The Loyal Heart by Shelley Sheppard Gray Blog Tour + Book Review

Disclosure of material connection- I received a copy of the book from the publisher via Litfuse Publicity Group in exchange for my honest thoughts. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions stated are 100% my own.

About the book-

The Loyal Heart (Zondervan, July 2016)

Robert came to Galveston to fulfill his promise to a dying man and look after his widow. He didn't expect to find love in the unlikeliest of places.

Robert Truax, former Second Lieutenant and Confederate officer in the Civil War, made a promise to his comrade Phillip Markham. If anything happened to Phillip, Robert would look after his beloved wife, Miranda. She was his life, his world, his everything.

After the war, Robert is left to pick up the pieces and fulfill his pact. When he arrives at Miranda's home in Galveston, Texas, things are worse than he imagined. Phillip's name has been dragged through the mud, everyone in town believes him to be a traitor, and his widow is treated as an outcast. Even more disturbing is her emotional well-being. Miranda seems hopeless, lost, and so very alone.

Robert had thought his duty would be simple. He would help Miranda as quickly as possible in order to honor a promise. But the moment Robert laid eyes on her, his plans changed. He's mesmerized by her beauty and yearns to help her in any way he can.
He makes it his duty to protect Miranda, turn her reputation around, and to find some way to help her smile again. But it doesn't prove to be an easy task---Robert knows something about Phillip that could shake Miranda to the core and alter her view of the man she thought she knew so well.

My thoughts-

I am a Texan born and raised and I love reading books that are set in Texas, so this one piqued my interest. I was born in Galveston, and have lived in several of the other cities mentioned throughout this book so I got a kick out of that! Civil War era books are not usually my thing, but I really enjoyed The Loyal Heart. It may be because it was set after the war and in an area I am familiar with, but the interesting story line didn't hurt either. I couldn't help but empathize with poor Miranda, dealt a life of ostracism for something her husband may or may not have done. It was interesting seeing how she was getting on in her life after her husband's death through the eyes of Robert. I really enjoyed the touch of suspense and trying to figure out who started the rumors about Miranda and her husband. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a good Christian Romance novel or who enjoy historical fiction. 

Purchase a copy: http://bit.ly/2ae3eOX

About the author-

Shelley Shepard Gray is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, a finalist for the American Christian Fiction Writers prestigious Carol Award, and a two-time HOLT Medallion winner. She lives in southern Ohio, where she writes full-time, bakes too much, and can often be found walking her dachshunds on her town's bike trail.