Book Review: Loyally, Luke (Skymar #3) by Pepper Basham

Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 384 pages
Author: Pepper Basham
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: May 14th, 2024
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Sometimes love means embracing the good, the bad . . . and even the impossible.

Dear Reader,

My name is Luke Edgewood, and there are few things in life that I require. Mainly black coffee. And flannel. And lots of solitude. And my dogs, Chewy and Indie. What I don’t need is romance, so I have no plans to change my thirty-year-old bachelor status anytime soon.

But my youngest sister thinks that by accepting a short-term construction job in the small European country of Skymar, I’m going to follow along in her footsteps and discover my own romantic adventure. Nope. Bah humbug. The End. This time, her rom-com-movie senses are totally wrong.

Or maybe not. Because I’ve met a Grace Kelly look-alike who is annoying . . . until she isn’t. But she is impossible. As in, nothing can happen between us because she is a literal princess. Even though that’s easy to forget when we’re working together to restore a castle-like orphanage in a secluded mountain town and “forced proximity” includes a small closet, a secret one-hundred-year-old journal, and the tactile memory of an off-limits royal in my arms.

Basically, the whole situation has turned into an ooey gooey magical snow globe of romantic tropes complete with cute kids and an actual ball. Now, even my sentences are starting to sound like mush. Ugh. Send high levels of testosterone my way—I’m going to need it.

Loyally,
Luke

Thank you to Thomas Nelson for the gifted copy.

MUCH BETTER.

After having a lot of mixed feelings about book two in this series, I’m happy to see I easily enjoyed this one much more. It was a sweet romance. I loved the hidden identities and all of the renovation work. The audiobook did these characters justice and blessed be that there were a loooot less texting/email conversations. I still didn’t find those necessary to the story, and I really liked when it was just Luke and the princess.

There’s good banter and that edge of forbidden romance. The setting has castles and beautiful country sides. The light faith elements didn’t overwhelm the story and I liked how the ending came together and where this couple ended up. It’s light and charming and I look forward to trying another Pepper Basham book.

Overall audience notes: