Loyally, Luke by Pepper Basham

Luke Edgewood isn’t a romantic.

Or, at least, he’s always felt certain Hallmark movies and rom-coms were invented more as punishment for average guys than adding any real value to cinema. He’s a behind-the-scenes, flannel-wearing guy who lives a quiet life of obscurity and places value on working hard and being a good friend, neighbor, and brother. So when he travels to the island of Skymar to work on a few building projects, he never expects to find himself directly in the middle of a romantic trope-filled story of Hallmark proportions. From a Meet Cute that was anything but cute and an aging orphanage in need of as much tender care as the children it houses, Luke begins to wonder if he and his heart may be victims of some sort of hidden camera movie moment.
Elianna St. Claire, youngest daughter of King Alecsander and Queen Gabriella of the Skymarian Islands, is trying to earn her way back into the status of working royal after botching her public and private life with some ill-timed choices which ruined her reputation and damaged the family. Now, older and wiser, she’s determined to prove worthy of her title. Taking on a renovation of her beloved orphanage, Cambric Hall, (of which she is patron) shouldn’t be such a difficult job. Happy to escape her mother’s strong encouragement of matrimony, she finds pseudo-anonymity in the secluded mountains to oversee the orphanages renovations until her parents announce her official return as a working royal at the Wild Hyacinth Ball.
When Ellie learns the man she’d literally ran into at the coffee shop is the one who has been hired to help with the orphanage’s repairs, she’s determined to keep her royal status as secret as possible. From fundraisers to fake dates to sleigh rides and snowball fights, Ellie and Luke begin to discover that the wrong first impressions may lead to a romantic possibility with rom-com flavored magic included.

But when Ellie’s true identity is revealed and royal expectations bring Luke out of his preferred anonymity into the spotlight of the royal life, will their budding relationship fall prey to a very unhappily-ever-after ending?