LOVE IS A WAR SONG is single-handedly got me out of deep reading slump!

I’m so picky about contemporary romance and this book gives me everything I want when I pick one up!

Avery Fox is a Muscogee pop star on the rise. Her cover on Rolling Stone was supposed to be a huge milestone in her career, unfortunately once it drops and the world sees her posing scantily clad in a feather warbonnet it has the complete opposite effect. Facing threats from her label and the having her identity called into question turns her into a social pariah overnight. She escapes to her estranged grandmother’s ranch in Oklahoma where she meets the rugged cowboy, Lucas Iron Eyes. Unfortunately for Avery Lucas despise her and her music. They learn that the ranch is on the verge of shutting down, so they agree to form a truce ONLY to help save the ranch.😉

A perfect read if you love:
A slow burn 🤌🏽
Hate-to-love trope
Cowboy romance
Complicated family dynamics
Fish-out-of-water trope

What happens when you mix The Hannah Montana Movie with a deliciously tension filled cowboy romance? Love is a War Song by Danica Nava!

This one will tug on your heartstrings and make you feel all the things alongside our main character Avery, who has escaped to her estranged family's land in Oklahoma after a scandal that has the public calling her Native American heritage into question. She meets Lucas, who can't stand her and everything she represents, and they form a tentative truce so she can learn more about her family and culture.

I found myself giggling, tearing up and smiling like crazy while reading, and I know so many readers will too!

Thank You @berkleyromance for free book and @prhaudio for the #gifted audiobook. #berkleypartner #berkley  All opinions are my own.

Favorite Quote: “Love is not a perfect melody that only happens when all the right notes and rhythms present themselves. Love is a war song, a battle cry. Something to fight for.”

When her cover of Rolling Stone goes wrong, pop singer Avery Fox is forced to escape to her estranged grandmother’s ranch in Oklahoma. Thrust into a new environment with family she’s never known, a rancher who wants her gone and a Muscogee heritage she knows nothing about, Avery is entirely out of her depth. But what she thought was the worst thing that could have ever happened, instead leads her to discover more about who she is and who she wants to be.

I absolutely loved this story! I fell in love with Avery early and thoroughly enjoyed her journey from clueless pop star to an engaged member of the Red Fox family. I think that this book will appeal to so many because it really has it all -- found family, a grumpy cowboy, cultural emphasis and a beautiful love story. The chemistry and banter between Avery and Lucas is fantastic. I listened to the entire thing in almost one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down.  

If you are a romance girlie like me then this is one that you can not skip!

Read if you like:
✩ Found Family
✩ Fish out of Water
✩ Personal Growth
✩ Grumpy Cowboy
✩ Slow Burn Romance
✩ Cultural Representation

Audio Notes: The audiobook of Love is a War Song was fantastic! It is narrated by Kyla Garcia who does an amazing job of drawing you into the story and entertaining you the whole way through!

Thank you so much to Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC!

I absolutely loved The Truth According to Ember, so I was extremely excited to dive into Love Is a War Song! Danica Nava's writing is fun, fresh, inviting, and emotional. I adore the Indigenous representation, the uplifting of voices, how strongly the culture jumps off the page, and the light she shines on the constant hardships the Indigenous community faces in today's world.

Avery's character is so enjoyable & witnessing her growth throughout this story was so lovely. Getting to see her become fully immersed in her Indigenous heritage & community back in Oklahoma was beautiful. I loved getting to know her and her fun, witty personality. I loved getting to see her find her true happiness, stand up for herself, and feel like she's found herself. She's a character you can't help but love & root for!

Lucas!! I loved him so dearly and getting to know this grumpy, witty cowboy was so lovely. I adore him, his past & his depth, and getting to see how far he's come in life. He is an absolute sweetheart under that hard exterior!!!

The romance in this was so fun & heartwarming. Watching Avery and Lucas develop from dislike to friends to lovers was wonderful. I loved their connection, their banter & chemistry. The tension was delectable!!! I adored the understanding, comfort, and safety they offered each other. I just loved them!!!

For those who loved the Hannah Montana movie & wish to revisit it in some way, shape, or form... this is the book for you!!! There's no better time for a cowboy romance like the summer!!!

This was such a beautiful story with lots of character development.

The story starts off with Avery Fox, a famous singer, who wore an inappropriate outfit in her latest music video and offended her Native American people. There was lots of drama, papparazzi around her, negative comments towards her that Avery has had enough. Her mom sends her to Fox Ridge to live with her grandma, until the controversies dies down. Avery experiences a down-to-earth life, where she has to help out on the ranch, cook meals, clean - everything that she never had to do before. Lucas, who works on the ranch, thinks that she’s a princess and despises her. Lots of tension, little fleeting moments, forced proximity, feels like Hannah Montana got sent to a ranch and meets a smoking, hot cowboy kinda story 😂🤠 Absolutely enjoyed it!

I did wish there was a bit more Native American culture in this story, however, in the author’s note, she wanted to focus on representation and not teach other people, which is fair.

I just adored Avery and Lucas so much in LOVE IS A WAR SONG by Danica Nava. Layered with humorous and emotional writing, the story also explores family relationships (something I especially love in rom-coms).

3.5 stars

What to expect in this
* Native American representation
* Singer x cowboy
* Grumpy/sunshine

This story follows Avery, a Disney actress ala Miley Cyrus, who is now trying to branch out into music. When a Rolling Stone cover goes awry and the public starts questioning her native-ness, she is sent to spend some time with her estranged grandmother at her house until things calm down.

This was a sweet, easy read. I appreciated the representation in the book and the opportunity to connect with your cultural roots. I like the focus on reconnecting with family, and finding a place where you belong and heart in this story. The romance between Lucas (our grumpy cowboy) was slow-burning. While I enjoyed the book and the romance story, there was not enough action for me until the last quarter of the book and I could have used more. Thank you to Netgalley and Berkeley for this ARC!

Love is a War Song is the second book that I have read by Danica Nava and it gave me the same feelings that The Truth According to Ember did: pure joy.

What I love about Nava’s books is they are both lighthearted and heavy at the same time. They quietly make you think and challenge stereotypes when it comes to our ideas of “Native Americans” in the United States today, but she does it while telling a cute, romantic story at the same time.

Avery and Lucas are two people who come from different worlds and I really enjoyed the opposites attract vibe throughout the story. I also loved reading about how Avery found herself in her culture, even though it was definitely a bubby ride to get there. The romance between the two was cute and spicy, and I enjoyed reading how they both came to understand and love each other as they are.

If you like cute rom-coms with opposite attracts, cowboys, and a whole lot characters finding themselves, then this is a story for you!

✨ Review ✨ Love is a War Song by Danica Nava

Thanks to Berkley and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!

Rising Indigenous pop star Avery gets cancelled for some cultural missteps, when she heads back to Oklahoma to connect with her Muscogee grandmother and learn about her culture. On her grandma Lottie’s horse farm, she meets Lucas and a cast of supporting characters who help her learn about her roots and find her music again.

I really enjoyed this one and thought it was a fun summer romance, perfect for vacation! I was a little uncomfortable first at Avery's take on Indigeneity but this definitely smoothed out as the book went on. There was a little bit of familial miscommunication, and times where the plot slowed a bit, but overall, I loved this!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: f/m romance
Setting: Muscogee land, Oklahoma
Pub Date: Jul 22 2025

Read this if you like:
⭕️ small town, cowboy romances
⭕️ Indigenous culture and identity
⭕️ community support
⭕️ pop stars

I had a fun time with this book and love the characters Danica Nava creates, she does a great job at showing growth and developing a heartwarming found family for our main character, Avery Fox. I loved Avery's journey of connecting with her Native heritage and community and I enjoyed the romance too! Lucas and Avery had immediate chemistry and I couldn't wait for more of their interactions.

I think it's really interesting and cool that Danica Nava wrote this story in a way that shows that just because someone does something bad, it doesn't make them a bad person, and there's room for growth and forgiveness.

if I had to critique anything, it'd be the writing often feels basic and one note. The dialogue sometimes feels like it'd be more at home in a romcom or sitcom, and I could definitely see this being really successful in that format. I had similar issues with The Truth About Ember, but see a lot of improvement in this book and can't wait to see what Danica Nava writes next!

Thank you to Berkley Romance for the ARC and finished copy!

Hannah Montana meets Oklahoma in this Native American pop star rom-com. Avery Fox is at the top of her game; the child actress-turned-musician is trying to find her footing in the music world. Her label and team keep telling her what to wear, what to sing, and who to be, resulting in an insensitive Rolling Stone cover shoot that turns the world on her. Backlash and death threats have Avery finding sanctuary in Broken Arrow, OK, where she has a grandma she has never met. Avery soon learns the hard truth of living on a ranch without all the glitz and glam. With the help of a sexy ranch hand, Avery is exposed to her culture and the life she could have had.

I thought Avery was laugh-out-loud funny - her inner dialogue kept me on my toes, and the poor mishaps that kept happening to her. I loved how much she wanted to impress her grandma and the others on the ranch. She was a strong and determined woman, and it was beautiful to see her embrace her new family. You could tell she longed for having more family outside of just her mom.

I wish we had learned more about her Muscogee heritage. I felt like we only got a small glimpse, like the Stickball tournament, and when she visited Besie. As a reader, I was interested in knowing more! Reading the author's "reader note," though I do understand why she chose not to go into depth, as the author is not of Muscogee heritage and did not want to wrongly depict any information.

Thank you for the e-arc!

A pop sensation and a small town cowboy find a beat that's all their own. But are their lives too different for it to work?

Audiobook Stats:
⏰: 10 hours and 2 minutes
🎤: Kyla Garcia
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Format: Singular POV
I enjoyed this audiobook. I loved the voice and tempo of the narrator and I enjoyed the voice used for the MMC. The narration was clear and concise. I never had to adjust my speed.

Themes:
🎵: Taking control of your destiny
🎵: Following your heart
🎵: Embracing your culture/heritage later in life

Representation:
🐴: Strong female lead
🐴: Dyslexic MMC
🐴: Getting registered with a indigenous tribe
🐴: Cancel culture

Tropes:
💗: Opposites attract
💗: Slow burn
💗: Pop princess / cowboy
💗: Found Family

🥵: Spice: 🌶️
Potential Triggers: your culture and heritage being challenged/invalidated **check authors page/socials for full list.

Short Synopsis:
Avery Fox is a rising pop star. But when she listens to those around her and offends the indigenous community that she has been claiming to be a part of, she must go back to her roots prove that she is truly Native American. While trying to touch roots with her indigenous culture, she meets a horse rancher who wants nothing more than a quiet, simple life. Will opposites attract?

General Thoughts:
Danica Nava has fully cemented herself as an auto buy author with this romantic comedy. I had a great time with this novel.

The themes in this novel were so relatable for so many people. And touch a lot of culturally relevant issues for people today. Being challenged on one's culture and background is the new normal that many people go through and it was very well handled within this novel. I do wish we had seen more of Avery learning the ways of her Muscogee culture within the novel.

The characters in the novel felt so real and warm. The found family was one of the best parts of this novel. The characters were very easy to root for.

The story moved along well with plenty of tension, both sexual and suspenseful, to keep me engaged and desperate to read more. I would get lost in the story and numerous times read longer than I had planned.

Highly recommend.

Disclaimer: I read this audiobook via free ALC through the Penguin Random House Audiobook Influencer Program. All opinions are my own. This is my honest and voluntary review.

Romance isn’t usually my favorite genre. More often than not, it feels like I’m reading about bad boy billionaires falling from the sky or twenty-year olds swearing they've met the love of their life even though they’ve barely lived any of it. Overall, not my vibe.

That said, Danica Nava is a breath of fresh air. Her characters are messy but most importantly feel real. That makes it all the more satisfying when love finally shows up. In Love is a War Song, Avery is a pop star who has been publicly dragged and canceled for appropriating her own culture and for not being “Native enough.” As someone who’s multiracial, this hit hard. That experience of piecing together your identity from different corners of your background, of constantly having to prove you're “enough,” is something Nava captures FULLY in this novel.

Avery’s journey to reconnect with her roots, and more importantly, to define her identity in her own way, is incredibly human. I also loved the glimpse into the popstar life and Avery’s journey not only to find herself but also to find her voice in her music as well.

TLDR: Come for the canceled pop star energy, stay for the emotional healing, cute romance, and a story that reminds you that being yourself is more than enough.

I usually don't go for cowboy/small-town romances because I have known far too many problematic cowboys/small-town residents IRL, but gave I this one a chance and I am so glad I did. Viewing a small-town through the eyes of an Indigenous author made me remeber all the things I really did love and miss about growing up in a small, close-knit community.

Avery Fox is a former child star-turned-rising pop star whose career is imploding due to taking bad career advice. Her Muskogee heritage is being questioned and online activists are lobbing threats her way, so her mother/manager's solution is to ship her off to her estranged grandmother's failing horse ranch in Oklahoma to wait for everything to blow over.

Floundering in unfamiliar surroundings, Avery eventually convinces the ranch hand Logan to teach her what it means to be Muskogee, because Averey's mother never taught her anything at all about her heritage. Avery finds herself falling in love with her new found family, her new community and with Logan.

All too soon Avery is faced with a difficult choice: will she go back to her old life as a vapid pop star now that the storm of bad press has passed or will she fully embrace her new life in Oklahoma?

Thank you NetGalley and Berkeley for the opportunity to advance read!

This was made for the girlies who loved hannah montana: the movie and flicka (aka me). This book is so special to me and I loved every second of it. We have the fish out of water trope done sooo well. Pair that with some forced proximity and grumpy sunshine and you've got a darn good time. The indigenous rep was chefs kiss, the chem between Avery and Lucas was a slow but passionate burn. I love.

+Fish out of water
+Grumpy/Sunshine

I really liked Danica Nava’s debut: The Truth According to Ember, and she’s delivered again. In Love Is a War Song, she weaves a heartfelt story about identity, belonging, and cultural representation with a charming, slow-burn cowboy romance, and I was hooked.

Avery Fox is a Native pop star dealing with the aftermath of posing in a warbonnet and stylized regalia on a magazine cover. What was meant as a bold statement of identity turns into a PR nightmare for her career, with her Native heritage publicly questioned and her name trending for all the wrong reasons (her song “I Need a Warrior Tonight” only adds fuel to the fire). With serious threats to her safety, her momager ships her off to the one place she never expected to go, her estranged grandmother Lottie’s horse ranch in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

But Avery isn’t just hiding out. She’s determined to learn more about her Muscogee roots, her family, and herself. What she finds is a hard-won connection to the community she never knew, and a whole lot of hard labor under the watchful (and initially grumpy) eye of Lucas, the ranch manager who has no time for stardom, flash, or cultural appropriation. I’m deep in my Cowboy Carter era, so the promise of a Native cowboy with emotional depth? Yes, please, and hello, Lucas Iron Eyes. The tension between them is electric from the start, with perfectly paced banter and slow-burn heat that simmers until it sings.

More than the romance, what really stood out for me was Avery’s journey. Her reckoning with her cultural identity, and the question of whether she’s “Native enough” is explored with tenderness, nuance, and care. Nava handles these themes with a deft, compassionate hand, never shying away from the complexity of community, diaspora, and belonging. The family dynamics, especially with Lottie, add a richness that grounds the entire story.

Love Is a War Song is a powerful, romantic, and thoughtful read. Whether you come for the boots and banter or the healing and heritage, this one delivers.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the eARC. Love Is a War Song is available for pre-order now and publishes on July 22! 🤠🎶

I want to start by saying that overall I really enjoyed this one! There’s an exploration of identity, of family through secrets and mistakes and pride, and of taking risks or playing it safe.

I have to say that my favorite dynamic was that of Avery and her mom. Through that relationship you can really see how much parents shape kids, how that loyalty and deference begins to waver and evolve as we get older, and as we start to decide what we want our lives to look like. Our parents hurts and grudges are actually not ours to hold and continue to carry! I love the way that’s depicted in this one.

Avery as a character mostly worked for me; there are some times where I feel like she was very much all bark lol but it was consistent through the story and I liked that. She’s clumsy and funny and a little hot headed but also very loyal and genuine. Mr hot stuff cowboy has the decency to fall quick annnnd to mostly be kind of on the page obvious even if Avery wasn’t picking it up - you def will! The characters all have an appropriate amount of depth and motivation, and are all different and unique enough they add to the story.

I haven’t read a book set in this town since PC Casts vampire novels so this automatically gave me some nostalgia as a reader. If you enjoy romance that tackles identity, has an enemies to lovers, medium burn (if you read it you’ll get it), and is also a diverse version of the beloved ranch setting - this is for you! It’ll have you in your feels, laughing, swooning, a little angry, and then hopefully feeling happy. So very grateful to netgalley and the author for the arc!

I hate to rate this lowly when I do think Native rep in publishing is important but everything in this book besides the cultural aspects was uh. not that good. the dialogue is often stilted and the general prose was incredibly basic and too expository with pacing that felt just a bit off - seemingly big things land with the same impact as small things because everything is written in the exact same way with no room to breathe or show feelings. I did like the members of the community that Avery comes to befriend and readers who like the whole fish out of water/spoiled celebrity learning to get her hands dirty thing more than I do will find plenty to enjoy in those plot points.

4.75 stars

this was SO damn good! big city girl trying to connect to her small town roots (hello hannah montana movie?) and native heritage after a huge scandal throws her pop-star life sideways. This was one of those books that played out exactly like a movie in my head and that’s solely due to the incredible writing by Danica Nava, I’m utterly obsessed!

Avery has grown up in the public eye her whole life as an emerging Native American pop star. After a culturally inappropriate photoshoot where she disrespects her own heritage, Avery is on the verge of crashing and burning. Her mom-ager decides to send her to her grandmothers for a bit to let it blow over. The same grandmother that Avery’s never met. Fresh off the airport, she meets Lucas. The reluctant (and grumpy) cowboy is her grandmother’s right hand, and Avery’s biggest pain in the ass. He dislikes everything she stands for, she hates his attitude towards her. In Broken Arrow, she truly connects with her Native American heritage and learns what that means to her.

I couldn’t get enough of Avery and Lucas! I love a small-town romance with all its quirks and character, Avery and Lucas are both characters that I adore. Quick-witted banter and a fiery battle between the two, you can’t help but root for them to overlook their dislike towards each other. I loved that Avery was getting to know her family and her roots after her mom wouldn’t share any details about her family. She begins to find a place where she feels like she truly belongs to. I can’t wait to read more of Nava’s books and see what’s next for her!

Thank you Berkley for the arc! Releases July 22nd and NEEDS to be on your summer tbr!! 💚

Nava nails it with this fish-out-of-water pop star/cowboy romance. Avery Fox is sent to live with her estranged grandmother in Oklahoma while recovering from a scandal to learn more about her Muscogee-Creek heritage. Avery is one of my favorite FMCs - she may be a princess who grapples with a lack of agency, but her true colors shine through. This is the perfect blend of hijinks, dealing with tough issues, and horniness.