The Falcon's Flight

by Natalia Richards

Anne Boleyn's life is threatened, intrigue, gossip and treachery abound, and her destiny is finally revealed.

A young Anne Boleyn and her sister are sent to Paris to attend Mary Tudor, the new Queen of France. Unclear where her loyalties should lie, Anne soon makes an enemy of the queen. When the widowed Mary returns to England, Anne stays on in France to serve the new queen, Claude, but Anne's sister's actions put the girls' new court career at risk.

A dangerous love affair follows and Anne finds an unlikely ally in the French king's mistress. But nothing ever goes to plan...
The Falcon's Flight is the second part of Natalia Richard's vivid retelling of Anne Boleyn's early life. Book one, The Falcon's Rise, vividly portrayed Anne's early life in England. The Falcon's Flight takes us on to Anne's ever eventful life on the continent.

Paperback

First published May 19, 2020

About the author

Museum curator and researcher for forty years. Passionate about the Tudors and Anne Boleyn. Loves travelling and researching Anne's early life, in England and France.
The Falcon's Flight is part two of The Falcon's Rise and follows Anne Boleyn as she serves Queen Claude in France

Reviews

[Juliew. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such an interesting read for me as I've never read too much on Anne's seven years in France before.I think their a mystery to biographers and fiction writers alike.This second book in the series emerses you in the world of France,it's king and court.As we follow Anne and learn about how she spent her time,who she met,what she learned and who she became after you really feel she truely lived a life time before she ever met Henry VIII.This is one of the most detailed books fiction or non fiction I've read on her time there.It is well written,informative,engaging and a good addition to any Tudor library.

[Hanna (lapetiteboleyn) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first book years ago, when it was first released, and intermittently checked for a sequel, hoping for more of Anne's story. It is unusual to find a story on the early (and largely unknown) life of Anne Boleyn - and at 500 pages, no detail of a theoretical time at the French Court is skipped.
I really did enjoy this book, and one of the things that I really loved was Natalia's refusal to be conventional. Post Other-Boleyn-Girl, writers have been cautious to show the sisterly relationship as anything other than close and deeply loving. But as someone with a couple of sisters, the jealous, twisted-up resentment, the sniping and b itching, all mixed in with a (slightly grudging) love just felt so much more honest. And likewise, Anne herself is far from a paragon here. She lies, she is shamelessly greedy and ambitious at times, she is stubborn and catty, and funny, and more than anything else she came off as more human than in almost any other book I've read. I saw myself in Anne. I saw a lot of women I know. It wasn't always a flattering portrait, but it was a refreshing one.
For a subject that is, dare I say, saturated with literature at this point, I can only admire Natalia Richards for having found her own way to shine a different light on the story.

[Louise Culmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this sequel to Falcon’s Rise, fourteen year old Anne Boleyn arrived at the French Court to serve Mary Tudor, who has just married the elderly King Louis XII. Louis doesn’t last long, and when Mary returns to England, Anne stays to serve the new queen, Claude. She gets to know some of the most fascinating people of era, the amorous, accident prone King Francois, his clever, cultivated sister Marguerite, and their formidable mother, Louise of Savoy (pity Claude for having het as a mother in law). As Anne grows up she absorbs French culture, and has many fascinating encounters, my favourite being with Leonardo da Vinci. The world of the Court of King Francois is brought vividly to life, with much fascinating period detail. If you enjoyed Falcon’s Rise you are sure to enjoy this one, though you don’t have to have read it to enjoy reading about Anne’s adventures at the French Court.