5, 6, 7, 8. Avery.

Hi, y'all. Welcome or welcome back to Gilmore to Read. I'm your host, Haley, and I'm so

glad to have you here today for our Gilmore Girls bookish segment of the podcast. I see Gilmore

Girls bookish because it is bookish. It is Gilmore Girls bookish segment of the podcast. I see Gilmore Girls bookish because

it is bookish. It is Gilmore Girls related. Therefore, Gilmore Girls bookish. 99% of the time

it is authors who have seen and loved Gilmore Girls. Sometimes they haven't seen it. But in this

episode, my guest is a Gilmore Girls fan. And nothing feels more cozy than books, writing,

talking about Gilmore Girls,

all of our favorite things. And today is our first episode of Gilmartre to read of November.

The time has changed, which has created more time for what I call my enrichment activities.

I'm sure you have enrichment activities that are your cozy hobbies for when it gets darker earlier to kind of save

your mind a little bit. I love audiobooks and puzzles and crafts or just reading with an

obiance on and a cozy blanket or falling asleep with a historical romance on my Kindle always.

Or an enrichment activity for you today. How about listening to a podcast episode about books and Goodmore Girls? Like I said, cozy as can be. This can be your enrichment activity for you today. How about listening to a podcast episode about books and

Gilmore Girls? Like I said, cozy as can be. This can be your enrichment activity for the day because

I have an excellent guest today. And that's Danica Nava, who I mentioned earlier, is a Gilmore

Girls fan. And the author of Love is a War Song, October's pick for Reading is Sexy, are Gilmore

Girls inspired romance-specific book club? Danica Nava is the first traditionally published Native American rom-com author and recently became a USA Today bestseller with her novel Love is a War Song, which we talk about in depth later in this episode. And if you've already read it, I know that you probably loved it. Let me remind you of the synopsis of it. And if you've not yet read it, let me tell you a bit about it and then listen to my episode with Danica, which I'm sure will convince you to head straight to the bookstore. Love as a war song is about a pop singer Avery Fox, who has become a national joke after posing scantily clad on the cover of Rolling Stone and a feather warm on it. 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 in her career at a standstill, she escapes to her estranged grandmother Lottie's ranch in Oklahoma. Living on the res 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 16 years old. He's lived by three rules to keep himself out of trouble. One, preserve the culture. Two, respect the horses. And three, 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 the 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 deal. 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? We talk about this later in the episode, but a lot of the inspiration that Danica had for this were like horse movies

like Flicka, but also the Hannah Montana movie where we have a pop star going out to the country

...