Med school dropout, Esra, isn't quite sure what she wants to do with her life. When her brother gets her a job at the Western-themed amusement park he works at, Esra finds herself acting in the role of the park's damsel in distress. This role forces her into close proximity with Noah, her brother's best friend and her newfound enemy. As lines get blurred between their real lives and their characters, Esta is in for a wild summer.

The Brave and the Reckless was such a fun read! It did take a bit for me to get into, but once the plot started to pick up I got sucked in. The story provides a unique twist on the cowboy trope by incorporating a Western theme park which I loved. Esra was a likeable FMC, but it did feel like she was TOO quirky. Noah was grumpy and swoon worthy which is my favorite combination. I deducted stars for the overuse of pop culture references and the shenanigans that occurred in the last act. Overall, The Brave and the Reckless is a fun, spicy read with great chemistry.

What. A. Ride. This book grabs you in the best possible way. Dilan Dyer brings sass, steam, and serious heart to a story that had me smiling and swooning the whole time. The banter, chemistry, and drama between our main characters was addictive. I will miss you Bravetown.

Big thanks to NetGalley for the ARC—I had an absolute blast reading this one!

3.5 stars

This is a fun cowboy romance that's perfect for summer reading. The setting of Bravetown is vibrant and unique. I loved being immersed in the small-town charm.

One of the highlights of this book for me was the chronic illness representation. As someone who lives with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, it meant a lot to see aspects of my experience reflected in Esra’s character. That kind of representation is rare and deeply appreciated. That said, I do wish the actual diagnosis had been mentioned in the main story rather than just in the epilogue, as it would have given even more weight and clarity to Esra's journey.

The first half of the book had great pacing, strong emotional depth, and character development that drew me in. However, the second half shifted more toward Esra and Noah’s physical relationship, which felt a bit imbalanced in comparison to the emotional layers established early on.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and would definitely be interested in reading other interconnected standalones about the side characters we meet in Bravetown.

The review will be posted on my Goodreads this week. Here is the link to my profile.

There is so much I loved about this story! Things I particularly liked: the EDS representation in the FMC, the way the author leaned in to today's TikTok culture without it overwhelming the rest of the story, and the theme park setting. It also gave me the vibe of like what you IMAGINE a theme park to be, where all of the employees are living nearby and also working together and that adds a whole separate layer to the story. I also really appreciated that there was genuine dislike between the characters – it wasn't advertised as being enemies to lovers, but it was clear these were two very different people and the development of their relationship was super cute.

My favorite part of this story was honestly the portrayal of the FMC's chronic condition and how she lived with it.

Having never read this author, I didn’t know what to expect. Turns out I had nothing to fear, as this was such a good read!! The setting, the characters, the spice!! Everything worked.

Such a fun, easy read! I could not put this book down. Perfect for anyone who loves Lyla Sage and Elsie Silver.

I was given a digital ARC to review, and all opinions are of my own!

I absolutely loved the setting in this book! The contrast of Yale vs. Bravetown, a Tennessee theme park, is quite simply the best. I want to go to Bravetown! Esra is running away from academia and a world she thought she wanted and finds escapism, propose, and fun in Bravetown. Noah, the brooding villain she works with, despises her, but is nice because she’s his best friend’s sister. So many tropes surround the plot that make the fun-loving setting become a true rom com. Esra endures and survives Heds, a chronic pain and debilitating disease, and I loved the message surrounding her dynamic character growth. Definitely a fun read with love, family dynamics, a Disney-like setting, and some spice along the way.

This book was fun, and had a different spin on the typical "cowboy" story. i loved the EDS representation, as that's not seen in a lot of books, and even though it was the basis of her story, and was the reason she did what she did... it didn't define her overall personality. She showed that she was more than her illness and that shone through the story. Plus the banter and the way he loved her anyway.. and despite the fight she put up was heartwarming at best.... plus the little bet that the group had on them? iconic i was laughing at the end.

Thank you to Dell publishing and NetGalley for this ARC!
This was a fun take on the cowboy romance trope! Esra has recently realized that she wants to change her plans for her career. Her brother works at a western theme park and gets her a job until she figures out her future plans.

She’s hired as a character and has to act with Noah! He’s the villain that steals her away! At first, the roommates can’t stand each other, but when things heat up, it gets interesting! Her plan is to leave after the summer, but Noah has abandonment issues. They have to figure out if their future plans include each other!

There are a lot of fun spicy scenes with masks, fake weapons (lol) and lots of love!

So I'm pretty sure I'm in my cowboy romance era. I am honestly so obsessed with this book. The setting was so different from other romance books I've read, and it made for a really fun read! The tension and banter were phenomenal, I was kicking my feet and giggling the entire time. As I was reading I felt like I was being transported into the story. The characters felt so real, they were fully fleshed out and well written. This book is so easy to binge and hard to put down, I read it in just a few hours, it was amazing! Thank you Ballantine Books and Netgalley for the wonderful arc!

This one was fun & honestly the setting was so so cute!! It came across as a thoughtfully grounded setting with many details.
Something important to me in romance books, by the way? The side characters feeling fleshed out and like PEOPLE. While most of the focus remained on the main couple, I enjoyed reading about the friends and relatives because no one seemed too flat.

*free arc from netgalley

I really enjoyed my time with The Brave and the Reckless. This is a brothers best friend, hate to love, cowboy romance that had me laughing and blushing throughout the story.it also had that chronic pain representation that I wasn’t expecting. Our FMC had been kinda sheltered and doesn’t even know how to do laundry and can’t even differentiate the difference between a washer and dryer or the the difference between a top or side load type. I love also the interaction in the beginning with the showers (you’ll know it when you are there).
I was really intrigued when reading the synopsis of this that it was like a wild West theme park type of book and I think it did it justice very well. It’s also based on a short time running TV series. And when our FMC shows up, she fits the outfit perfectly and ends up getting a job to be one of the stars. I thought the character development was good and the spicy scenes… oh I loved them.
I see that in the title of good reads this says a Bravetown reckless novel. I need more of this town. I loved it. I can’t wait to explore it more!
Thank you to Dell for the complementary copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved this! As someone who worked at Walt Disney World, I found the dynamics of theme park workers to be quite accurate but did give me war flashbacks. The story kept my attention the entire time, and I thought the romance pacing was spot on for the length of book and for the enemies to lovers plot. I loved how the author balanced the romance, friendship, and family dynamics throughout.

As a chronic pain girlie myself, I appreciated the representation but I found it odd the disease wasn’t named until the epilogue. The line about “just experiencing normal amounts of pain” and then a non chronic pain person saying “normal levels should be zero” hit so hard.

I found the third act conflict a little cliche at first but when I remembered our FMC was only like 22 or 23 it checked out. That’s the perfect age to feel like you should have everything figured out but it hits hard when you realize you don’t.

Didn't love it even though it's a romance set in thinly disguised Dollywood, which I do love. It's both somehow to slow and also too fast. Don't love the age gap (23 to 35 barf). He's a grown man and she has just started drinking alcohol.

I was looking back to see if I missed pages because we'd just skip ahead to talking about something that was in the past that was never previously addressed.

The intimacy dynamic the main characters is intense in a way that seemed painful and not for me.

*free ARC from NetGalley

Thank you to Netgalley and Ballantine for the eARC! All thoughts/opinions are my own.

Esra's life has hit an implosion point and she's in Bravetown, an Old West theme park, for the summer to have some fun and live her life before figuring out what she wants to do. When her new job has her meeting Noah, her brother's best friend who plays the masked villain of Bravetown, things get tense as their personalities clash. But when their jobs force them together, feelings may evolve from dislike and annoyance to something else...

This was a fun take on a small-town, cowboy romance! I loved the backdrop of the Old West theme park, Bravetown, for the fun and sexy adventures of Esra and Noah. A classic dislike to lovers mixed with brother's best friend, Esra and Noah had a tension that I truly found delicious and enjoyed both the lead-up and the payoff of their encounters pre- and post-hooking up. The spicy scenes were creative, especially as we got deeper into the book and their relationship. I also really appreciated the underlying throughline of Esra's character arc where she doesn't let her circumstances hold her back from living life and going after what she wants.

While I had an enjoyable time reading this book, some things caused me to drag my feet mildly while reading this book. I wish we had gotten a little more background to Esra's life implosion earlier in the book, as I felt like I lacked sympathy/understanding for her character's nonchalance and tornado like personality early on without that context. Similarly, I also felt like we didn't fully get the background around Noah's disgruntledness with Esra and her actions early enough for me to connect with him as an MMC quickly. It took me a while to warm up to him. However, when they finally started to get together, I became more invested in not only their relationship, but them as individual characters and their story arcs.

Overall, a fun read for those who enjoy small-town, cowboy-based romances with some fresh elements as well as some chronic illness representation.

DNF’d this book at 70%
While I love a cowboy/small town romance, I just didn’t enjoy this book as much as I wanted to. The setting was great! I think the author did a nice job creating a fresh setting for a romance-Wild West theme park. Unfortunately, I didn’t care for the FMC. The banter fell flat for me. The tension was lackluster. Overall, just a no for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ballantine for the eARC.

I really enjoyed this book. I found it so interesting, especially the idea of the main characters playing as other characters in a theme park. We also got to learn about Esra’s chronic illness. Both main characters were very fun and made this very enjoyable. Thank you Netgalley for the arc!

Thank you to Dell Romance for letting me read and review this book early. All thoughts are my own!!

The Brave and The Reckless is a small town cowboy romance that follows Esra who spends the summer working at a Wild West theme park and Noah the broody man playing opposite her as they navigate their supposed hatred for each other and find out that the line between love and hate is thin. This book is full of humor and family and so much tension that I had to take a lap around my room a few times.

I truly had the best time reading this book!! I didn’t read too much about it because I wanted to be surprised, and I’m so glad I did it that way. Everything about this book was fantastic, from the setting to the characters to the way they all interacted with each other. I really hope there are plans to write more in this universe following some of the other characters we met in this book. It would be so fun to see them again.

The characters in this book are so complex and complicated and I LOVE THEM. Esra is figuring out what she wants after spending her entire life being smothered by her parents’ expectations. I loved how bold and brave she was. She said and did what she wanted, and she didn’t waver. I loved how much care went into this book and its depiction of chronic illness and disability and accommodations. It didn’t feel forced into the story, which tends to happen more often than I’d like. You could feel how intentional the author was with writing it all, and I LOVED IT!!

Noah was also very layered as a character. He said what he wanted and took care of those around him. He tried to fight his feelings for Esra, but he did not manage to stay away from her. Their interactions throughout this book had me giggling and blushing so much. I loved their dynamic, and I’m so hopeful that we’ll get to see them again in another book in this series. The banter and the tension, sweet Jesus IT WAS BURNING HOT!! So often, I find that sex is used as a plot point right before a third act conflict, and this book doesn’t do that. Sex is just a regular part of their relationship, and one way that they build intimacy and connection together.

I love that her brother wasn’t mad about them dating. There is a hint of brother’s best friend thrown in here, but it’s not turned into a big issue just for the sake of needing conflict. Esra’s brother is so chill about it, and I really enjoyed that. Princess (derogatory) to princess (affectionate) is one of my favorite tropes/nicknames in a romance, so I LOVED seeing it in this one.

Can’t wait for everyone else to read this soon, and I will be waiting for whatever Dilan Dyer writes next!!

I absolutely loved this book!! So spicy and funny and the plot was really fun and interesting. I can't wait for more from this writer!

Thank you so much to Ballantine and NetGalley for an ARC of this book!

The vibes of this one was pretty fun! Working at a western theme park for the summer made me feel nostalgic of a summer where I worked in a western themed town. The amount of drama that would happen in a place like that is spot on for sure, lemme tell ya. It made me laugh and nod along as I read.

I enjoyed the banter between Noah and Esra a lot! They were a definite, true enemies to lovers going from a large amount of hate to so much more.

The disability rep was nice to see and learn about as well! I appreciate that it was included.

Overall, I did like this one, but I wished I liked it more than I did. Definitely some good moments, but I'm not sure I felt as pulled into it and I wanted to be.