Jalana Remy

"A Chance On Us" by Jalana Remy is a romance novel, set in Trinidad in 2023, presents a compelling narrative about love, faith, and the complexities of single parenthood. As a follow-up to "A Good Woman" (released May 2024), the author skillfully crafts an engaging story that both stands on its own and builds upon the previous book's foundation.

The protagonist, Jane, embodies resilience as a single mother to six-year-old Destiny, rebuilding their lives after losing their home to a fire. Her show more character development is authentic—showcasing her fierce independence while revealing her underlying vulnerabilities about letting someone new into their carefully constructed world.

Dante, the male lead, brings depth to the traditional "good man" archetype. As both a firefighter and a minister in his father's church, he represents stability and moral conviction. His decision to abstain from physical intimacy until marriage—based on genuine religious beliefs rather than judgmental attitudes—creates meaningful tension in the relationship and challenges Jane's preconceptions.

However, I wish the author showcased more of theTrinidad setting to add cultural elements such as local cuisine, describing landscape and history to the narrative.

What elevates this story beyond typical romance is its thoughtful exploration of complex themes:
- The aftermath of trauma and rebuilding one's life
- Balancing independence with the vulnerability required for love
- Faith as both a guiding force and potential source of conflict
- The challenges of blending families and introducing new parental figures

The novel skillfully connects to its predecessor by offering fresh perspectives on previously established characters (Anele and Faye), providing rewarding continuity for returning readers while remaining accessible to newcomers.

While Jane's decision to hide her daughter from Dante initially seems questionable, the author creates sufficient emotional context to make her hesitation understandable, if not entirely justifiable. This complexity makes their journey toward mutual trust and family formation all the more satisfying.

The secondary storyline about David and the church conflict adds depth to the community setting and raises intriguing possibilities for future installments.

Overall, "A Chance On Us" delivers a heartwarming yet realistic romance that respects both its characters' faith journeys and their human flaws. The author's ability to create multidimensional characters facing authentic challenges makes this a standout addition to the romance genre.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​ show less

What a great story. From what happens when a heart gets broken, to when it heals, this is a book about love.

Set on the beautiful island of Trinidad, heartbroken Malika moves to the big city to escape her past. After opening a diner, her accidental customer, Aiden, not only falls for her food, but for her. But a broken heart is cautious and this story is about how to rebound from mishandled love.

Loved it. It was great. A little risqué, but all good love stories are physical. Would love to show more read more from this author — They really know how to pace a story well. show less

I received a ebook/kindle copy from the author in a giveaway on LibraryThing for a review. A Good Woman is a self published debut romance novel by Jalana Remy, Published May 10, 2024.

Anele abandoned his mother’s dream for him to become an architect, but he had the desire to follow his father’s footsteps and pursue a career as a contractor. Faye is gorgeous, troubled, loves to cook. She aspires to seek higher education, but works as a bartender for existence.

I love that the characters show more are mature and ambitious. The viewpoint alternates between Anele and Faye. Dante, Anele’s cousin brings comedy to the story. Anele is a perfect gentleman, compassionate, good looking, emotional, but a man seeking love, a wife and is forgivingly attracted to Faye. Faye is a bartender in a seedy bar called “Shotters”, where Anele first lays eyes on her. He quickly turns into her knight in shining armor and cares for her.

The author infused tribal African roots, and the familiar was very present, prominent and proud. The homestead of Aneles parents estate was so descriptive, it made me think of Wakanda…lol.

There are a few love scenes that were lengthy, intense, and very sensual. Some parts of the story became repetitive, but the authors writing is pretty clear and enthralling.

It wasn’t until the 12th chapter that it was revealed to me that the setting was on a island in Trinidad and Tobago. The places mentioned in the story are the cities Cunugia (Cunupia is a town in central Trinidad), and Moruga (The village of Moruga lies on the central south coast of Trinidad at the western end of the Trinity Hills). I would have loved more details and descriptions of the Trinidadian’s history, food, culture and climate. A historical perspective of baptism in this country would have made the novel more insightful. The story heated up in chapter fifteen, where Anele exacts revenge on Faye’s ex-boyfriend. The story ended like a present, wrapped up with a bow and glitter.

My most loved characters were Sam, Anele’s father, and Dante, Anele’s cousin. They were warm and welcoming, honest and respectful.

My personal playlist while reading this book would include:

More Than a Woman by Calvin Richardson https://www.shazam.com/track/64325202/more-than-a-woman?referrer=share show less

"A Good Woman" by Jalana Remy is an interesting story from the standpoint that it includes some topics/scenarios that traditional romance novels avoid, i.e., be advised there are trigger warnings, and rightly so! I don't want to spoil anything so I'm not going to reveal what they are, but suffice it to say that even though I read the trigger warnings, the description still caught me off guard when it came up in the book and it seemed like a very true-to-life description. This scenario is show more important because it sets up the rest of the premise of the book, so if you skip this part, the rest of the book lacks context. I'm not sure, were I the author, I would've had the intestinal fortitude to write about something so triggering with as much candor and vivid detail, so I give her props for that, at least.

Once the wheels are set in motion, however, the book becomes somewhat monotonous. There are only so many different ways you can say they sucked each other's tongues, y'know? And while I appreciate spicy sex scenes as much as anyone, I feel like every scene should serve a purpose and advance the novel's story arc. I felt like sometimes, these scenes were just thrown in to kill time/fill pages until the next big crisis, so they were explicit, but boring at the same time.

I did not like how the female main character (FMC) started out being strong and sassy, then got wishy-washy and wouldn't ever just tell the male main character (MMC) what she was thinking unless he dragged it out of her. And I didn't like how the MMC thought because he saved the FMC once, that he then could tell her where and when she could work, etc. He came across as controlling - or as if he were starting down that kind of path. I didn't like that he threw temper tantrums about big issues and did things like slam doors, glare, and drive fast instead of just talking about them.

This story is set in Trinidad and Tobago, and I imagined in my head a lilting Caribbean accent which really enhanced the world built by the author. I recognize that the dialect of English spoken there is different from what I speak, but the fact that - to me - words were left out or were not used with the correct tense or even, in one instance, simply misused, entirely (using the word "scoffed" instead of "scarfed," p.59) was disconcerting at best and completely took me out of the story at worst.

However, there was believable conflict with genuine issues to be worked out, and interesting supporting characters, as well. So although the book is problematic in some respects, there is a decent plot and I think with some serious editing and help in the pacing, it has great potential.

I rate each of the individual aspects of this book on a scale of 1 to 5 stars as follows:

FMC - 3 stars
MMC - 3 stars
Supporting characters - 3 stars
Plot - 3 stars
Pacing - 1 star
World-building - 4 stars
Sexy times - 3 stars
Grammar/Syntax - 1 star
TOTAL: 21 stars out of a possible 40, for a rating of 2.6, rounded up to 3 stars.

I would encourage this author to keep writing because, as noted, there is a lot of potential here. A good editor would probably help iron out the kinks in the pacing, as well as address some of the syntax and grammar issues. Not counting those two areas, I would probably still only give this book 4 stars due to some character flaws in the main protagonists and the explicit inclusion of what is, I'm sure, a problematic event for many readers. I look forward to what Ms. Remy will do as she develops more as a writer! show less