BLOG TOUR STOP: REVIEW: Domesticated by Jettie Woodruff

do·mes·ti·cate

1. To cause to feel comfortable at home; make domestic.
2. To adopt or make fit for domestic use or life.
3. To bring down to the level of the ordinary person.

In one way or another, each definition applies to Kendra, the main character in Jettie Woodruff’s newest release, Domesticated. On the surface, Kendra doesn’t seem to embody any meaning of the term, but as her façade is stripped away, and society’s expectations are no longer a cross to bear, readers and Kendra herself will soon realize that through her horrid upbringing, her stepford wife lifestyle, and her cold hearted bitch role, she epitomizes that term and can only be freed from it by acknowledging her past and what was taken away from her due to falling prey to what her class dictated.

Definition 1:

For many years, Kendra was comfortable in her lifestyle. Spending money, gossiping with stuck up friends, and allowing her husband to control everything was the norm for her, and she embraced it because she was groomed to do so.

Definition 2:

Her step mother and her class’ expectations confined her and molded her into the stone cold woman Kendra is at the beginning of the story. She fits in with her elitist friends because she knows how to play the part, control her emotions, and hide behind her stuck up personality.

Definition 3:

This explanation is illustrated after Kendra escapes her society’s grasp and heads to Malibu on her own where she’s allowed to make her own decisions and hold some of the power that has always been wielded against her. But in the truest sense of the word, Sam is the one who brings this definition to fruition. He’s the one who calls Kendra out on her frigidness and her uppity bitch attitude. She can truly be herself with him; the ice cold persona doesn’t work around Sam and she starts to thaw when she’s around him, which is both a good and bad thing.

Out of all of the definitions, Kendra desperately wants to choose #3, but it’s not that easy to separate herself from the only world she’s ever known. Despite the adulterous choices she makes, though, she likes the version of herself she can be with Sam and realizes that the proper and pristine idea is only an illusion – one that she refuses to buy into anymore. But how she breaks free from those expectations and the painful memories of her past is easier said than done, but if one thing is clear about Kendra throughout the entire text, she’ll fight like hell to get what she wants when it comes down to it.

Domesticated is an intense emotional journey for Kendra as well as readers. Kendra truly is a product of her environment and the abysmal acts that were committed against her. Reliving her past and witnessing her transformation with Sam’s help truly illustrates how fragile the human psyche can be when one is driven into darkness.

Jettie Woodruff is a gifted storyteller because she forces readers to become emotionally invested with her characters by how she develops them and what they have to endure. Woodruff takes readers beyond the surface and helps us to examine the reasons behind the choices her characters make, and even if we don’t agree with them, we still understand why they were made. The way everything played out in the storyline had be captivated until the very last page because I wanted to see how Kendra’s story ended; I wanted to know if she could rewrite her future and become the woman she should have been. Domesticated is definitely a mind fuck of a journey, but it’s one that I would take again and again because the writing is that good.

A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.

5 poison apples

I was once told that I was like an animal. Animals were naturally conditioned, just like the rodent that I was, I needed to be conditioned. Aristocrats in our class had a trained way of living. Women had their place beside their hard-working spouses and weren’t allowed to rock the boat.

As a small child, I believed in the preparation requirements. Once learned, a conditioned response is hard to get past. No matter how much I tried, it was a part of me – deep within my subconscious. No matter how much I wanted it to be different, it never was, and nobody could change what had been acclimatized profoundly in my mind.

I knew what I did was wrong. I knew what I hid from the world was dirty. And I knew Garrison would never understand. However, I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t control it. No matter how hard I tried. It was always there, always a part of me, and who I was.

This book is for mature audiences only. In other words, it is F**ked up.

Read at your own risk.