Review: Done and Dusted by Lyla Sage

She’s off-limits, but he’s never been good at following the rules.

For the first time in her life, Clementine “Emmy” Ryder has no idea what she’s doing. She’s accomplished everything on her to-do list. She left her small hometown of Meadowlark, Wyoming; went to college; and made a career for herself by doing her favorite riding horses. But after an accident makes it impossible for her to get back into the saddle, she has no choice but to return to the hometown she always wanted to escape.

Luke Brooks is Meadowlark’s most notorious bad boy, bar owner, and bachelor. He’s also the unofficial fifth member of the Ryder family. As Emmy’s older brother’s best friend, Luke spent most of his childhood antagonizing her. It’s been years since he’s seen her, but when she walks into his bar and back into his life, he can’t take his eyes off her. Despite his better judgment, he wants to do a whole lot more than just look at her.

Emmy’s got too much on her mind to think about romance. And Luke knows he should stay away from his best friend’s younger sister. But what if Luke is just what Emmy needs to get her spark back? Or will they both go up in flames?

• Title: Done and Dusted
• Author:  Lyla Sage
• Publisher: The Dial Press
• Publication Date: June 6, 2023
• Genre: Romance 
• Targeted Age Range: Adult
• Content Warnings: explicit language and explicit, on-page sexual content. anxiety, trauma after an injury, alcohol consumption, discussions about ADHD , reference to drugs, references to an ex with potentially controlling behavior, death of a parent (past, off-page), panic attacks (one on page), references to toxic childhood environment, references to toxic parental relationships
• Rating: ★★★★

If you’ve spent two seconds in any sort of bookish space — both in person and online — then you will have heard of the first book in Lyla Sage’s Rebel Blue Ranch cowboy romance series, Done and Dusted. It feels like you couldn’t scroll Bookstagram last year without seeing Done and Dusted (or one of the sequels) in every other post of your feed. 

To be totally honest, I had been curious about it but unsure as to if I would enjoy it. I went back and forth for months on whether I wanted to buy it or not — I considered buying it like at least 5 times, until one day last year I finally picked up a copy. Then it sat on my shelves for a few months, but knew I wanted to read it this year. I decided to pick it up over the weekend and then, to my surprise, I read the whole thing in a day. 

I completely understand why people are obsessed with this book/series in general — it is so readable! No tea, no shade, but it’s not like the writing was anything special; I found the writing pretty run of the mill for a romance, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The writing had that intensely readable quality that I think a romance should have. As a reader, you want to get lost in the story and the characters and the romance, which is exactly what this one did. I flew through the book, it felt like no time had passed at all and then all of the sudden I was over 100 pages in, I was seriously enthralled. If I had a copy of Swift and Saddled I’m sure I would’ve started it immediately after finishing Done and Dusted since I love this world that Lyla Sage created and wanted to spend more time at Rebel Blue Ranch. 

The relationships in this book were really lovely, and I’m not just talking about Emmy and Luke, but I’ll get to them in a second. I adored the friendship between Emmy and Teddy, they were the absolute sweetest. I loved how well they could read each other and how attuned they were to one another’s needs. Like when Teddy bought Emmy new bedding because she knew that what Wes had in the cabin would be too much because of her sensory processing needs. The connection that the two had was amazing and I love the way they communicate; their friendship was absolutely a highlight for me. 

As someone who is very close to her dad, I loved the relationships that both Emmy and Teddy had with their fathers. I also loved that in this small town with tough guys who are used to working on a ranch, there was none of this toxic masculinity where they weren’t open with their emotions and didn’t hug their kids or tell their kids that they loved them. Any scene with Emmy and her dad, and the scene at Teddy’s house on her birthday, were some of my favorites and really made me smile. I liked the relationships between Emmy and her brothers, but I wish we got to see more of it and I’m hoping we will throughout the rest of the series. I loved Gus’ daughter, Riley, and how much she loved her Aunt Emmy and Uncle Luke — so stinking cute!

In general, I really liked Emmy and Luke together. I’ve seen people say that it felt a bit insta-love, and I do see that, but it didn’t feel too insta-love for me, mostly because they did grow up together. Yes, they needed to get to know one another, but they did have some kind of relationship before so the instant attraction when Emmy came back didn’t bother me. I really liked the way that they were there for one another — their relationship had a depth that I didn’t expect, if I’m being totally honest. I especially loved the scenes where Luke helped Emmy work past her fears and anxiety around riding again. There were a few scenes that I didn’t love — like part of Teddy’s birthday party — but in general I really enjoyed the development of their relationship and I liked both of them as individuals.

I truly had a great time reading Done and Dusted and I do understand why so many people love this series — it’s a great form of escape! I’m actually planning on picking up Swift and Saddles and Lost and Lassoed today and hope to read them over the weekend. 

Links for Done and Dusted: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop