The Loyal One by Shelley Shepard Gray – a Review

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Description:
When Katie Steury hires her old friend Harley Lambright to remodel her rundown old house into a charming bed and breakfast, she does so with trepidation. Though they are longtime friends, they’ve always had a rocky relationship, thanks to her being partly responsible for his most recent breakup. But while they may not always get along, she needs someone to trust with her secrets, and Harley is nothing if not trustworthy and loyal.

Katie has always reminded Harley of a bright hummingbird—she is small and flighty, moves a mile a minute, and she possesses a very sharp beak. He’s hesitant to accept the job because of his history with Katie. But when he realizes that Katie’s been hiding her mother’s hoarding, he agrees to help her because it’s clear she needs someone on her side.

Both soon discover that clearing the debris in one old house also means they have to do some clean-up in their lives, forcing them to reevaluate their past and their future. This somewhat painful process reveals that Katie isn’t the only one with secrets. As the house gets a second chance, so, too, does their relationship. Now all they have to do is open their hearts—and hope and pray that their new bond will also stand the test of time.

Review:

The Loyal One by Shelley Shepard Gray is the 2^nd book in her Walnut Creek series. The Loyal One returns to Walnut Creek and the group of 8 friends that we got to know in the first book, who all have decided to stay in town and be there for each other.  This is a mixed group of men and women, who are Amish, Mennonite and English.

This story revolves around Harley Lambright and Katie Steury, who have always been friends, but neither of them thought of any thing beyond.  Katie is in the midst of trying to fix up her run-down house, and hires Harley to remodel the house into a bed and breakfast.  Katie has always been outspoken, and at times this used to rattle Harley, but now he is sympathetic to her concern for anyone to see the condition of the house where her mother hoarded things.  Katie does not want her friends to see how she lives now, and is trusting Harley to keep her secrets.  But this is a group of friends that stay together no matter what, and when they accidently see the house, they will bond together to help Katie, especially to allow them to help her and not be embarrassed.

Slowly the relationship between Katie and Harley grow beyond friendship, as both change their ways and begin to understand each other, not to mention their new feelings.  The Loyal One is a sweet story about romance, friendship, family and bringing everyone together.  It was really nice to see everyone again, but most importantly it was wonderful to see despite their different backgrounds and personalities, they will always be friends and help each other.  There was also a side story showing the friendship building between Harley’s brother Kyle and Gabby, who is English.  This was a nice feature to see Kyle bring out Gabby and her brother to spend time with his family.   Very nicely done.

The Loyal One was a simple story of friendship, family, love and a sweet slow built romance, with a great group of secondary characters. I look forward to the next book in this series, which is well written by Shelley Shepard Gray.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher