I was expecting more from this book. I love the premise and thought it had a lot of potential. This is a slow burn that just kind of sizzled out for me.

I did like that this was a second chance romance that includes a baby, but not a hidden baby. I was very glad that Anil had the chance to be involved.

When the settings and descriptions are your favorite part, it’s not ideal. I really struggled to connect with Jana and her inability to forgive.

I Received an e-copy of this book from NetGalley in turn for an honest review!
All the stars!!! I enjoyed this one!
It's rare for me to be so enveloped in a book that I did not want to end. After reading two of Farah's books prior to this one I have come to appreciate her unique style of writing that is always able to engage the five senses and bring her stories to life.This was one of those books that I metaphorically ate the pages up as I read with keen interest and was drawn into the world of our main character Jana. I felt that in this slow burn second chance romance, Jana and Anil's journey from start to end was an experience. This book felt refreshingly familiar with the chemistry between Jana and Anil, the parental love and struggles, the friendships, humour, food, musical references and theatrics and of course the experiential engagement of the senses of Jana's trip to Tanzania! I will miss this couple but I appreciated the ways in which their stories felt realistic and heartfelt. Two imperfect characters figuring out life through forgivness and new found trust. The journey to their happy ending was worth the ride!

Happy Reading!

I enjoyed this ARC of the author's new book which releases tomorrow, May 2/23! I've read one of her other books and really enjoyed it. Though I don't think I like this one quite as much it was a second chance romance, which I'm starting to like more and more, and was set mainly in Tanzania, which sounded beautiful. I also didn't realize this is about two side characters from one of her previous books, so I'll plan on reading that one too even though this stood alone well on its own.

Thank you to Forever and NetGalley for this ARC!
⭐⭐⭐⭐

When Jana travels to Tanzania for two weeks for her friends' wedding, the last thing she expects is to see her ex, especially since he put into the co-parenting app they use that he would be busy at meetings during that time. Now Jana and Anil, along with their daughter and friends and family, are spending two weeks together after nearly 5 years of avoiding each other at all costs.

I loved Kamila Knows Best, so I was thrilled to return to this world and these characters again. And while I wouldn't have imagined while reading that novel that I would want a book focused on Jana and Anil, I loved it and their second chance romance.

Thank you to Farah Heron, Forever, and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

As soon as I saw the cover of this book, I knew I needed to read it. The problem is, once I started reading it, I did not like it. I couldn't connect with Jana. At times I felt she was ungrateful for her mother watching Imani for months at a time.

Other parts of the book felt repetitive and very drawn out.

Jana Goes Wild is the story of Jana Suleiman who is a bridesmaid in a destination wedding in Africa. While en route to Africa, she realizes that Anil Malek, her daughter's father and her worst nightmare, is also part of the wedding party. They'll soon cross paths many times over the next few days.

This second chance romance had the most perfect setting. Reading about their time in Serengeti National Park made me want to jump into the pages of the book and experience what the characters were experiencing. I've always wanted to go on a safari and after reading this book, I want go even more.

Though Jana holds much resentment towards Anil, who caused a bit of a scandal five years prior when he left Jana after she accidentally became pregnant, he really did care for her and their daughter. There were some great scenes with Jana and Anil co-parenting, and that was nice to see.

Overall, this romance was very slow burn and while it wasn't perfect, I enjoyed reading it very much. Read this one for the setting and Jana's mom, Rashida, if nothing else! She was one of my favorite characters!

The following review was posted on my blog on Sunday, April 30th, two days before publication. The blog post includes links to order the books and to its Goodreads page, so readers can add it to their to-be-read books.




Genre: Romance
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
Spicy Meter: 2 fire emojis
Content Warnings: Revolves around infidelity-ish. Mentions parental death and panic attacks. Contains some sexual content.

“Jana Goes Wild” follows Jana Suleiman as she embarks, along with her 4-year-old daughter Imani, on a great adventure that she isn’t too excited to take—a destination wedding in Serengeti National Park. What she did not expect was that her baby daddy, Anil Malek, would be attending the wedding as well, even though he originally had opted out of it. He’s a great dad, yes, but he also cheated on his wife by being with Jana when Imani was conceived, so you might see why Jana doesn’t really quite trust him—although she’s still very much attracted to him. And that’s why Jana’s friends come up with a go-wild list of sorts, in hopes that it’ll keep her mind off of Anil. Will it work? Or will Jana end up as confused as always?

Okay, here’s my problem with this read and why I think my review might not be a fair one: Cheating is the biggest no-no for me. I can’t even begin to think of a redeeming arc for someone who’s blatantly cheated. So you might see where that could interfere here.

If I could just erase the cheating from my mind, I would’ve really enjoyed the premise of this book. A group of friends helping the main character burst out of her shell through a “letting loose” list? Sign me up. But even though this book was as fun as that sounds and the writing was actually great and pretty entertaining, I couldn’t look around Anil and his betrayal. I just couldn’t.

If second chance romances (that include one character that cheated on his significant other to hook up with the other main character) are your thing, then you might like this book more than I did.

If you click here, you’ll be redirected to Goodreads, so you can add the book to your TBR list.

Or you could click here, and be redirected to Amazon, so you can order the book.

ARC provided by NetGalley and Forever Publishing in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: May 2, 2023

DNF at 52%. The story is way too repetitive, and neither of the main characters or their relationship are compelling enough for me to continue. "Jana Goes Wild" is the follow-up to "Kamila Knows Best," and I loved getting to see Kamila and Rohan's wedding. The setting and animals safaris throughout the novel were great. However, the story feels painfully slow because we're in Jana's head, and she's just ruminating on the same things over and over. I was bored sadly and won't finish this one. Though I will continue to read this author.

- 3.75 Stars -
This book was a fun little read! I found it almost too perfect that a lot of the story took place with Jana as a member of a bridal party as while I was reading this book, I was at a bachelorette party weekend! While ours didn’t take place in the Tanzanian wilderness it was still a blast!

Imani absolutely stole the show with her adorableness and the way she had both her parents wrapped around her little finger. Jana and Anil showed an awesome co-parenting system and you can just feel and see how much they really love their daughter. Also, the way that Jana was treated in the workplace after everything happened with Anil (and future Imani) made me absolutely enraged. I felt that Farah wrote this experience well and as something other women might relate with in their own lives.

The second chance romance piece of this story, seemed believable and possible. However, Jana’s trust issues seemed like something that could have been tamped down just by her having easy conversations with those around her. So that area frustrated me a fair bit, but otherwise I really enjoyed the second chance romance piece. Anil seemed like a really great guy who just dealt with some crap in his previous marriage!!

The setting of this book was amazing! All of the descriptions of the landscape and the safari’s made me absolutely desperate to go on some kind of trip to Africa so I can experience all of these incredible things for myself.

Overall, this book was a cute and adventurous read and if you have a love for giraffes and elephants, this book could definitely be for you!

🤍 Thank you so much to the publisher @readforeverpub and the author @farahheronauthor for this physical advanced reader copy!

⚠️TW: infidelity, panic attacks/disorders, sexism, death of parent

This book was delightful and truly so funny, I found myself laughing out loud the entire time I was reading. The premise was a lot of fun and I was really rooting for Jana the whole time.

Also any book with a single dad is automatically 4 stars. Excellent!!

Jana Suleiman has never really fit in. The one time she stepped out of her comfort zone she ended up heartbroken and pregnant. Now she's a bridesmaid for a destination wedding in Serengeti National Park and almost everyone she knows will be there. Her mom, 5 y/o daughter, friends, potential new boss and even her gorgeous-but-not-to-be-trusted-ex. Anil Malek is a great dad but Jana hasn't forgiven him for lying all those years ago. She makes a go-wild list to get her through the week but the more she lets loose, the more she realizes she is falling for her ex again..

LOVED this book! I've always wanted to go on a safari vacation and I kind of got a feel for it from reading this book. This second chance romance had the ANGSTTT that I love and so much chemistry. Jana was a strong and intellectual FMC (which I love to read) who grows throughout the book - she starts off living to the tune of what people would think but learns to push through it. I thought it was a fair representation of the South Asian culture and how parents sometimes parent in accordance with what others would think as well. I love reading South Asian protagonists because I can always see a part of myself in their story.

Thanks to Forever Publishing for my ARC!

I love Farah Heron's writing. I need to go back and get caught up with Kamila Knows Best, now!

There are two things in romance that I'm not usually a fan of: Second chance romance and miscommunication, but I LOVE Farah Heron so I took a chance...and I'm glad I did.

This was a definite twist on the second chance romance trope, and I thought it worked out really well. There were a few times that the miscommunication was a little much, and I found myself wishing they could have just had a conversation, but other than that, it was an enjoyable read.

This was a fun one! I loved the safari descriptions, the wedding events, and the meddling family members. The romance definitely took a backseat to the family and coparenting drama. But I still enjoyed my time with this one! 3.5⭐️ rounded up

I didn't realize that this was a sequel to Kamil Knows Best, though for those that haven't read it, the author is good for giving a good refresher. Unfortunately I only made it to 30%, this saddens me, being a big fan of the author's previous works - Accidentally Engaged it awesome! I couldn't get into this story or the characters, Jana was just to angry all the time and rehashing the past to make this the fun read I was looking forward to. Maybe I'll try again but I doubt it, I'll just keep my eye open for her next book.

4.5 out of 5 stars!

I asked myself how this was my first Farah Heron book because I fell in love with this story from the beginning. Jana didn't expect to find herself a single parent living with her mother. But there she was raising a child who spent 50% of her time with each of her parents. Jana and Anil found themselves together at their friends' wedding. Throughout the story, it was evident that Anil saw this as the perfect opportunity to convince Jana that they belonged together. But Anil's betrayal early on convinced her that he was untrustworthy. Coupled with her mixed feelings about Anil and wanting to move forward with him were the expectations of her mother and the culture in which she grew up. To make matters worse, her mother kept perpetuating a lie that Jana and Anil were divorced.

"You should be living for you, not for others."

While it is difficult to break the bonds of culture and tradition, Jana found herself in a predicament partly of her own making. It was easier to push Anil away than to trust that he was 100% all in. The author touched on a lot of sensitive topics throughout the story and gave the reader the perfect lens to view this couple, their culture, and their love story.

I received an advance copy of this book at my request and voluntarily left this review.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC. Here is my honest review:

This book made me feel: resentful... (until the end)

Jana Goes Wild follows the story of a single mother who gets a second chance at love with the father of her sweet 4-year-old daughter while at a family friend's destination wedding.

My favorite parts of this story were unique setting of the Serengeti, the foods described (not to mention recipes at the end!), and representation of South Asian wedding traditions. All this while showing two adults respectfully co-parent together, always putting the needs of their young child first filled me with warmth.

What didn't work for me (and where the resentment came in), was how tightly the main character (Jana) held on to her resentment of the father of her child, Anil. The book begins with Anil's one big (and it was big) mistake, so at first I was quickly swept up into team Jana with her well detailed thoughts, emotions, and logical decisions. I was ready to rage with her.

But for the remainder of the book, Anil is shown time and time again being a kind, patient, and considerate father and co-parent. He frankly is almost written as too perfect and smooth for me to understand how after years of him constantly putting Jana and their child first that she still can't stand to be in the same room as him. Eventually, I started to get frustrated with Jana for dwelling so relentlessly on the past and felt like she was allowing this one wrong-doing to completely define herself. It made it difficult for me to get past the second act and finish the book.

ana Goes Wild is set at the most exotic location for a romance story - Serengeti National Park. Jana finds herself in forced proximity to man who fathered her daughter five years ago. While they co-parent beautifully, they haven't really discussed what happened and what she feels was his betrayal of her affections.

From the delicacy to the safari adventures, the romance story got lost in its locale. Anil is a dreamboat, and tolerated a lot from Jana over the past few years to help raise their daughter. He listened, compromised and adores his child. Kudos to Heron for properly portraying what it exactly means to co-parent effectively for the betterment of the child.

The only drawback to the story was Jana's constant resentfulness toward Anil. She was so unforgiving of what happened as somethings were out of his control. It was waring to actually like her character as she just seemed so angry all the time.

While this book had potential, it got bogged down the unsavory attitude of Jana and it forgot it was a romance novel.

Thank you Forever for the complimentary copy of this novel.

After a disastrous decision five years earlier That left her shattered, but with her daughter, Jana vowed to avoid any thing similar to it. But now she’s off to Tanzania for a wedding and her ex will also be there.
I liked all the drama that surrounded Jana, who tired to avoid it. She was fair with Anil, who I was undecided about until almost the very end.
I thought he was very unfair to Jana while he had been very forthcoming with the truth and then lambasting Jana for doing the same thing.
I liked the grand gesture Jana makes but honestly I thought it should have come from Anil instead.
It’s a good story about second chances.

As always, Farah Heron swept me up and kept me reading with the loveliest characters and interactions, and I stayed hooked till the very last page.

This was an enjoyable read in a fun setting. Characters develop throughout the story but some of the same angst gets a bit old while it stays believable. I did find myself rooting for their HEA and it arrived just in time. Thanks for the ARC in exchange for my honest review #netgalley!