The Falcon and the Sparrow by M L Tyndall - My Review

Originally Posted at Bibliophile's Retreat by Melissa Meeks

Barbour Publishing, Inc (August 1, 2008)
This is the first of Tyndall's books that I've had the pleasure of reading but after reading The Falcon and the Sparrow I now am impatient to get to her King's Pirates series. The first volume is somewhere in my TBR pile already. Dominique, Chase, William and several of the other secondary characters have become friends I am anxious to encounter again and hopefully soon. Dominique returns to England in the guise of a governess to Admiral Randal's young boy, William. We later discover that although her father used to hold the same rank in the British Navy that her employer does, her mother's family were of mainland origins, specifically French. Due to their family connections on the mainland Dominique's mother is able to relocate herself and the children there following her husband's death. When both parents are gone and Dominique is left with no resources to support herself and her young brother a distant cousin offers to take them in. Little does Dominique know that his apparent kindness carries invisible strings in its wake. She is soon commanded to take the earlier mentioned position as a governess in order to gain information coveted by the French leaders regarding British military strength and tactics. Although she hesitates to commit she is faced with very little choice when the alternative to her cooperation is to forfeit her brother's very life. Neither does she realize that her connection to the Randal household will go well beyond that of Governess and undercover spy. The intensity of this connection proves to make the task of betrayal all the more difficult to stomach especially for a young lady who has such a deep sense of respect for scripture and the wisdom it holds out to readers. Will her faith be enough to protect her as well as those she has grown to love? Can anything, short of a miracle, keep them all together despite the role foisted upon her with the stigma of losing her only sibling as the impetus to masquerade on behalf of this distant cousin she cannot bring herself to trust?

For an edge of your seat ride to the end, a romantic thread that becomes quite tangled on it's way to unraveling, and characters the reader is loathe to leave behind in its closed pages settle in with a copy of this riveting and detailed glimpse at British and French nobility and the 19th century conflicts betwixt Britain and the European mainland. If you can't get enough historical fiction be sure to add this book to your must read list and if you are a bit reluctant about the whole idea of fictionalized history then I challenge you to put this book down once you've started and not be at least tempted to grab it back up immediately until the last page is turned.
(ISBN#9781602600126, 320pp, $10.97)

Click the bookcover for more info or to purchase a copy. Also remember to visit the author at her website and blog.