Loyalty's Pursuit Shannon McNear

About the Book

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Book: Loyalty’s Pursuit

Author: Shannon McNear

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: October 13, 2026

She needs a husband to survive. Right now, a wife is the last thing he wants.

August 1780. After the Battle of Camden leaves British camp follower Bess Eaton widowed, expecting a child, and stranded in enemy territory, she faces two impossible choices: a return to an England that offers her nothing…or marriage to a stranger before the army marches on without her.

Backcountry loyalist Rob MacFarlane has already buried a wife and son and has no intention of marrying again at this moment. But he can’t ignore the vulnerable widow in his path. What begins as an act of duty quickly becomes something far more complicated when he offers Bess protection—and a name.

As war rages and the British cause begins to crumble, their fragile alliance is tested at every turn. Loyalties fracture. Faith is questioned. And the lines between enemy and neighbor blur. To survive, Rob must decide what allegiance truly costs—and Bess must choose whether she can trust not only the man she married…but the God she’s never fully known.

About the Author

Transplanted to the far north after more than two decades in the Deep South, Shannon McNear loves losing herself in local history. She’s the author of twenty-one novels and novellas, not all of them in print, but her favorite roles are retired military wife, pastor’s wife, mom-of-many, mother-in-law, and grammie. When not cooking, researching, or leaking story from her fingertips, she enjoys being outdoors, hanging out with her grandbabies and basking in the beauty of the northern prairies.

More from Shannon

I’m so honored to be part of yet another Celebrate Lit tour! This story especially is near and dear to my heart, because it was my very first long historical after writing fantasy for decades, the book I still had in process when I submitted the proposal for my first novella, Defending Truth, and the one which gave me the courage to try that story (and genre) to begin with.

The first draft of this story took five years to complete, in between other projects and real life. It was a hard sell to start with, I knew, being set within the Southern Campaign of the American Revolution but from the British and Loyalist viewpoint. Still, it eventually netted me both of my agents (Defending Truth’s RITA® nomination didn’t hurt there, either) while garnering interest from various editors—but didn’t actually sell until last summer. That means this story languished for more than 10 years—and then the Lord Himself practically dropped this contract in my lap.

The first story of how the concept came to me can be found here:

https://colonialquills.blogspot.com/2014/07/dispelling-colonial-myths-reenactor.html

It was on my heart from the beginning to portray the romance, such as it is, in a rather unconventional way—something closer to what I imagine real life must have been for such a situation. And I deliberately steered away from the usual flowery declarations of love between my main couple, while hoping to present them in such a way that the reader has no doubt by the end of the story that they do absolutely care for each other. My dear editor with Wild Heart Books helped me shape and refine the characters and story from what might have been a more straightforward historical fiction read into more of what a historical romance reader might expect. I hope those expectations are now met, but also that my readers also come away with a fresh appreciation for how our country came to be.

Devoted To Hope's Review of Loyalty's Pursuit

In Loyalty’s Pursuit, Shannon McNear takes us to South Carolina in August 1780, just after the Battle of Camden. Bess Eaton followed the British army as a soldier’s wife. Now she is widowed, expecting a child, and stranded in enemy territory, with an England that holds nothing for her. Rob MacFarlane, a backcountry Loyalist, has already buried a wife and son and has no desire to marry again. Yet he cannot leave Bess without help. Their marriage begins in hardship and necessity, and I was drawn into the difficult lives they had to navigate, and into the kind of man Rob proved himself to be.

Rob is the heart of this story for me. His protectiveness, godliness, and character stood out, and he didn’t act only out of duty. He wondered whether God might be at work in the circumstances that brought Bess into his life:

“Was it possible God had sent the widow to him? It had been clear enough beside the road, when the three of them managed to avoid capture, that a divine hand had helped them. Why should it be so hard to believe that crossing paths with the widow so often afterward could also be Providence?”

That question touched me. Rob looked for God’s hand in the frightening, ordinary details of his days, and his faith shaped the way he saw Bess and everything around them.

Bess is harder to warm to. Parts of her story troubled me, and the growth in her faith comes so late that it didn’t satisfy me.

McNear tells this war from the British and Loyalist side. I hadn’t thought about the hardships both men and women faced, or the reasons behind choices that might look different from a distance. Their struggles felt real to me as I read, and I came away understanding that time in a way I hadn’t before.

I received a digital ARC of Loyalty’s Pursuit from Celebrate Lit. I am not required to write a positive review in any way or for any reason. My honest and unbiased opinions expressed in this book review are my own. My review focuses on the writing style, the pacing, and the story’s content, ensuring transparency and reliability.