Warm-hearted, with an engaging heroine who makes you sit up and take notice, Love is a War Song is a winning new adult romance that shows how hard it can be to stay true to yourself when pressure from others comes falling down on your head. In Nava’s excellent new novel, being true to yourself – and to your own values – is the only way out and it helps if you find true love along the way.

Former child star Avery Fox is a now-grown-up pop singer on the rise when she poses for a risqué Rolling Stone cover in a leather bikini and war bonnet. This can be blamed on the encouragement of her momager – who also encouraged her to reclaim her heritage in “ironic fashion” by performing songs like “I Need a Warrior” and has never celebrated Avery’s heritage as a member of the Muscogee Cree tribe – thus Avery’s not at fault for being both sheltered and naive about the backlash that rains down on her head. Suddenly everyone’s questioning her heritage and suggesting she ought to be cancelled for misappropriation. Avery is reeling, and she runs home to Oklahoma, where her estranged grandma Lottie shelters her on her Rez-based ranch.

Here, she meets Lottie’s ranch hand, Lucas Iron Eyes, who is disgusted with everything Avery represents and literally mocks her to her face the second he sees her. He otherwise keeps his head down, works with the ranch’s horses, and tries to stay out of the way. But with Avery, he can’t help himself – they get on like oil and water. In spite of the friction between them, when the ranch comes under threat, the two of them are forced to team up to save it. They agree to an exchange of favors; Lucas will teach Avery about both ranching and her Muscogee roots while Avery will use her notoriety to raise money to save the ranch. Naturally, feelings ensue. But does Avery really belong on the Rez?

I adored Avery and her ways; she is a wonderfully complicated but sardonic narrative force, and I deeply enjoyed spending time with her. She’s not perfect, but she wants to learn and grow and figure out who she is at heart, and the story gives her the space to do so. Her unique narrative voice is a major reason I recommend this book – I loved spending time in her head.

Since she’s the POV character, we only see Lucas through Avery’s eyes, which is sometimes problematic. He comes off as the wise, mature adult to Avery’s completely immature self, and sometimes that can be annoying. If you like smart heroes who love to lead naive heroines through their paces until they grow up, this might not irk you. But I ended up liking him by the end of the book, finding him to be swoon worthy in his passionate declarations of love and wish for a lifetime with Avery. 

There’s more here than just a love story. Avery has plenty of family issues to work through, as she must cope with her mother and grandmother’s estrangement on top of it all. But she emerges as a woman with a fuller understanding of herself, which is what makes Love is a War Song fantastic. It has the right kind of enemies-to-lovers fire; and its coming of age story compels and pleases in a way that makes any lumps and bumps experienced along the way worthwhile.