Absolutely loved this. Done and Dusted was one of my favourites of 2023 but oh my gosh Swift and Saddled blew that out of the water!

Right from their inital interaction at the bar I was HOOKED. Seeing a divorced character is quite rare these days and was nice to have a more mature/adult perspective on life from the two of them and see that in their relationship.

Also, I would like a baby cow - Loretta was too cute!

"Swift and Saddled" is a heartwarming romance that delivers on every level. Lyla Sage crafts a compelling story filled with relatable characters, genuine emotions, and an authentic portrayal of mental health struggles. From the charming small-town setting to the adorable farm animals, every detail adds to the magic of this book. Fans of romance and heartfelt storytelling won't be disappointed. Sage has once again proven herself as a master storyteller, and is a must-read for anyone looking for a captivating love story.

The perfect follow up to done and dusted. The book carries a gut wrenching charm that all good romance pieces have. It will take you from tears to fits of laughter as the characters explore their own journeys as-well as the journey towards each other. The highly anticipated novel doesn't disappoint and is a must read for fans done and dusted and anything with comedy, cowboys and of course a HEA

Entertaining and good story. I had fun and rooted for the characters. Good storytelling, humour and a well plotted story.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I loved Done and Dusted so dang much last year so I was eager to get into Swift and Saddled. The tropes of this book were wonderful and I loved the vulnerability in each of the character’s mental health journeys. Unfortunately, I felt as if it was a tad rushed and I just didn’t connect with the characters in this one as much as I did with book one. The writing style was enjoyable and I loved the progression of side characters continuing on from the first book. I’m excited to read book three as the characters in that one are some of my favourites.
I am extremely grateful to have received an early copy of this book and wish Lyla nothing but the best upon release. 3.5⭐️

Great read, the story of Ada and Weston. When they first meet she does know he is technically her boss, but now she needs to keep her distance from him, which is easier said than done. I liked how it was told from both points of view and how open and honest they were with each other. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

Thank you to Netgalley, Quercusbooks & Lyla Sage for the arc!


I LOVED this book so much! 5 star read!!

I loved done & dusted but swift & saddled just was *chefs kiss* its a perfect combo of sweet & steamy with cosy small town vibe!

love love love ada and her fiery personality, and golden retriever Weston was so sweet!

can't wait for teddy & gus' story!!

5 freaking stars 🤩

Lyla ended me with this one!!!

Weston Rhodes Ryder has my heart and I'm so okay with it. If green flag had a face it would have been Wes! Caring, people pleaser but with his own demons, i just wanted to hug him.
Tbh when will it be my turn??? If my cowboy isn't like Weston I don't want it!

My gal Ada is such a resilient and tough girl. I loved her character so much, even though no one from her family believed in her, her talent and determination took her by the hand and she made it and found her true path and the love, family & friends she deserved! She discovered herself and i loved it!

Waylon, Ziggy and Loretta ugh my babies i can't 🤩

The scene with Ada and Riley meeting for the first time was gold! So was the Cowboy joust one !!!! Wes & Ada's first make out scene was hot and funny 😛

But don't be fooled because the spice in this is so so good 😉

If you love small town x cowboy romance then this one is definitely for you!

TROPES Involved:

✨ Found Family
✨ Black Cat x Golden Retriever
✨ Female Friendships
✨ Small Town x Hot Cowboys
✨ Mental Health Representation
✨ Really cute dog and farm animals

Thank you to Lyla, Netgalley and publisher for this ARC 🩷

Ada is a professional house renovator/decorator but she has never completed any formal training and relies on her social media presence to spread the word about her work. This is what leads her to a ranch in Wyoming where she meets cowboy Weston Ryder and she thinks he's gorgeous, luckily for her, Wes feels the same way.

At first Ada tries to push him away as she doesn't want to blur the lines between them as technically he is her boss while she's renovating the house on the ranch. But it doesn't seem to take long for those walls to come down and she starts falling harder for him.

Ada has been married previously but it was toxic and left her with a lot of self doubt and boundary issues while Wes has suffered from depression. He's incredibly patient with her and allows her to work things out at her own pace and never pushes her for more than what she can give him at any moment, he completely supports what she wants from her career and is happy to wait for her.

I haven't read the first book in the series, but I will go back and read it as I want to hear more about Emmy and Luke's story. It was nice to read more about them in this book and I think it fit in the storyline quite well, it was there on the side lines but didn't take anything away from the central story about Wes and Ada. Wes was the perfect book boyfriend as well and very open about his struggles with depression and fairly in touch with his emotions. Ada didn't let her past control her but it definitely shaped who she was when she first met Wes.

Thanks to NetGalley and Quercus for the opportunity to read and review this ARC.

“𝙔𝙤𝙪’𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙤𝙣,” 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙄’𝙢 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙨. 𝙔𝙤𝙪 𝙥𝙪𝙡𝙡 𝙢𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙧𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙮. 𝙄 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡.”

I just loved being back in Meadowlark at the Rebel Blue Ranch. I enjoyed Done and Dusted but I loved Swift and Saddled even more because Wes and Ada were everything! This was such a quick and easy read that I could not put down! I cannot wait for Gus and Teddys book next!

𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬
✨Small town romance
✨Cowboy
✨Forced Proximity
✨He Falls First
✨Mental Health Rep
✨Found Family

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for an arc copy of this book!

4.5 stars

First of all, I can't even believe that I got accepted for this ARC but I'm so happy that I was because it was once again amazing!!

I loved the first book in the series, so I was excited to read the next one immediately (even if I did have to wait a few months). Ada and Wes were perfect, they were sweet and just perfect for each other. I love how easy it was to get into the book (even with the weird NetGalley formatting on Kindle - that did not deter me even a little!) I found that I didn't even care about the spice in this book because I loved the feelings and emotions between Ada and Wes in the small moments.

I fucking LOVED the depression representation and how it was just so open and honest, not the surface level stuff that everyone quotes but some real life day to day shit. I loved their push and pull, but how they never really strayed that far away from each other. I could rant about how cute they were all day long, but I just love this series and I am officially a Lyla Sage fan.

I’m such a sucker for a cowboy romance these days! I love the ranch, the family, the small town setting and the big open skies. You know what you’re going to be getting from the first page but I love the journey that the book sends you on. I kinda wish I’d gotten a little more backstory for both main characters as I didn’t feel they were as deeply developed as I wanted them to be but I was still rooting for them! And some nice teasing spicy scenes rounded things off nicely! Can’t wait for the next one!

*insert cowboy joke here*

"I see you, Ada. I always see you, even when you won't look at me."

⭐⭐⭐

If you're looking for a fluffy, easy, quick-to-read cowboy x city girl romance to make you feel all the feels while turning your brain off, then look no further because this is the book for you.

While reading, I kept thinking: this book is like eating cotton candy. You know it's purely made out of sugar, yet you still enjoy eating it and getting a sugar high. In this case, we have a hot but gentle cowboy who respects women and their boundaries, close proximity on a ranch with a found family, and an overload of cute romantic scenes with some pepper sprinkled on top. The recipe for a great time if you ask me.

"He talked to me the way people talk to plants when they want them to grow."

However, my tactic of turning off my critical brain and just enjoying the ride (pun intended), which worked for most of the book, started to fail in the last 30%. It got increasingly harder to ignore what had been nagging at me since the start.

My main problem was that Ada's character was not fleshed out well enough. Her backstory makes no sense, which makes her character harder to grasp, connect with and understand. I was very confused by her psychological profile and some of her actions, especially towards the end of the book.

Second, the mental health rep. Listen, it's important to me to get mental health rep right. In this case, I hate to say it, but to me it felt gratuitous. There were a lot of missed opportunities for good representation, i.e. having one MC actually deal with not getting wet/hard enough and seeing how the partner deals with that (instead of just having that talk but then both bodies being super responsive all of the time) or Ada caring for Wes during a relapse (aka a depressive episode or even a bad day). I was grateful to at least see the treatment being described as meds + therapy + finding things that work for the individual.

A smaller annoyance was the amount of times Wes asked for enthusiastic verbal consent. Sometimes, it's okay to use context cues or just take women at their word.

I think this book needed a bit more work to reach its full potential, but it's already enjoyable as is.

Thank you to Quercus for my free copy through Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

In this book, city girl meets cowboy. It has everything to be great.
Ada is trying to come back to the top of life after a few disasters in her life and she gets hired by a ranch to one of her biggest jobs so far. There she meets Weston, the cowboy, and he becomes obsessed with her.

Let's start by saying that Ada and Wes are EVERYTHING together, Loved them as a couples.
And Wes being a sunshine cowboy struggling with depression was just amazing. His development was incredible.
For me, it was more about the family rather than the romance and I absolutely recommed this book.

This second Rebel Blue Ranch read did not disappoint. I'm glad to see the world established in Done and Dusted was expanded upon in Swift and Saddled, yet still felt comforting and romantic.

Ada and Wes were fantastic characters to read, both as individuals and as a romantic pairing. I appreciated that their instant chemistry was well-paced throughout the novel, and didn't lean right into insta-love. The tension was palpable at points (the popcorn scene!!), and I loved all the moments where they were tested by the other and how long they could hold out.

I love spicy books, and this one did not disappoint. It was tastefully done and I adored their connection. Who doesn't love a cowboy romance?
Wes was a character that i adored from the moment we met him in book one, and I was glad that his story was the next in the series.

I liked the author's continued commitment to mental health representation and trauma recovery in this second book. Wes' depression was handled very well and felt like a natural part of his overall character which was really nice. I also adored that both characters maturely approached their issues and fears. The honesty that Wes and Ada established early on in the book wasn't cheapened by some of the rash decisions or not communicating well enough when feeling insecure. I absolutely loved the resolution to the third act angst and just swooned over how healthy this connection was for both of them.

Very eager to read book three. Meadowlark and Rebel Blue has become a comforting small town that I wish to spend more time within.
Bring on book three.

Never in a million years did I think I would love this book as much as I ended up loving it. Really.

I loved Wes, there’s no question about it and the representation that I brought to the table was F A N T A S T I C - a cowboy (SUNSHINE) with depression? I really enjoyed his development so freaking much! But, for me, Ada stole the show! I could relate so much with Ada and with everything she was and what she was looking for. I love every single thing about her - especially her inner thoughts.

This book is so, so good - not only because it’s a cowboy romance but because this family is EVERYTHING - I really can’t wait for Gus&Teddy! I love the found family trope, the reserve grumpyxsunshine, the cowboy vibes and everything about this book!

Please make sure you read this book because IT’S SO GOOD!

Star Rating: 4.5
Spice Rating: 2.5

Oh god I love this series so much! The family and the friendships in these books are just so incredible it makes me want to sob!

I absolutely adored Wes and his story. It look me a little while to warm up to Ada but I did really like her in the end and I can't wait to see more of hers and Wes' relationship in the background of the rest of the series.

I need the next book immediately!

No one is sadder than me about this…but I’m going to dnf 😢 I just couldn’t connect with the characters in this one and it really dragged from chapter to chapter. It also put me in the worst reading slump because I felt like I had to finish it. I loved done and dusted though! Read that!

What an absolutely gorgeous book.

Lyla Sage is a new-to-me author whose work I plan to continue reading. I love cowboy romance and was looking for more recommendations in this subgenre, when I came across Lyla's name. Her first book, Done and Dusted, was continually being recommended, and there was a lot of promo for Swift and Saddled in its lead-up to release.

After reading its blurb and swooning over its colourful, old-school comic-styled cover, I knew this book was going to be good. And it was!

Ada and Weston are two characters with entirely different lives and a mutual attraction toward each other. However, while this may have elements of 'opposites attract', at their core, these two characters are very similar: they want a life filled with love, family, and stability.

For Ada, I loved and admired her character growth. She has a lot to overcome, and she does so with a lot of hard work, effort, and kindness (toward herself when she stumbles). For Wes, I loved his caring nature. He was a major cinnamon roll hero who only wanted to help his loved ones in any way he could.

As for the rest of the characters, I enjoyed meeting each and every one. I plan to go back and read Done and Dusted to discover Emmy and Brooks' story, and I look forward to each new addition to this series!

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys lighter contemporary romance/cowboy romance with a bit of spice and the found family trope.

Disclaimer: Thank you to Lyla Sage and Quercus Books for the ARC.

Swift and Saddled was the perfect combination of sweet and steamy, with the same cozy vibe as the previous book in the series. We follow Wes and Ada, and I must say they are real characters with so many insecurities and dilemmas that I couldn’t avoid relating with them.

The romance in this book felt authentic, and while the main characters were portraited as opposites, they found balance in each other. The way Lyla introduced mental health topics to the story was quite unique, since that’s not the way most author’s do it, and it made the story feel more honest.

Overall, this is a heartwarming book and I recommend it to small town romance fans. I did, however, felt like the pace of the book was a bit rushed and the love at first sight trope is always tricky for me.

Thank you, NetGalley & the publisher, for approving me to read this arc and write this review.