3.75 This was a different kind of cowboy romance. The whole book is set in Bravetown, which is a Wild West theme park with all sorts of rides and its own characters & show. I really liked this setting, especially because all chapters start with a cute little Bravetown promo post about literally anything related to Bravetown: the show, the hotel booking, the characters, the parking, etc. Felt really authentic. The writing and plot itself was fine and was pleasant to read. There wasn’t anything wrong with it, so not sure why it (the book, the characters and everything inbetween) only really clicked for me around the 50-60% mark. It might be because of Esra herself, even though she was funny & sarcastic most of the time, her relationship with her parents as well as with her brother, Sinan, which I couldn’t really grasp. Something was just not adding up for me. Esra made it seem like Sinan was kinda having her back, but they were also barely having a full on sibling-relationship, as well as him often enough being an extension of their parents: worry about Esra & her future and making all kinds of decisions for her. Esra & Noah’s relationship started with passionately disliking each other and ended with a lot of passion and a lot of liking. And also a lot of heat. They did have a couple of fights and tbh I wasn’t the biggest fan of some of the things that were said as well as them barely resolving it. However, Esra did make it clear that she didn’t appreciate the things Noah said and I wished she had the same attitude & confidence when it comes to her parents. I really liked a lot, if not all, of the side characters, which is great because the next book will be about Adriana, who was the most intriguing of them all! Thank you Michael Joseph/Penguin UK for providing this book for review via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
8. Aug.8. Aug. 2025
The Brave and The Recklessvon Dilan DyerPenguin Books Ltd (UK)
