skymar – GoodeyReads

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:

Contemporary Romance
Language: none
Romance: kisses
Violence: low

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Rating: ★★★
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 410 pages
Author: Pepper Basham
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Release Date: August 1st, 2023
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

Told mostly through letters, texts, and email, this contemporary romance will charm its way into hearts as Penelope rescues a theater and discovers her true self in the process.

Penelope Edgewood is practically positive in every way, so when, fresh out of college, she is awarded a paid internship to help save a century-old theater on the island of Skymar, she jumps at the chance. After all, a crumbling theater needs the special touch of someone who reveres all things vintage and adores the stage.

Unfortunately, not everything is as it seems at Darling House Theatre. Finances are in shambles, the local theater group is disenchanted, and the two brothers, Matt and Alec Gray, can’t seem to see eye-to-eye about how to run their theatrical business. So, of course, it’s the perfect place for Penelope to shine her own personal brand of sunshine.

With a little help from GK, the person emailing her encouragement along the way, she puts all her heart into helping the Grays save Darling House. But between Matt’s ever-present skepticism, Alec’s tendency to treat Penelope a little too much like the “princess” she thinks she wants to be (until someone actually started treating her that way), a grandfather who is stuck in his grief, and a mysterious person stealing Penelope’s marketing ideas, she’s not sure her optimism is enough to make a happily-ever-after of her own story, let alone The Darling House’s.

Between an adorable little girl, a matchmaker, a sea monster or two, and a copious amount of musical references, can Penelope draw enough confidence from her faith, her family, and her adoration of all things Julie Andrews, to find the thief and save the theater . . . without getting her heart broken in the process?

Thank you to Bibliolifestyle and Thomas Nelson for the gifted copy and LibroFM for the audiobook.

TOO MANY E-MAILS.

Honestly if the 200 pages of inane emails and text messages would have been taken out, I think I would have liked this story a lot more. Good HEAVNES it was TOO MUCH. And I stand by my statement that it didn’t genuinely further the plot or sub-story lines.

Ignoring that aspect, the rest of the book was sweet. I am not the type of personality to connect with Penelope but I honor and love her ability to look on the bright side and be a bit of sunshine to others in her life. She is hopeful and genuine and I loved how hard she worked at her commitments. The romance between her and Matt had some good tender moments. Different scenes felt a bit cliche, but I think that was the vibe of this book in general.

I do not recommend the audiobook. The intense litany of voices and narrators was more jarring than I expected. I loved some of the accents and others were hard to understand making reading at one speed more complicated.

Overall audience notes: