Done and Dusted

Sage’s novels, including Done and Dusted, fall into the genre of contemporary romance. Although Done and Dusted deals with serious subject matter, such as complicated family dynamics, anxiety, and the death of parents, it is underpinned by lighthearted and comedic moments that often shift the tone away from the heavier subject matter. Contemporary romances are categorized by their happy endings and familiar plotlines but often focus on the main characters’ personal growth and the obstacles they must overcome to achieve their happy ending. As in Done and Dusted, most contemporary romance heroines and heroes are flawed; these narratives often show them helping each other overcome barriers not only to becoming romantically involved but also to being better and happier people.

Just as contemporary romance novels rely on familiar narrative structures, they also often involve well-worn tropes, archetypes, and situations, such as enemies-to-lovers relationships, marriage-of-convenience plotlines, and small-town settings. Done and Dusted uses many conventions typical of contemporary romance novels, including the enemies-to-lovers trope, in which two people with a complicated past together recognize how much they are influenced by their first impressions of one another. Forbidden love, or the “brother’s best friend” trope, is another common romance convention used in Done and Dusted, where it forces Emmy and Luke to confront the fears and priorities that prevent them from becoming romantically involved and hinder them personally. Small-town settings are also not uncommon in contemporary romance novels and can be found in works such as Emily Henry’s Book Lovers, Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics, Sara Adams’s When in Rome, and Tessa Bailey’s It Happened One Summer. Sage uses the small-town setting of Meadowlark, Wyoming, to show the strengths and struggles of tight-knit communities and highlight the protagonists’ efforts to feel at home.

Done and Dusted and the rest of Sage’s Rebel Blue Ranch series also fall into the subgenre of “cowboy romance.” Cowboy romances are so-called due to the characters, settings, and occasionally the situations, which often center on the Wild West or life on ranches. Though cowboy romances vary widely in their period, plot, and setting, books in this subgenre are essentially defined by one of the primary love interests working with cattle and horses. Novels in this genre typically use the small-town setting popular in the broader romance genre, though they often feature a main character who feels somewhat out of place in the community, such as Emmy does in Meadowlark. In novels like Janet Daily’s No Quarter Asked, Katherine Center’s The Bodyguard, and Sage’s second novel, Swift and Saddled, characters from bigger cities must adjust to life on a small-town ranch. Cowboy love interests in these novels also tend to fit the “bad boy” or “reformed rake” archetype and have looser morals or bad reputations, not unlike Luke in Done and Dusted. In books like Elsie Silver’s Heartless and Sara Richardson’s Hometown Cowboy, characters and their love interests must turn to their softer side as they open themselves up to romantic love. Cowboy romances also more generally tend to focus on the romance of the West and the South of the United States. Settings in these novels are not only remote small towns but are surrounded by plains and mountains, which often feature prominently in the novel’s most descriptive passages.