I Love You, Luke Piewalker

By: Eliza Gordon

Narrated by: Carly Robins

If you find yourself talking to writer Jayne Dandy, keep the conversation on comic books and Star Wars - best not to mention men, dating, or S-E-X. Her crippling fear of intimacy has made relationships a big no-no, but hiding behind her laptop isn’t going to get her lightsaber lit.

When her therapist recommends that she write erotica as a form of exposure therapy, Jayne is hesitant. But when she is unexpectedly downsized at work, she adopts a pseudonym and secretly publishes her sexy stories to make ends meet. Meanwhile, her adorable long-time friend Luke, co-owner of the popular Portland food truck Luke Piewalker’s, hears she’s been demoted and insists on hiring her to sling éclairs and turnovers at his side.

As Jayne tries to juggle her growing secret career and her newfound feelings towards Luke, her entire life is about to send Jayne and her X-Wing into a tailspin that will either make her face down her neuroses or trigger a meltdown of Death Star proportions.

©2019 Eliza Gordon (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Sweet Story

Overall, I did like the story. The conflict was a bit blown out of proportion - I know that it usually is, but this really went beyond what I thought was believable. Also, the Gretchen/Jane conflict felt really manipulative. If I knew Jane and Gretchen, I’d tell Jane that Gretchen was way out of line.

For performance, I think there was an issue with the sound mix or something. That coupled with the narrator’s tendency to whisper certain lines as part of the performance, made some sections impossible to hear unless I was wearing headphones.

A pleasant but boring character journey

This book was recommended, as I’ve been on a romance kick recently. I was hoping for another smutty entry into the romance annals, but I was pleasantly surprised when the book seemed to be more of a coming-of-age tale.

Unfortunately, though, I quickly determined that the book didn’t know what it wanted to be. It failed as a good romance, and it failed in developing its main character’s motivation and ultimate triumph. There was no triumph except for a predictable romance ending that didn’t do justice to the weak (but present) journey the main character had been on.

The narration was tough to get through, particularly when voicing the main character’s best friend. WARNING: the shouting is migraine-inducing.

In short, a pleasant, PG romance that is a decent palate cleanser from some smuttier romances, but there’s probably something else out there with a little more substance than this bland eclair.

Great premise, badly written...

It was hard to make it through this one. I’m a self-professed nerd so I was excited for this one! I was expecting a sweet, cute, funny slow burn, but what you get was a whole lot of plot holes, badly written characters, and nonsense. Narrator was great but the story made little sense and after sitting through about 7 hours of this book with little to no story progression and constant whining from the main character, I just couldn’t anymore and switched to another title (and I ALWAYS finish books even if they aren’t great so that’s saying something).

Very nice indeed.

This is a sweet story, well told. The actor's performance was excellent, with a pleasant variety of speech patterns to characterize each of the roles. All without sacrificing diction; I never had trouble understanding her.

A pivotal scene at a comic con is what you might expect: Love growing between adorable super fans, in costumes. Star Wars references aplenty.

One thing I enjoyed was how the heroine and the hero both have their issues to work on. The hero has issues with lying. The heroine, with shame. The heroine's issues lead to her lying to our hero, which generates more shame.

My favorite part: The heroine asks for help whenever she has a problem. Some of the help she gets is actually useful (from the psychologist & from the hero), while other bits are counterproductive (almost anything done by Gretchen or by the secondary love interest).

My biggest complaint: The heroine was too much of a wimp. Throughout this story, many people push her around. Her mother is the absolute worst. Her friend Gretchen is something else. Backbone. The heroine needs a backbone.

Loved this!

The characters were awesome and I loved this narrator! Such a funny and cute story. I’m going to see what else the author has written next! Very creative!