Love is a War Song Review

Title: Love is a War Song
Author: Danica Nava
Publisher: Berkley
Publish Date: July 22, 2025
Genre: Romance
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback

A Muscogee pop star and a cowboy who couldn’t be more different come together to strike a deal in this new romantic comedy by Danica Nava, author of The Truth According to Ember.

Pop singer Avery Fox has become a national joke after posing scantily clad on the cover of Rolling Stone in a feather warbonnet. What was meant to be a statement of her success as a Native American singer has turned her into a social pariah and dubbed her a fake. With threats coming from every direction and her career at a standstill, she escapes to her estranged grandmother Lottie’s ranch in Oklahoma. Living on the rez is new to Avery—not only does she have to work in the blazing summer heat to earn her keep, but the man who runs Lottie’s horse ranch despises her and wants her gone.

Red Fox Ranch has been home to Lucas Iron Eyes since he was sixteen years old. He has lived by three rules to keep himself out of trouble: 1) preserve the culture, 2) respect the horses, and 3) stick to himself. When he is tasked with picking up Lottie’s granddaughter at the bus station, the last person he expected to see is the Avery Fox. Lucas can’t stand what she represents, but when he’s forced to work with her on the ranch, he can’t get her out of his sight—or his head. He reminds himself to keep to his rules, especially after he finds out the ranch is under threat of being shut down.

It’s clear Avery doesn’t belong here, but they form a tentative truce and make a Avery will help raise funds to save the ranch, and in exchange, Lucas will show her what it really means to be an Indian. It’s purely transactional, absolutely no horsing around…but where’s the fun in that?

This was a fast-paced, lighthearted romance where I could definitely see the inspiration of 90s rom-coms throughout the story, as many rom-com tropes and beats were found throughout. However, I did feel like we didn’t get enough character development, or even romance, in this story, but I still did enjoy it overall.

The writing style Nava has for this book is very accessible and fast-paced. I found myself flying through the pages, feeling as though I were reading one of the rom-coms I used to watch and love growing up. The story is written in first person, which I feel worked really well for this story in particular as there were a lot of moments of being in Avery’s head during some of the tougher moments of the story, such as when her career takes a nose dive at the beginning of the novel. Though, I will say, we don’t get too much of a deep dive into her feelings about that whole ordeal all that much, other than a mini-spiral here and there.

There are two main major plots that we follow throughout the book – one being the plummet of Avery’s music career due to a Rolling Stone cover, and the other being a means to save her family’s ranch. The music career one was mentioned here and there, but it felt like it took a back seat to the ranch due to Avery wanting to learn more about herself and her heritage. I honestly don’t know if she really achieved much of that, but it’ll most likely be a longer process than what the book takes place in, which is just around a month or so. And as for her music career, that resolved itself, as well, in true rom-com fashion.

Within those two major plots of the book, we also followed the romance, family dynamics, and ranch work. It all mixed together well, as they all coincided with each other, but I felt that the romance wasn’t fully fleshed out completely. There were definitely moments that were impactful and moments in which I saw a definite connection between Avery and Lucas, but I just wanted more, you know?

I do think, though, that Avery and Lucas complimented each other well. Where Avery was very naive to many things around her, Lucas was much more down to earth and grounded. Though he wasn’t entirely patient with her at first, he eventually agreed to help her out, and that’s where I think their relationship started to really blossom.

A lot of the book also dealt with some family issues that were important to Avery as a goal, as well as a character. Though these also didn’t feel wholly explored until the end of the novel. Once again, this feels like something that will be explored more off-page, rather than what we saw in the main story, which makes sense given it’s a rom-com.

As for the two main characters themselves, I found Avery to be a very sweet character, who tried her best and wanted to do well by others, however I also felt she was a bit of a whiner and complainer for a large portion of the book. Though she definitely had moments where she was charming or funny, there were also moments where I found myself questioning her and why she felt so naive to things.

Lucas was a grump for a lot of the book, but he was also very grounded, as I mentioned before, with a good head on his shoulders and a hard-working ethic. I found that he was an enjoyable male main interest to read about, though I wanted more of him to be in there. The moments we did get between him and Avery were definitely filled with angst and passion as the story progressed, but still it felt like we were missing something along the way.

As for some of the other characters, like Avery’s mom and grandmother, the other workers of the ranch, etc., I was not a fan of her mom and feel that she didn’t really redeem herself at the end. I was hoping for it the whole time, and yet it didn’t seem like it happened, but Avery is a very forgiving person and it seems like, for now anyway, that certain topics were pushed aside for other things to be the main focus. Her grandmother I did like, and found her character to be fun and interesting, if stubborn and proud as hell. The other workers and friends Avery made were all charming and fun side characters that I wish we got a little more of.

However, despite all of my critiques I have and despite the flaws of the book, it had a charm that I couldn’t put down and didn’t want to put down. I found myself drawn in and wanting to continue to find out what happened next, how the two would get together, how decisions made would affect the ranch, etc. I think that it was definitely a fun read overall, and I do recommend it for those looking for a fun, fast-paced, light hearted read that reminds you of old rom-coms.