I feel seen by this book.

Esra is stubborn & independent to a fault. After being bubble wrapped by her family for most of her life, she's had enough.
Having her dream job 'stolen' from her by her "silly little body" (felt that), she needs a new plan.
Enter Bravetown.
It was meant to be an escape from reality and it ended up being exactly what she needed.

Reading this book has shown me how much representation matters.
I've spent a long time being gaslit/ questioned about my health. To see an FMC display the same condition and dealing with the things you deal with daily is mind blowing
This book is something else and I'll be thinking about for a long time.
Can't wait to recommend it to all my Spoonie friends.

Hoping we get an Adrianna x Brooks book next.

5*
My favourite book of the year

I never realized how much I wanted to know what goes on behind the scenes at an amusement park until this book! Noah and Esra's story is a banter-y workplace romance that dives into the weight of expectations and finding your own path in life. Bravetown is a fun backdrop to thier walls coming down and their true natures coming forward. Sweet and certainly spicy, this book was a fun ride that is second only to the Haunted Mines of Bravetown.

Wow! This was my favourite Dilan Dyer book yet! The characters are brilliant, so much personality and it’s such a fun spin on a small town, cowboy romance! Highly recommend. I love this book!

Loved this story so much I have added the paperback to my wishlist!
The characters had depth and were both likeable. The setting of the theme park really made the book seem fresh and new. The spicy scenes were needed and added to the story!
I would recommend this book!

Unfortunately, The Brave and The Reckless was not quite the cowboy romance I was hoping for.

I was really intrigued when I first came across "The Brave and The Reckless" - a spicy romance set in a cowboy-themed amusement park? That's definitely not your typical Western romance setup! But hey, I was definitely there for it. Our FMC is hired to play the town’s damsel in distress who just happens to get kidnapped by the resident town villain every day.

However, the female lead is someone who constantly runs from help. She's got this stubborn streak that borders on self-sabotage because of her medical disability. She pushes everyone away even when they have good intentions, and honestly, it made her hard to root for at times. Here she is in Bravetown with people who could be her family, but she's too busy throwing up walls to let anyone in. I don’t know, it just didn’t mesh very well with me.

The guy, though? His character actually worked for me. He's just trying to clean up the mess his parents left behind and figure his life out. I enjoyed watching him learn to loosen up a bit through his relationship with Esra. That aspect was definitely a plus for me.

The writing, however, just didn't click for me. Something that really bugged me was how all the attractive characters were described like they'd stepped off Mount Olympus, while everyone else was written as basically forgettable background props. It felt lazy and just plain wrong in my opinion.

And that epilogue? Talk about leaving things hanging! Characters who had decent storylines throughout the book were just left without proper resolution. Like, where did they go? What happened to them?

Overall, it wasn't terrible - I finished it, after all. But would I tell my friends to pick it up? Probably not. If you're looking for a solid cowboy romance, there are better options out there than this amusement park version.

If there’s one thing I love about Dilan’s writing, it’s how unique each and every one of her stories is. In a world where so many romance books can start to feel almost formulaic, hers have always stood out to me and The Brave and The Reckless is no different! Her imagination knows no bounds and it’s a privilege to read her books.

I loved every. single. thing. about this book, from the incredible tension between Esra and Noah, the Wild West theme park setting, the disability representation, the references to pop culture and quirky bits, the character development, the spice, it was all so so well done.

I was HOOKED from page 1 and the entire book was so well paced that I didn’t even realise how fast I was reading it!!

This book was absolutely phenomenal and it brought me out of the biggest reading slump!! Do yourself a favour and pick this book up when it comes out!!

Cowboy and a wild West theme park setting. This was super fun and as always with Dilan some great chronic illness rep.