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The Falcon's Bride

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When a romantic encounter leads to an unexpected betrothal, Theodosia journeys to her intended's estate in Scotland, where she becomes obsessed with the legend of "The Black Falcon"--a tragic Celtic warrior whose ghost is rumored to haunt the halls of Cashel Cosgrove searching for his true love. Original.

326 pages, Paperback

First published August 29, 2006

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161 people want to read

About the author

Dawn Thompson

47 books62 followers
Dawn Thompson was a regular columnist featured in women’s special interest publications world and nationwide for over thirty years, one of which CROCHET WORLD, published by House of White Birches, since its inception over twenty-five years ago. She was an award-winning poet, artist, and needlework designer and illustrator, specializing in vintage concepts for today’s woman.

Dawn wrote historical fiction under her own name and that of penname Dawn MacTavish. She primarily wrote Regency Romance, writing both traditional Regencies, and Regency-set historicals and paranormals. She also wrote paranormal romances for both Kensington Books and Dorchester Publishing. Some of her other works include historical paranormals, and Celtic and Norse Medievals, incorporating the history, theology, legend, and lore of her heritage, which was the ongoing focus of her research over the past thirty-five years.

Dawn lived on Long Island, New York until her death, with her double-coated Tuxedo cat, Shadowfax (alias, Miss Fuzz), and Espirit, her scandalous Senegal parrot, an incurable flirt. Since her death, Miss Fuzz resides with author Deborah Macgillivray.

Her favorite books was "Green Darkness" by Anya Seton, and as a tribute, Dawn's books always contained the phrase "green darkness" in some passage of the book.

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5 stars
139 (35%)
4 stars
96 (24%)
3 stars
79 (20%)
2 stars
51 (13%)
1 star
26 (6%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews
Profile Image for Kathrynn.
1,185 reviews
February 23, 2008
I'm sorry to say, this was the worst time-travel book I have ever read. Ugh! The characters kept going back and forth in time and if that wasn't annoying enough the book was not written very well with poor character development and horribly edited (if at all).

Big thumbs down from This Reader.
Profile Image for Kirstin.
2 reviews
December 23, 2011
Bar none the worst romance/time travel novels I have ever read.

To be fair I don't even expect much from these types of books because they are so outlandish you can't expect much.

The number of times the characters jump back forth in time is absolutely asinine. It's confusing, irritating and nonsensical. The writing was so poor I literally had to trudge through it.

Spoilers below

In the beginning an old gypsy woman comes into the story and Thea (referred to simply as the heroine from here on out) displays her one and only moment of character endearment, by fighting with her betrothed, to take the old woman out of the snow. Enter cranky, betrothed's mother who tears The heroine and betrothed to pieces while the heroine gets a prophecy about being the Falcon's Bride (The Falcon is the Hero's nickname because he has a Falcon/familiar/time corridor keeper/champion as a pet.) This for some reason make The heroine go to a landmark, which has a time corridor, which she just happens to stumble through, just to be caught by bandits, who, are part of the The hero's men. She whines for a few pages, then starts to get hot and heavy for the hero who is a brute and a bully with no real characteristics to recommend him to the reader.

Then Hero and heroine jump back and forth in time 6 or 7 times battling both the betrothed and betrothed's ancestor, both of whom have their eye ripped out by the Falcon/familiar/time corridor keeper/champion. Randomly the hero claims to be in love with the heroine with little to no build up and they do a random gypsy hand fast ceremony to get married (enter bad sex scene.) The Old Gypsy woman dies and the hero becomes enraged with righteous fury (because she is his mom) and risks life, love and happiness to go back and kill a dying man then lets his wife run away because he is irrationally mad at her.

End the story with them as a Prince and Princess of a roving group of gypsies, leading them to some sort of promised home land, her pregnant with twins and getting ready to hop on a ship in the winter, in a totally random and different time than any other part of the story.

It is a disjointed, confusing story and time I will never get back.
13 reviews
May 26, 2018
Enjoyable but...

I really enjoyed this book but I was a little bit exhausted at Thea constantly questioning one particular thing throughout the book. I was like how many more times must you be told the same thing each time proving the same thing. Didn't want to give any spoilers so I have kept it vague...I would still recommend this book just beware of her constantly questioning THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER.
Profile Image for Ischiv.
13 reviews
Read
July 9, 2025
more questions left than were answered. Where was Cian's original betrothed? She never showed up. If our heroine just "appeared out of time", where is the betrothed that he originally sent for???
Did NOT like the way it ended.
3,331 reviews42 followers
Read
December 7, 2022
A few months ago I mooched this book, written in 2006, because I had read others by this author (also under another name) which I quite enjoyed. My fascination with Roma culture since my teens (having read The Gypsies, by Jan Yoors at a fairly young age), may have also played a role in my picking this.
Unfortunately, either because sensibilities have changed since this was written, or because of the numerous issues outlined by readers on Goodreads, reading this ended up being more of a slog than a pleasure.
Possible spoilers follow?
The randomness of the time travel was confusing - after the first shift or two it was as though everything went haywire. The characters were whisked to and fro for no clear purpose, not always landing in the same times.
The actual tunnels were equally confusing and random- first we had the one at Newgrange, then it seems Falcon's Lair was an option too, then Thea disappears in the middle of a field? Why??
The ending, and the appearance of the Covent Garden lightskirt was equally baffling. Was this meant to incriminate Nigel? As if the others in the midst of a battle in the 17th century would care about some woman lying there dead? Or is it meant to give him nightmares? Drive him mad? No clue, and no clues provided as the story ends there.
Others on goodreads have commented on the tenuousness of the true love relationship and the awkwardness of the heroine's reaction to the hero who up until that point has treated her horribly... No talking, no soul-baring, just chemistry apparently.
And, just to mention it, towards the end Thea has been living and travelling with a band of Gypsies for a while, but it is only once she is determined to be pregnant that one of the older women informs her of the actually very strict rules dictating how women in that culture should behave and what they may and may not do... It seemed so tacked on and as she is there as Falcon's wife, it would seem she would have been taught these rules earlier?
A shame, but fortunately there are other historical romances well worth reading.
Profile Image for Sehar.
265 reviews2 followers
November 17, 2017
Utter tripe( I have wanted to say that for ages and rarely has a book so aptly deserved to be described in those words.
What a horrendous book this was!
Besides the fact that the author writes like a 5 year old writing for the reading pleasure of a 2 year old and reiterates the same things on every second page until you want to throw the book across the room, the story has so many holes, it's practically a sieve. It's kind of sad how little of an attempt has even been made at plugging these holes... Like cians fiancé in the past who was coming over from England and very conveniently disappears and the fact that all these puritanical 17/18 century gentleman remain determinedly resolute about marrying a woman who expresses obvious dislike for them, obvious love for their enemy, sleeps with and marries the enemy and has nothing to recommend her except a pretty face. They seem to be settling for a pretty raw deal! 🙈
Btw... Is it just me or is D Thompson quite anti-Irish???? Even if she was just trying to impress upon us the ideas of the English gentry in that era, one or 2 references would be enough. Instead her portrayal of the Irish is quite blatantly offensive. On a brighter note, she does add an air of romanticism to Ireland. After reading the book, you might be forgiven for believing that the minute you step into county Meath-whoosh-- you'll be off in a time tunnel. Oh wait no... That happens only to our lovely Theodosia (the obsessive harping on the name drove me doolally) and her gypsy husband.
Sigh... I fear the genre that I loved as a teenager has been destroyed for me forever by this unbelievably bad piece of writing.
Profile Image for Jan.
425 reviews5 followers
July 20, 2018
At twenty-one, after two Seasons with no takers, Theadosia Barrington should have been grateful to snare Nigel Cosgrove. The earl-to-be was a blue-eyed Adonis, a true catch-and surely the incident in Covent Garden was exaggerated. And yet, upon her arrival at Cashel Cosgrove, Thea found herself more intrigued by the Irish castle's legend, that of the tragic Ros Drumcondra. "The Black Falcon" he was called. Party Gypsy, part Celt, the warrior had been conquered by betrayal alone. His ghost was still reputed to wander these halls, making women tremble with fear and desire-for who could resist those burnished copper eyes? Hadn't he stolen away the betrothed of Cian Cosgrove, made the woman his love slave? If only Thea herself could suffer such a fate. If only magic were a reality. If only that Gypsy woman had spoken the truth, and Thea was a woman out of time, the one meant to be...THE FALCON'S BRIDE
Profile Image for Susan Ross.
Author 8 books7 followers
July 3, 2021
This is a time travel, mystical novel that goes nowhere. The H/h keep travelling back and forth with no purpose that I could see.
Thea is a 21 yr old spinster (lol) who is to marry a gorgeous but evil man. Enter Ros who first appears as a ghost and then in the flesh when Thea travels to the past. He treats her roughly then crudely fondles her before his rival. And, although a virgin, she gets stimulated. Yup, a man she doesn’t know (but whom she finds alluring) is fondling her on a horse before his enemy in the freezing cold while she is barely dressed and she is turned on. Really?
I continued reading to see what the ending would be but really, aside from the two reuniting, there isn’t one. We don’t find out where they go or what happens to them.
My favourite character was the falcon.
This was a disappointing read.
Profile Image for Amandra.
338 reviews1 follower
November 9, 2023
I didn't love or hate it

It took me awhile to get into and when I did it was the romance and the vengeance on the cosgroves that made the end worth while to me the time travelling got a bit hard to follow because it was jumpy and I lost some points with me I don't think the story was overall bad but I would have liked more clarification on somethings definitely a step down from the Blood Moon series.
7 reviews
May 25, 2018
This book will keep you intrested from start to finish with unexpected twist it's a page Turner that won't let you put it down.

If you like thrillers and not meet endings this is a great book for you a keeps you on the edge of your seat thinking you know how it's going and and then all of a sudden thirst some other twisted it I would highly recommend it
Profile Image for Jeffner.
98 reviews
August 23, 2025
most of the book was pretty good. end got a bit choppy with a bit too much jumping back and forth through time. I didn't love the character of Thea, but only because I despise when people aren't honest and run from their problems.
Profile Image for susan stacy smith.
84 reviews
April 30, 2018
Great book

I loved the adventure the suspense everything made. It amazing and just perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon it’s close to mid night. Now I couldn’t put the book down
Profile Image for Marjorie.
2,099 reviews4 followers
June 4, 2018
Mysterious book

I enjoyed this book although I usually don’t read time lapse books. I like history wove into books so I guess a lot of this did happen in the wars.
Profile Image for Gail.
Author 1 book1 follower
June 12, 2018
Entertaining

Light reading. A satisfying romance, somewhat farfetched, but still a fun read. Read it to the end, eager to move on.
294 reviews
June 21, 2018
Light vulgarity

Though lightly done, there was just too much massive this and throbbing that for me. I managed to read the whole book but am none the better for it.
596 reviews1 follower
January 11, 2017
Quite good time travel

Quite good time travel or was it gypsy and Celtic magic. Either way, it was a good romance novel set in the 1600s, 1700s and 1800s. My only problem was that it did not download properly and I had trouble changing pages or skipping forward or backwards to reread segments.
Profile Image for Carol.
343 reviews1 follower
February 16, 2017
New Author for Me

This is the first of Dawn Thompson's books I've but it won't be the last. There's action, intrigue,and romance. Something for everyone.
Profile Image for Jess Schira.
Author 16 books39 followers
December 16, 2012
I'll admit it, I purchased this book because, while looking for another book by Thompson, I fell in love with the cover. It's so pretty and mysterious.

It took about four chapters before I found the rhythm of this novel, once I did, I had a difficult time putting it down.

I was really surprised when this book became a time travel. Had I known that before hand I would have hesitated before making the purchase simply because so many time travels just don't work. I'm pleased to report that this wasn't the case. Although the characters visited 3 different time periods, Thompson managed to write it in such a way the time hopping made sense and was easy to follow.

Although they're well developed, it's hard to feel fond of any of the characters, but I don't think the author meant for them to be likeable. On the other hand, the it's very easy to identify which characters are good and which characters aren't.

The best thing about this book was the falcon. The way Thompson used the bird throughout the course of the story was breathtaking and genius.

This book is a great choice for anyone who likes darker historical romances, with paranormal threads.
Profile Image for Cate.
15 reviews
September 18, 2013
I only bought this book as it was part of Kindle "Deal of the day" on Amazon (UK). I was attracted to the cover (its dark, mysterious look...) and I thought the summary was intriguing. Big mistake, which thankfully only did cost me £0.99. The font on Kindle was horrendous and the typo was nearly as bad. What to say about the story and its characters? The story seemed to be dragging on and on and I found the characters very difficult to like, let alone sympathize with their struggles. They were so poorly developed (especially Ros Drumcondra of whom, beside several descriptions of his "smell", we know very little about), that I never for one second, pictured them as "real" human being, which is something a well-written novel should easily achieve!

I feel like this book could (and should) have been over about 50% in, as events just kept repeating themselves (seriously, how many times are they traveling back and forth through time, facing the same people?!). All in all, a very disappointing/poor/time-wasting read.
Profile Image for Brandy.
8 reviews1 follower
June 10, 2012
**Warning - may contain spoilers**
I began to enjoy the book once I just "accepted" that the two heroes were deeply in love. I hated not having any build up to the relationship. I thought that the Ros Drumcondra's character was very POORLY developed. I never felt like the reader ever got the chance to get to really know this man. My biggest complaint is that I still have no idea exactly when or WHY the two characters fell in love. For heaven's sake...I didn't even like the male lead, yet the herione was somehow head over hills for him.
I did enjoy the story, it was different. It got a little ridiculous in the end when they jumped into a random time period. I was also a bit let down with the ending. Hmmm....overrall, not a total waste of my time, but I have read better, far, far better.

If you plan to read, just accept that the two leads are soul mates and don't expect any relationship building or deep characterization.
Profile Image for Courtney.
533 reviews
May 27, 2014
I enjoyed "The Bride of Time" by Dawn Thompson so I downloaded a few of her other books. This one was quite rough around the edges and required quite a bit of trust from the reader. You have to simply accept that the hero & heroine are quite in love, even though you don't get any build up or seduction in their relationship - just accept that it is there and intense. You don't get any background or explanation for the relationship between the hero and the falcon - just accept that the bird is a familiar, without any explanation of what that is or what goes into the relationship. Then, somehow, also accept that the heroine's brother time travels, too, ooh, and the hero's mother. And accept that horses do, too. And that they can go to a 3rd time period and then face hardships there, too! You know, what, never mind. Just read her other books and skip this one.
Profile Image for Paranormal Romance.
1,315 reviews46 followers
July 18, 2025
A woman- betrothed to a cold mean man finds herself thrust back in time and into the arms of his ancestors greatest enemy. The male lives for vengeance and holds the woman hostage in order to win back his stolen castle. Stockholm syndrome sets in quickly as the woman finds herself attracted to her kidnapper. It felt a little odd seeing as how the male was not the plucky romantic hero in the beginning-in fact it was almost to the end before you believed he loved her-not just lusted for her. The heroine was a well-bred lady with a horrible habit of being in the position to be attacked sexually and kidnapped by numerous people. It got almost comical how every time she found herself alone with a man it would result in them trying to have sex with her.
Profile Image for amandra .
563 reviews4 followers
Read
June 7, 2017
I didn't love or hate it

It took me awhile to get into and when I did it was the romance and the vengeance on the cosgroves that made the end worth while to me the time travelling got a bit hard to follow because it was jumpy and I lost some points with me I don't think the story was overall bad but I would have liked more clarification on somethings definitely a step down from the Blood Moon series.

2.5
11 reviews
July 8, 2008
One of the Best Time-Travels I have ever read. Thompson upped the bar with each book she wrote. I cannot believe how each book is better than the last, when she started so strong. This time its a time travel. Absorbing, compelling, she bridges the strength of old style romances with a freshness that sets her apart.

A beautiful writer, a beautiful storyteller.
Profile Image for Michele.
15 reviews
August 23, 2014
I thought there were some good elements in this book, perhaps if it was stretched out a bit and fattened up the story would flow more. I found the actual concept intriguing and would have liked some areas to be explained more or more detail put it. However i did find it hard to read the way it was written.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Profile Image for Rini.
3 reviews1 follower
September 28, 2015
Showing its Age

While I am all for crazy time travel tropes, this one was just hard to enjoy. Not only does she violently love him after all of three days, he's got the pesky Manpain disease going for him. Add in some GYPSY MAGIC tropes, and you have a recipe for 3.5 hours of your life you will never get back.
3 reviews
August 7, 2014
Good book

Good book

I enjoyed this book very much. I not a huge fan of love stories, but this one has every thing!! Suspense, mystery, and try love. very good read
39 reviews
April 24, 2016
A good time-travel romance!

For those who like light fare to relax by - this time-travel romance fits the bill. I've always enjoyed English historical romances. Add to that the travel through time element makes for an enjoyable read.
Profile Image for shannon  Stubbs.
1,967 reviews12 followers
August 25, 2016
Not bad

It was one of those time traveling stories. Where Thea and Ros meet ,in time, to fall in love. Through out the story both characters travel between different times to conquer their foe, Cosgrove. It was confusing at times. Otherwise it was a pretty good story.
Profile Image for Sarah.
179 reviews9 followers
March 21, 2008
Thea discovers her Prince Charming isn't very charming at all. In fact, he's quite dangerous. All's well that ends well though, because a Prince of a different kind is ready to rescue Thea.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 37 reviews

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