I had so much fun with this one - it’s like Hannah Montana meets cowboy romance. The book sucked me in right from the beginning! I learned so much about the indigenous culture right along side of or MC!

This was SO GOOD!!! Pop star x cowboy romance, but make it indigenous. Danica Nava knocked this one out of the park.

Love is a War Song follows Muscogee pop star Avery Fox who is being cancelled after a culturally insensitive magazine cover. Her mom & manager sends her to stay with her estranged grandmother until things die down. While there she begins to learn about her own heritage in a way she never has, while also falling for a hot ranch-hand named Lucas...

I loved everything about this. It's a smart, slow-burn romance with great characters and strong cultural commentary. It's also laugh-out-loud funny and truly swoon-worthy! I liked Nava's debut, but this was a home run for me and I'm excited to read more from her. I received a copy of this book for review via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

This is a lighthearted romantic story. It’s perfect for fans of the Hannah Montana movie because it leans into that nostalgia and aesthetic. I’m looking forward to what the author writes next.

This was so much better than the previous romance I'd read by Danica Nava. I liked the characters much more, and felt they had beautiful layers to them. I think Danica Nava's writing and pacing has improved greatly too!

I was worried about this one because I only felt meh about her first one, but this one?! Yeah THIS IS IT. I really enjoyed this one. I was mad af about the brat of the FMC, but I still enjoyed it overall. This one is definitely the one I’ll be talking about all the time.

Ok so when I mentioned the FMC, she was really annoying. I can’t believe in 2025 she didn’t know that you don’t just blindly trust yt people. I can’t believe she let them dress her in that and then disappear and let her fend for herself. That shit wasn’t right. And her mom wasn’t really great either. And she knew this but still listened to them. I think that’s the part that messed with me the most.

And then she met the Cowboy, Lucas. And let me tell you, after I finished reading this, I looked up SO MANY Cowboy of Color books LOL I LOVED that he wasn’t letting her slide and called her out on her bs. I also loved that even though he called her out and said what she was doing wrong, he still took the time to share how she should do it right. When they finally got together, it was HAWT! He took care of her in so many different ways throughout this book and I loved that so much.

The romance between the two of them was weird to me. I can say for a fact that I don’t like enemies to lovers, but this one was actually really good. And I think it made me most mad because I don’t actually like this trope so I was shocked into liking it. I think what got me was the way it felt real. She was annoying and he actually seemed annoyed lol And he was not afraid to tell her “Naw, that wasn’t right.” Even if she didn’t want to listen. She needed that because literally no one in her real circle was willing to do that for her.

Lastly, I loved the character growth in this one because there’s some for almost every main character. For some that’s rough to do for one main character, so seeing it done for multiple people was so impressive. That says something to Nava’s writing style and her growth there. I don’t remember any of this from her first one. And now I can’t wait for her next one. It’s going to be so cool to go back and see her work from book to book and how much she grows and changes.

This was the cutest book! As someone from the South, I loved this and I really hope there will be more books with Cowboy Lucas, his small town people, and this Native pop singer in Nava’s later books. I’m not done loving these characters yet.

“Love is a war song, a battle cry. Something to fight for. And I fight for us.”

Summary:
Avery Fox, a former Disney actress turned pop star, has always been a pawn to everyone around her. She is her mother's second chance, her employer's "diversity hire," and her friends' building block to fame and fortune. Teetering on a tightrope of expectations, she makes one misstep that leads to a public online circus. The entire world seems to question her Muscogee heritage, and those closest to her begin to pull away. Labeled a Pretendian Pop Princess, her career is brought to a standstill. With no citizenship card and no real connection to her Muscogee heritage, Avery is forced to confront her deepest insecurity: Are the internet trolls, right? Her team's solution is an image rehab tour to her estranged grandmother's failing farm on the reservation—a place her mother ran away from long ago. The task seems hopeless, but help arrives in the form of Lucas Iron Eyes, the off-limits farmhand who opens her eyes to, Avery Fox the Muscogee Cowgirl, that has always been inside her.

Themes to expect:
• Grumpy/sunshine
• Generational trauma
• Cowboy meets Pop star rom com (Hannah Montana movie vibes)
• Fish out of water
• Native American representation
• Instant attraction

Overall Thoughts:
While Avery's stay at the farm was pitched as a way for her to connect with her Muscogee heritage, the book IMO didn't fully deliver on that main purpose. The story heavily focuses on her public downfall, her farm work, and the romance, while forming connections with reservation members seemed to take a back seat. It wasn't until the stickball tournament—72% of the way through the book—that I felt she finally began to interact with the people on the reservation. Perhaps I went into this book with different expectations, hoping for a depiction of reservation life similar to the show Reservation Dogs. Instead, the book felt more like a cowboy romance with Muscogee culture sprinkled throughout.

In addition, I found the cowboy elements a tad bit stereotypical. The book had repeated mentions of cowboy hats being worn (probably to cover up their bald spots, jk) and went on a tangent about the sheer number of “trucks, trucks, trucks, trucks” “old trucks, new trucks, lifted trucks, low trucks” with only one Camry in sight. The town itself described as a caricature, as if “a set designer was told to create a cute old western town and they whipped up Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.” Naturally, a honky-tonk line dancing night out was included for good measure.

When it came to the writing style, I wasn't a big fan. The author makes several stylistic choices, including the frequent use of the passive verb "was/were". In some cases, it was used with an active verb ending in "-ing," instead of simply using the past tense of the active verb. For example, the sentence "I was moving through the stages of grief. I tried to deny it was happening yesterday.” would be stronger if it simply said, "I moved through the stages of grief. I tried to deny it happened yesterday." The writing style often told the reader what happened instead of showing it. For instance, the original text states, "Bessie wordlessly asking for the plate with her gnarled hands. It looked like the arthritis made it difficult for her to open them fully." A more powerful approach would have been to show her struggle, as in this revision: "Bessie asked, wordlessly reaching for the plate with gnarled arthritic hands that trembled as she struggled to open them." Lastly, the author's writing style heavily relied on pop culture references, as a shortcut for descriptions rather than creating a vivid scene through the character's unique perspective. By saying things "like the smolder Flynn Ryder does in Tangled" or that a character looked like they "belonged in a western created by Adam Sandler," or “this place was Disney Channel show perfect” the author is relying on the reader’s external knowledge to visualize the scene instead of painting an original picture.

I do understand the author's intent; since the main character is a pop star, it makes sense for her to be tuned into internet culture. However, the repetitive use of pop culture references to describe things felt overall lazy to me. I also worry that mentions of some of the more fleeting internet moments with the Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher’s apology video and Hilaria Baldwin’s fake Spanish Heritage, may become lost on future readers and quickly date the book.

Finally, the romance didn’t work for me as a whole. Lucas right off the bat doesn’t like her for some reason and tells her to her face he doesn’t like her music. This doesn’t matter to Avery however, as she crushes on him and comes onto him throughout the book. The romance at the start almost felt like a one-sided chase (only seeing it from her POV), where her constant pursuit of him made her seem desperate at times. In terms of the other characters I feel like the mother-daughter relationship dynamic was done well, I just wish the same attention had been given to the mother-grandmother dynamic. The book seemed to build up to a major revelation of mother-grandmother fallout, but the reveal itself felt one-note. I still don’t understand how from that event alone she would sever her daughter from their family and culture, or why the grandmother never tried to reconnect. Ultimately, the generational trauma didn't feel fully fleshed out.

Having enjoyed the author's previous novel, Truth According to Ember, I'm sure we'll see significant improvements as she navigates writing under a publisher's deadlines. Although my review was mostly critical, I will continue to support this author, as she fills a much-needed space by writing about the Indigenous experience in the modern world.

Thank you so much Net Galley and Berkley Publishing Group for the eARC and the opportunity to share what I think. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Love Is a War Song has the perfect balance of warmth, humor, and heart. Avery Fox, a disgraced pop star hiding out on her grandmother’s Oklahoma horse ranch, is an instantly engaging protagonist—equal parts vulnerable, awkward, and determined to do better. Her slow-burn, opposites-attract romance with Lucas Iron Eyes had me laughing one page and clutching my heart the next.

Danica did an incredible job weaving cultural depth into the story. She brings Muscogee life to the page with care and authenticity, grounding the romance in community, heritage, and the messy work of reconciliation. The fish-out-of-water ranch scenes are as entertaining as they are heartfelt, and the family dynamics—particularly between Avery, her mother, and her grandmother—gave the story real emotional weight.

Overall, the writing is engaging, the pacing is perfect (no dragging here), and the chemistry is fantastic. I cant wait to recommend this book to others.

This feels more on par of a women’s fiction with a romance subplot. This is more of a coming-of-age story with a love interest.

Overall it was enjoyable and fine. However I felt like so much happened, we were pulled in and out of the romance/story. I really liked the parts with Avery and Lucas but they were so few in between all the chaos following Avery.

I appreciated the native education and was rooting for Avery the whole time (for grace from the audience).

The spice felt kind of unexpected? Like it didn’t belong? Idk. Haha.

I think I was just expecting more romance? And I felt like by the end I almost just didn’t care and wanted it to be resolved and done.

”I didn’t want insincerity in my interactions, and I didn’t want to be viewed as a commodity. I wanted my dreams to have meaning; the people in my life to be meaningful. I wanted to fall headfirst into love and not be scared, because I didn’t know what tomorrow brought.”

The author mentions pulling inspiration from Flicka, Hannah Montana: The Movie and Country Strong, which was very clear (in the best way) and also reminded me I needed a Country Strong rewatch asap. I ate every minute of this up. The music, the cast of small town cliché characters, the ROMANCE, all with great commentary surrounding cancel culture (which isn’t real) and cultural appropriation.

However, there was one scene that I felt was missing and that was a duet scene between him!!! He didnt have to sing but he had the guitar!! I needed him to help with finishing that song 😭😭

Avery Fox is a former child star who is now launching a career as a pop singer. Rather than use her own songs, her manager (aka her mother) and her record label choose songs for her, including one meant to capitalize on Avery’s Native American heritage.

Avery naively goes along with their plan, and the end result is an offensive magazine shoot and music video that gets Avery cancelled, along with some death threats. For her safety and so that her PR can say she has gone to learn more about her heritage, Avery is sent to Oklahoma to stay with her estranged grandmother, Lottie, on her ranch.

This trip appears to be the first time she has ever had to fend for herself, and I think it’s an important journey for her to take. She is most definitely out of her element and ends up in some comical situations along the way, but I enjoyed watching her finally embrace the challenges and learn to be more independent. I also loved that the trip gave her a chance to meet and bond with Lottie, whom she had never met before. Lottie is tough & puts Avery to work as soon as she arrives, but she also has a big heart and everything she does is meant to teach Avery about the importance of community and about her people.

Avery’s character growth was my favorite part of the book, but there is also a fun slow burn, grumpy sunshine romance between Avery and the man who runs Lottie’s ranch, Lucas Iron Eyes. Lucas is thoroughly offended by Avery and her music and doesn’t want her there. Once they start to spend time together, his open hostility towards her eventually gives way to a tentative truce, then to attraction. They were really sweet together once they got to the attraction stage and I loved that Avery even shared some of her own music with Lucas.

I really enjoyed the author’s writing style and look forward to reading more from her!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I loved seeing Avery's transformation from spoiled rockstar to selfless songwriter. And you can never go wrong with a cowboy hero like Lucas! The pacing felt rushed in the last 15% or so of the book, but it all led to a really satisfying conclusion!

I really enjoyed my time with this novel. I love giving voice to Indigenous characters. The problematic issues were addressed, but these characters still got to experience their happy ending. The grumpy-sunshine enemies-to-lovers tropes really worked well here and I was consumed by the messy family dynamic as well. Great job. Can't wait for Nava's next book :)

Pop singer Avery Fox becomes a social pariah following a media campaign featuring her in a feather warbonnet to celebrate her Native American heritage. Now a public outcast, she escapes to her estranged grandmother’s ranch on a reservation in Oklahoma. Not only was Avery ill-prepared to work the lands in the brutal heat, she never expected to encounter an enemy in cowboy Lucas Iron Eyes, the man who runs the horse ranch, and puts his family, culture, and respect for nature above all else.

I can never resist a story of self-discovery, especially when it comes to cultural exploration and reconnecting with family, so this book was a no-brainer. Let me start by saying that Danica Nava’s writing is visceral— I felt the first-hand mortification Avery experiences post Rolling Stones cover. I could have crawled into a hole right alongside her. I loved the setting at the heart of the story and experiencing through our characters what it was like to work the rez. I also appreciated learning about Avery’s Native American culture alongside her. And Lucas, with his stony exterior but heart of gold, was the cowboy I didn’t know I needed. His character really shines throughout the story, as does Avery’s grandmother Lottie.

All in all, a solid romance with good emotional depth, particularly around the themes of self identify and found family, and one worth checking out, especially if it has been on your radar. I look forward to back tracking to Nava's debut soon.

Read if you like:
-cowboy x pop star romance
-enemies to lovers
-forced proximity
-journeys of self-discovery
-found family
-indigenous rep

Thank you Berkley Romance for the advanced copy.

The premise of this romance had me hooked immediately — learning to love who you are and where you come from.

Avery is a Muscogee pop musician who just broke into mainstream popularity. The problem is, her management team’s idea for launching her public image involves her donning stereotypical and inaccurate traditional Indigenous wear….and she is almost immediately cancelled. To ride out the media frenzy, she visits her family’s ranch in Oklahoma to touch grass and reconnect with her roots. There, she meets members of her Muscogee community, including a handsome cowboy, who teach her the power of community and the importance of togetherness.

This book had grit and I really enjoyed observing Avery’s journey of self love and acceptance. I also love that this book shows Indigenous representation of rural farm life, which in the romance genre is typically dominated by white, small town romances.

One aspect I enjoyed less than the story itself was the writing style. It read somewhat watered down or cautious, and I almost wonder if due to the subject matter, a bunch of different people at the table had a say in the editing process. That being said, I am really looking forward to seeing more Danica Nava books out in the world!

Thank you to Berkley Romance for the prioritized reviewer opportunity!

The premise of Nava's sophomore novel is so fun and interesting: pop princess on the cusp of stardom has to hide out at her grandmother's horse ranch and learn about her Muskogee heritage so the internet can move on to cancelling someone else. Her hero is a great complement to the fish-out of-water heroine; both have baggage that I wish we'd gotten to deal with in a bit more depth. But the HEA was satisfying and it was a treat to read this Western with a full cast of Native American characters!

Faced with a public scandal, celebrity Avery Fox is sent to stay with her grandmother in Oklahoma. For the first time, she's able to explore her family's culture, and see what life is like outside of the fame-obsessed bubble her mother keeps her in.

The standout for me was the growing community Avery finds herself embracing. There's her grandmother and her ranch hands (including Lucas, whose initial coldness toward her quickly turns to something else), then their town and their traditions. Watching Avery not only build a home for herself, but realizing what home means to her and who she wants to be there, was a wonderful experience, and Nava's ability to build connection and emotion is truly special.

4.5 rounding up!
Let me start the by saying this is the first book I’ve finished in TWO MONTHS, so it has the capability to cure reading slumps

Grumpy/sunshine, fish out of water, cowboy/popstar, what more could I ask for? I loved this book, it was heartfelt but I also found myself laughing a lot. Lucas and Avery had insane chemistry!! And Avery’s journey was a joy to read.

I do wish we got another scene with Avery’s mom, and a longer epilogue, like 5 years later, happy with kids since they talked about that. 1 month later epilogues are my worst nightmare lol

I also loved the Native American representation in this, the culture and life style played big roles in this and I love to see it

PLEASE pick up with book if you’ve been in a cowboy mood it won’t disappoint

I really enjoyed the author's debut, but her writing has leveled up even more with Love is a War Song. I thought the premise was so original and I loved reading about the Muscogee Nation. The romance was swoony, and the FMC's character development was so wonderful that I choked up at the end. Just a really enjoyable read from the first page to the last.

Thank you Berkley for providing this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

4.75 stars

“…Where you come from is only a tiny portion of who you are. Who do you want to be, Avery?”

Love is a War Song was such a great book! I love reading a book that has a deeper purpose and intention behind the story and reading the author’s note after finishing made this book hit even harder.

In this story, our main character is Avery: a child actor turned pop star who is canceled by the internet after a very sus photoshoot said by the masses to be disrespecting Native American heritage. Despite being Native American herself, Avery doesn’t feel connected to her roots whatsoever so she takes this time to stay with her grandmother in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma to prove her identity to the world. There, she meets Lucas Iron Eyes who (begrudgingly) agrees to help her learn her heritage in exchange for support trying to keep their ranch from being sold.

As someone who loves Hallmark-esque movies with a city girl going to a small town where she attempts physical labor and falls for a local guy facing a challenge with their business/passion (I now know is called the fish out of water trope — thanks Danica!), this book gave me a fun Christmas in August vibe! I truly loved watching Avery’s growth via various hijinks and community bonding.

The discussions on family from expectations to identity were my favorite parts of the book. This definitely seemed like a story that would really allow someone facing similar circumstances to truly feel seen so I hope it falls into the right hands.

I also of course hope to read even more romance novels with Native American main characters. I’m very glad I read this book and can’t wait for whatever Danica Nava has next!

What a super cute cowboy/pop-star romance! This story follows Avery, a pop-star musician who has spent her life away from her Native American roots. After a viral video of her dancing in a war bonnet sparks public outrage and accusations of being a “fake native,” Avery retreats to her grandmother’s Red Fox Ranch in Oklahoma to lay low and reconnect with her heritage.

I adored everything about the ranch setting, especially Lucas, our grumpy-but-swoony cowboy hero who’s down bad for Avery from the start. Their chemistry gave me total Hannah Montana movie vibes in the best way.

This was a heartwarming read that beautifully highlights community, belonging, and self-discovery. I also appreciated the representation and cultural elements woven into the story.