With a mishmash of The Princess Diaries 2 and the story of The Prodigal Son, Loyally Luke does not disappoint! We meet Luke, a contractor from North Carolina, heading to the country of Skamar to help restore a gorgeous building that serves as an orphanage. At the airport coffee shop, Luke notices a gorgeous, Grace Kelly look a like and accidentally spills his coffee on her! I would classify it as a meet cute without the cute and plenty of annoyance. Later, when Luke travels to the orphanage to see what work needs to be done, he finds out that the Grace Kelly look alike, named Ellie, is his boss! Not only is she his boss but the reader learns that she is also the princess of Skymar and Luke has no idea. Working together, Luke and Ellie learn that they actually like each other. Ellie tries to resist her deeper feelings by telling herself that she is royal and Luke would hate being a royal. Luke attempts to remind himself of his aversion to love by watching “manly” movies but when it turns out Ellie loves action movies, he realizes he’s fighting a losing battle. What follows next is a softening of hearts, friendship, a little more than friendship and an adorable cast of children and local townsfolk.

I loved how Ellie was working on herself after leaving rehab and a past of mistakes. She was so focused on becoming a better person after the paparazzi dragged her name through the mud for years. It was so satisfying to watch her relationship with her father and how he loved her no matter what. I also loved watching Luke’s relationship with his sisters and how they teased him about his life being a “Hallmark Movie.” There was a sprinkling of faith and prayer and God throughout the story but it fit the story well and wasn’t forced. Overall it was a very sweet romance.

I received an ARC of the audio and the narrators were great. I will say that it was confusing, especially at the beginning, because each chapter starts with a text conversation. Sometimes it’s between Luke and his sister and other times it’s between Ellie and her friend. Until I got used to the different narrators, I wasn’t sure who the text conversation involved so I missed a few chapters of text content.

Thank you to HarperCollins Christian Publishing for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of Loyally Luke by Pepper Basham. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed the narrators for this audiobook. It was easy to follow and understand which character was speaking when even though there were multiple voices included.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this audio.

This book was sooo stinking cute!!! I loved that it was wholesome and such a good romcom. I enjoyed reading Luke’s love story. I haven’t read the first 2 books but I ordered them and will be reading them ASAP!

I didn’t enjoy this very much.

The main 2 narrators were fine but the sister & the MMC’s friend who was watching his dog? I wasn’t vibing with their voices. Kind of dreaded those chapters.

As for the book itself, it felt like we started off trying to shove every trope out there into one book while also acknowledging every single trope (omg it’s a meet cute! This ain’t no enemies to lovers! Etc etc) which felt too on the nose for me. And the whole coffee incident felt like it was blown TOTALLY out of proportion and ended up being the basis for the “enemies to lovers”?

I did like the MMC as a person, he seemed sweet and true, but that got covered up with the rest of the plot.

Man, I really wanted to like this book. I very much enjoyed Authentically Izzy, but this one - okay. I don't remember ALL the God talk in Izzy's book. Maybe that's just a part of who Luke is, or whatever, but it was distracting. Also, it's fine for him to have a movie preference, like I thought the Rambo commentary was fun, but when he's ALL the time making "me macho man who likes macho movies and boy stuff only" references, it was annoying and exhausting. He also mentioned Ellie smelling like oranges CONSTANTLY. And one time it was "orange flowers" which, no. Listening, I think there were too many POVs and the cast was just too large. I did really enjoy the Scottish brogue though. I feel like something is broken in me bc there are SO MANY 5 star ratings and I was just not there.

This book was sickeningly cute. A literal perfect Hallmark film, but slightly better. At first glance, Luke had me. I love a grumpy blue collar man, it’s a canonical fact about me at this point, & fit the bill. The classic tale of our “undercover” princess Ellie (aka the man doesn’t keep up with world pop culture so doesn’t know her) who just wants to be seen as herself, & the good, down to earth guy who actually sees her. It had me gasping & having a really great time at so many parts.

The Christian elements of this were subtle enough that I don’t think anyone outside of the Church would have a huge issue following, but the parts that did get me were just the overstating of hypermasculine interests on Luke’s part. I GET THAT THAT WAS HIS CHARACTER. BUT. It just got a little old of him glamorizing her cause she liked Star Wars, & Indiana Jones, & Mission Impossible & didn’t know what a Hallmark movie was. Sir, most women love those movies. I just was getting annoyed at that constantly being a thing, but whatever.

Overall, really sweet book. Any Christian girlie would probably like this as a soft, fluffy, quick read. The writing itself was really good, & had me giggling & kicking my feet at certain spots. Their relationship was adorable & the whole dynamic of him working on the orphanage & getting to know & help the kids was SOFT. Gonna be a joy to a lot of Christian romance girlies!!

Thanks to NetGalley & HarperCollins Christian Publishing for the ARC!

What a cute rom com with a very happy ending! I didn’t realize this was part of a series when I requested it, but I was able to easily read it as a stand-alone. The characters are funny, quirky, and loveable. It is so nice to have good clean chick lit to read!
Thankyou NetGalley and Harper Collins Christian Publishing for my audio advanced copy.

As someone who loves loves, and cute romance book covers, I was really excited to review this one when I received it as an audio book! I will start us off by saying - If you like cheese, this one is for you! Personally, it was a little flowery and cheesy for me.

I think if I had read it, I might feel differently, but there were SO many voices in this audiobook, I think it threw me off a bit. The southern accents felt a little too forced, and the southern accents of the female characters were honestly a little annoying. Our MMC wasn't too bad, I think if it had been as forced as the others, I would have had to DNF it or switch to the book when it came out. Story was good, entertaining, and if you like flowery fluffy and cheesy you should go for it, and probably check out Pepper's other works! The writing is solid, the plot is cute, and I love kids in a good story to world build.


Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me an advanced listener copy in exchange for my honest review.

I was very excited for this book since I adore romcom audiobooks but unfortunately it fell flat for me. I did not know going in that It was a Christian romance and closed door which I don’t mind per se but was a bit blindsided. Also, the MANY voices of the voice actors got overwhelming for me especially since one of the sisters had a very high pitched voice. However, I did think the film references were fun and did add comedic relief at the right places.

LUKE. I loved Izzy and adored Penelope, but LUKE. LUKE WAS PERFECT. The way this was written with as many romcom tropes and cliches in it, while Luke constantly talks about hating romcoms and hallmark movies is PERFECTION. I absolutely loved it. It had just the right amount of snark, sass, and swoon. The audio was also great! As someone who listened to the first two as well, I could tell the voices for Izzy and Penelope were different, but I still loved them! And Luke’s narration was spot on.

Loved!

Audio read. I’m so sorry but this was a DNF for me. It just wasn’t my taste in a book. I could not connect with the characters and the narration, while I liked that it was “full cast” of voices was just too over the top.

Another adorable rom-com to start off spring and summer reads. This was a perfect opposites attract story with an adorable meet cute. A carpenter flys to a different country for a few months only to accidentally spill coffee on a princess at the airport with whom he is going to be working with while in her country. I flew through this audiobook, listening to it in one work day! Multiple pov each narrated by someone different which kept my attention the whole time. Also, I want to shout out the sibling bond in this one between the sisters and Luke. It makes me want to go back and read the first two books about the sisters.

This is a self-aware hallmark movie book. Incredibly enjoyable and will leave you with all of the warm and fuzzies. Be sure to check out the audiobook. Great cast with fantastic accents.

I received an ARC from Netgalley and the publisher.

Loyally Luke is book #3 in the Skymar series and was a sweet, wholesome, fairytale romance.
I read this as a stand alone and do not feel as though you need to read the previous two books to enjoy this one.

🌶️-0/5 , I think they kissed three times in this book. If you’re looking for any kind of spice, this is not your book.

Overall this was a quick, light, feel-good read with likable characters. Luke is especially swoon-worthy. 😍

Thank you NetGalley and Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Fiction Audio for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Luke takes a carpenter job in Skylar,a country in Europe. There, he meets a princess but doesn't know she is a princess. This is a Cinderella story with a man as the MC. This was a fun audiobook to listen to.
Many thanks to Net Galley and HarperCollins Christian Audio for an audio ARC of this book for an honest review.

3.75 ⭐️

Loyally, Luke was a very sweet book. Luke was your typical manly-man (gruff, short-spoken, carpenter) and Ellie was a princess-in-hiding trying to fix her past reputation. They’re working on renovating an orphanage together in Ellie’s home country of Skymar, and fall for each other in the process.

I really loved Luke helping Ellie with her “regular person” bucket list and the way he treated the kids who lived in the orphanage. And I loved Ellie for being a hard worker and so down to earth.

What I didn’t love was the heavy-handedness of the traditional gender roles and masculinity. I know with a Christian publishing imprint that the book will be squeaky clean with only a bit of kissing, which I don’t mind at all. But in the year 2024, I find it totally unnecessary for the men to be so against romance movies that just thinking about one means it’s time to watch Rambo to cleanse it from his mind - men are allowed to have emotions and enjoy a good romance. The whole romance genre was made fun of A LOT for a book in that genre, and it really detracted from the story for me. Many Christians have accepted this nowadays, and we don’t need to continue writing books like values are the same as they were in the 1950s.

The narrators for Luke and Ellie were great, no issues at all. The narrators for the sisters were just okay; they had very high pitched voices that were probably meant to convey a lot of excitement because every exchange with them had a lot of squealing, but in reality it just came across a bit hard on the ears.

Overall, it was a cute book, and without the overly-masculine traits of Luke or the shaming of romance movies, I would’ve given it 4.25 ⭐️ because I’m a sucker for the princess falling for the commoner trope.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Christian Publishing/Thomas Nelson Fiction for the audiobook ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Oh man, I adore grumpy Luke. Of course both Luke and Ellie start out on the grumpy side. Their meet cute isn't all that "cute". Talk about starting off on the wrong foot. Doesn't take too long for them to begin to see the good in each other though.
I have both read the book and listened to the audiobook and found both ways enjoyable. I'm pretty sure I've never before listened to an audiobook with seven narrators to depict all the voices though. It was a fun way to do it.
I love Luke's relationship with his sisters. Their text conversations are pretty fun especially being depicted in their own voice. This book had a better balance of narrative to text/email communication than the second book. I enjoyed it this way more.
I enjoyed the gentle poking fun at itself in this romance. Every step of the relationship could all be part of a romcom or Hallmark movie that Luke claims to despise so much. And yet he can see all the tropes playing out in his life. "chime"
I haven't managed to read the first book in this series yet but I enjoyed the second one and loved this one even more. It was pretty delightful.
Favorite part of the story... the press conference. It was very romantic without their being a word of romance in it, all because he did it for Ellie.
An enjoyable read/listen.

No sex, language or violence

This book was not for me. I didn’t realize it was Christian romance, and as someone with religious trauma I didn’t expect to read one. I’m sure it’s probably a decent book, but not my genre so I don’t feel fair rating it.

I was excited to read (listen) to this book based on the description - I love a good romcom! There were some things I liked about the book such as the relationships between the MMC and his sisters, the text conversations and the humor in the book, but unfortunately there were a few things that fell flat for me. I found the constant references to Hallmark movies and different romance tropes to be a bit annoying. I love audiobooks with a full cast of narrators. I felt that a few of the narrators did a great job, but there were one or two that I didn't love. I personally didn't mind the mentions of faith and God in the book, but I think some people would and it might be helpful if it was more prominently labeled as a Christian romance.

Oh what a cute and feel good romance. I loved the cheesy storyline that you knew had a happy ending for the lovable main character. I listened to the audiobook and I loved the different voices and pace of the reading.