difficult to see black women go through so much hell from a man and still forgive them at EVERY SINGLE turn for any pain they cause. This author seems to enjoy putting the women through hell while the men do whatever they want to do and never receive any consequences for their abhorrent actions. Just as the other book, I kept screaming in my head, "GIRL, STAND UP!!!" How much did Halima need to go through for Jack to show her he was infatuated with her and not in love with her?
I will say that the author was very good at keeping your attention on the drama that kept unfolding, so I will give her that! Did we need thousands of pages to get the message? No, but it does keep the reader's attention once you are able to skip over the filler crap that reads like someone's diary or journal. Because of the tropes in her books so far and from the comments I have read, I don't think these books are my cup of tea.
***Spoilers***
I know this is fiction, but if Halima would have just left with Eldred, she would have never gone through the complete hell Jack put her through. Jack could have been the one that killed her mom and she would have forgiven him so fast. I realize she was too young to know she needed therapy and a relationship was the last thing she needed to be in before working on herself, but this was painful to get through. And even though she was liberated sexually and there is nothing wrong with that, sleeping with Kane and Tavan as soon as she got to the island? Girl, you don't even know where you are and you got your a#$ in the air already? Then you let Jack hit and THEN Eldred??? No sex shaming but dang girl slow down lol. Then the fact that Halima couldn't keep it in her pants like an animal every time she saw a nice-looking guy? Please be for real.
The way that I would have left with Eldred and never came back LOL.....Halima got called a b*tch 5711 times on the first day she was on the island and just stayed. Jack even called her one while she was giving birth in the end - what the? Jack lied so many times I started to question whether his real name was really Jack. He called sleeping with random women accidents and said they didn't mean anything. Literally after a few attempts were made on Halima's life, Jack had Athena slinking and hiding in the boat while he was kissing on Halima before telling her she ain't coming, only to leave her with Eldred so that he can have Athena to himself for weeks. WEEKS. He did this because he assumed Halima would sleep with Eldred which would in turn excuse him for sleeping with Athena, something he had already decided he was going to do before leaving Halima with Eldred. What did Halima do? TOOK HIM BACK. AGAIN. PICK. ME.
Halima and Jack try so hard to change each other and just end up ruining each other's lives and yet they still thing what they have is love.
Also I find that the 2 janjan untamed books I read lean heavily into white male fetishization and a bit of colorism and texturism in an ignorant way. The white males are rich, arrogant a-holes that appear to never care for or respect women, especially black women and the black women are painted as having unwanted dark skin and hair textures, (which are both extremely beautiful features to me) and LOADS of past/present pain and suffering and heavy trauma. It's very off-putting to read white people using the hard "r" so openly in her books with no ramifications. The black female leads never stand up for themselves consistently and it's frustrating to read through. The SUPER pick-me element in the books are so revolting and Halima never really ends up loving herself in the end. All of this gives me the impression that this is what the author inwardly feels personally and expresses that her writing. It's definitely giving PICK ME.
The darkly erotic scene where Halima is tied up is disgusting. She "loves" this man so much that she let's him dang-near kill her with a WHIP. He gives her an ice-cold bath - just dumps her in because she's so damaged from this little event, then whisks her off to be married without telling her in a weird ritual that isn't explained by the author at all. Jack has the nerve to feel bad after Halima let him go so far in the bdsm and of course Halima is reassurring him she is alright when she is certainly not. PICK ME.