Oh, man...This one is so stinkin' good! It is hands down the best royal romance I've ever read. Emma St. Clair is so right with her quote on the cover...Luke is beyond dreamy. The swoon is strong with this one. I did read this book before the previous ones in the series, but now that I've also fallen in love with Izzy and Penelope, I'll be backtracking into their stories soon!

This was my first Pepper Basham book and I loved how she wove Christian themes throughout without being super in your face about it. I know that can be a reader complaint sometimes and I think she did an excellent job of letting her faith speak for itself, but not too loudly. I'm definitely looking forward to checking out her backlog and any new books she releases in the future. I'm absolutely hooked on Pepper's writing style. ❤️

Ellie...What a perfect princess! She had a tough past reputation to overcome, but she did exactly that with grace and poise. I love how genuine Ellie seems, how dedicated she is to serving her people. Even though she is a huge deal as a famous royal, she's just so down to earth and lovable. One of my favorite FMCs lately for sure!

Luke...Oh, my. This man is a top tier book boyfriend for sure. He's absolutely my type so that of course helps, but he's also just an incredibly decent guy. He loves his family and friends with ferocity and just truly loves living a simple life. Throw in a bit of flannel and coffee...What's not to love?!

Things I loved...the epistolary portions of the story (specifically Luke's conversations with his sisters and Ellie's talks with Maeve), Luke's relationships with Faye, Amara, and Jamie, the entire world of Skymar, Gordon and Nessa, all the movie references, the humor (I laughed so much), the voice acting for the audiobook (top notch - one of the best I've ever listened to), and so much more.

Don't sleep on this one. Grab a copy and get to reading today!

Thank you to NetGalley, Thomas Nelson, Zondervan Fiction Audio, and Pepper Basham for access to a free audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
🌶️

What a cute royal romance!! I love the “nothing box” reference. Because it’s true! Ellie and Luke are so cute together and I almost lost hope of them having their happily ever after! Perfect for Bridgerton lovers!

Loyally, Luke by Pepper Basham is a part of a series but can easily be read as a standalone novel. I read one of the other books in this series and enjoyed it, but it was not my favorite. Reading this book as an audiobook completely changed my perspective. The audiobook is narrated by a group of people and they really bring the book to life. As an audiobook, the brilliance of Ms Basham’s fun plot really shines. The plot is a sweet romance and yes predictable. However, readers of this genre expect this. If you like sweet romance, you will adore this book. I received a review copy of the audiobook from the publisher with no obligations. These opinions are entirely my own.

Thank you, Netgalley, for an audio arc of this book.

DNF - I really wanted to like this book. It had all my favorite tropes, I really loved the description of the book, the cover looked cute, and there have been great reviews of it. I guess this was just not for me. I don't usually DNF books, but I just couldn't connect with the characters or plot. For me, it was slow and I didn't see any dimensions to the characters.

Loyally, Luke audiobook was first Pepper Basham, I know it's part of a series, but I didn't feel lost at all reading it as a standalone. It's a cute story with good characters, but I found this too saccharine and cheesy, personally. The audiobook narration was great. Having multiple narrators and both doing all the accents helped prevent confusion since so much of the story is told via text. Thanks to HarperCollins Publishing and NetGalley for an audiobook to listen and review.

This is a great addition to a fun series. The narrator helps duck you into the story. It is well written and charming. A sweet romance for those you love an impossible situation.

Thank you to HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Pepper Basham and NetGalley for an ARC audio copy of the book in exchange for an honest review!

WOW! I had high hopes for this book and it blew right past them! Such a fun, witty, full of banter book that had me smiling and giggling as I was listening (I'm sure those passing by me on my daily walks thought I was a little loony!)

While this is the third book in a series, this was my first time reading both the series and this author - I will 100% being going back and reading/listening to the other two books and Pepper Basham is now added to my auto buy author list.

this book gave the perfect balance of clean romance (enemies to lovers) and banter which made it such a refreshing read/listen compared to some other more popular romance authors.

Would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a summery-vibe romance novel to take to the beach this summer!

This was such a cute story! I feel like fans of Friends or similar sitcoms would especially appreciate this plot. The pacing felt a bit off, since we went from plotting payback to deeply in love, and it took a while for me to get invested in the story. The first chapter is 36 minutes, and it really just lays the groundwork for the plot. Once you hit chapter three, though, it is really engaging!

This book was so predictable it was like reading about the hallmark movies that I grew up watching , and yes… it even had the references to boot!
Luke a country appalachan man
Ellie a PRINCESS of Skymar
What could possibly go wrong

This story was so gushy and crying and wonderful you couldn’t help but smiling 😊 it was the feel good pallet cleanser I needed 💕

I received an audiobook arc from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

I enjoyed this book and the characters. The storyline was on point and you could feel the love between Luke and the Princess and how much they were struggling with trying to deny their attraction due to her being a princess and Luke a commoner.

Always love a HEA ending and this one did not disappoint. Definitely one I would recommend to others. First time reading this author and will definitely be reading more from her!

Luke's cousin and sister found love in Skymar and so naturally, his sister thought he'd follow the same trend. He disagreed of course. He was only there on a short-term construction job. That was until he bumped into annoying Ellie who turned out to be in charge of the job he was undertaking to restore a castle-like orphanage.

I enjoyed this so much! Their first meeting had them both at each other's throats after their coffee orders were switched, they weren't so thrilled when they found out they'd be working together. I couldn't get enough of Penelope's predictions of how Luke's life would play out like a Hallmark movie and it was 😂

Finding out Ellie was a princess definitely put a damper on their budding romance but they fought to keep their friendship intact as Luke's departure drew near.

I loved the steadiness with which Luke carried himself. He reminded Ellie to give herself grace in that her shaky past needn't affect her demeanor. She brought him out of his shell and I loved them for each other.

My highlight was the audiobook. It made the experience even more enjoyable. I laughed out loud a number of times and flew through the story. All the narrators did an amazing job.

What a wonderful conclusion to the Skymar series! Thank you to Netgalley and Publisher for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

happy pub day to this sweet lil closed door romance❣️this gave me big PRINCESS DIARIES vibes + it was a fun home-renovation read. I loved how authentic + down-to-earth Luke’s character is. And it was refreshing to read about sobriety! it did have a pretty slow start, but it captured my attention around 40%. it was a little cheesy, but I think all hallmark movies are 🤪 so if you enjoy those, I think this book will be right up your alley. lots of solid life lessons tucked in between the storyline too 🥰

3 Stars

*Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an audio ARC in exchange for my honest review*

Loyally Luke is a sweet romance about handyman fixer, Luke, who arrives in the Island nation of Skymarr (Scotland adjacent) to spend a few months working on the orphanage. In the process he meets Elly, an interior designer, and sparks start to fly between them.

But to Luke’s surprise Elly turns out to be none other than Princess Elliana!

Elly, who’s suffered from a bad public image, is trying to turn things around in the media and reintegrate herself back into the royal family. Only ahead doesn’t plan on being swept off her feet by Luke.

Loyally Luke is a sweet, fast-paced romance between a princess and a handyman with meddling side characters, far off places and happy ever afters.

Closed door romance (No spice)
HEA
Third book in the series

"Deep down, they communicated something everyone wanted. Everyone hoped to find. Being worthy of someone’s love just as you were. Being enough."

Luke finally got his book, and I was here for it!! Ms. Basham has created a fictional world with wonderful characters and fun banter. These are my people. I thoroughly enjoyed all the Hallmark and sweet fairytale vibes throughout the book. I love Luke and Ellie! I was also glad the story put a nice bow around Penelope and Izzy's love stories, too! It ends with a huge round of happily ever afters. If you need to read or listen to a book that will leave you feeling all happy, then this book is for you!!
*I was given a copy of this book by Thomas Nelson Publishers and this is my honest opinion.

Loyally Luke is a 3.5 star read for me. I struggled in the first 30% of the book to feel a connection to the main characters, but by the end I really did love them together. I found the writing quirky and fun. This was a low angst rom com where the love interests struggled to decide what was right for them and the outside world. I have to add that the narrators did an outstanding job bringing the characters to life.

I received a copy of this audiobook from NetGalley, but this did not affect my review.

I’m from South Mississippi, so when I say I’m the authority on southern charm in narration— believe me. Luke in this audiobook hit the absolute nail on the head! He even used “ain’t” without sounding like he hurt himself. You know when Hallmark season comes around and you get all cozy and warm feeling just thinking about their movie lineup? And your husband, dad, brother, and uncle all just roll their eyes? Luke is the embodiment of that! However, you can tell that he has resigned himself to his fate being in a house full of sisters. It reminded me so much of my own brother and how he would always reluctantly let us choose the movie every now and then. I also grew up in a builder’s home, so that was very nostalgic for me. Basically, Luke would hate to hear it, but I felt like I was in a Hallmark movie the WHOLE TIME!

Ellie trying to reinvent herself was also very relatable, because haven’t we all been young and dumb once? The shame she feels about her past choices is an element of my own reality that endeared her to me. I love that the people around her didn’t try to sugarcoat her past, but consistently pointed her to the present life she was working so hard in. I loved the Scottish lilt to the narration for her voice, as well. But what can I say? We love to hear ourselves and the southern accents will always win out for me.

This book! What a fabulous ending to a lovely family series! I was enraptured with the voices! The accents! The beauty of this book shown through in this portrayal of all the characters! I loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to listen, all thoughts and opinions are my own!

⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book was ok. The story was cute and all but I found it very cliché.
Luke the main character was the typical Prince Charming. The problem was he wanted to be THE MAN. The one that is strong and cannot diminish his masculinity by being soft, or loving romance. Plot twist he is soft and he is romantic.
Ellie was the typical princess with her redemption arc planned out.
Let´s say that if you are looking at all the tropes possibly imaginable, this book gives them to you.
It´s light and predictable, which are not bad qualities, but after 20% I already knew EVERYTHING that was going to happen, and so it became boring very quickly.

What I liked the most about this book were the side characters and the audiobook production that was simply outstanding. It had a full cast of actors and it helped a lot to finish the book.

I started this book with high hopes because the reviews were fantastic. What's better than a grumpy-sunshine love story, right?

I really wanted to love it, but I found Luke to be too much of a toxic masculinity type of guy, and it really bummed me out.

This book was a cute royalty romance that was an unexpected find for me. It is the third book in a series but can totally be read as a standalone. This book gave me a huge Prince and Me movie vibe when I listened to it, and I think it might be a reason why I liked it even more because that movie was my childhood.

Luke Edgewood is a pretty grumpy introverted carpenter who loves wearing flannel shirts and can’t stand anything romantic. He ends up traveling to the island of Skamar to help with some restoration work and has a very unpleasant meeting in a coffee shop with Ally, a princess of Skamarian Islands, who tries to find her own feet in royal adult life and not to make any more messes that she already had. Aliana escapes to the secluded mountains to take charge of the orphanage’s renovations and when she learns that Luke is the one that was hired to do the construction working she decides to hide her royal identity, trying to enjoy the anonymous life and the fact that Luke treats her like a real person without any ulterior motives. And Luke himself ends up intertwined with all the romantic and cheesy romance tropes he was trying so hard to avoid.

I genuinely liked the relationship and dynamics between them, seeing Luke helping Ally along the way to try to discover who she really is and find her place in the world. I also appreciated the fact that when the identity reveal happened, there was no silly miscommunication that I hate so much. He took this as an adult, and thus, there was no ugly drama involved. I loved their fishing and tree climbing moments and how they both encouraged each other to be their best selves.

I also loved that while Luke was this sarcastic and grumpy man, he had this soft spot for children around him and was always so patient and supportive with his family, no matter how annoying his sisters were. I loved their sibling banter a lot!

This book is a sweet and heartwarming cozy romance book that fills you with coziness, laughter, and hope. It's also a perfect fit for the fans of Hallmark movies – because there were a lot of references, which I would have appreciated much more if I were a fan of those movies.

My only complaint would probably be the fact that I would want to have more of their background histories instead of those little glimpses we get.

Overall, this book is a definite recommendation from me!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Thomas Nelson Fiction publisher for an audiobook copy in exchange for my honest review!