Book Review: Veil of Pearls by MaryLu Tyndall
Be swept away to Charleston of 1811, a city bustling with immigrants like Adalia, who is a runaway slave so light-skinned that no one guesses her past. Terrified her secret will be discovered, she settles into a quiet life making herbal remedies for a local doctor. But when Morgan, the handsome son of a prominent family, sweeps her into his glamorous world—a world in which the truth about Adalia’s heritage would ruin them both—suspicions and petty jealousies are aroused. What will Morgan do when he discovers that the woman he has fallen in love with is a runaway slave?
The latest offering by MaryLu Tyndall is also my first book of hers. It won’t be my last.
Adalia runs away from the plantation where she’s been held for years. But she’s a quadroon* – one quarter African.
Adalia is light-skinned enough she’s not automatically presumed to be a slave. She settles into Charleston and begins making a life for herself. The complication comes in the form of Morgan – the younger son of a prominent plantation family nearby. The attraction is two-sided and Adalia tries to fit in, at least somewhat, with Morgan’s society life, while not forgetting where she came from.
Ms. Tyndall a wonderful job drawing me into the world of the South in 1811. The storyline was plausible, overall. The one thing that seemed a bit… questionable to me is whether or not Morgan and Adalia’s relationship would survive the revealing of her past. That’s one I’m still pondering…
The characters created were memorable and reacted in realistic ways to the trials thrown at them. I read it a couple weeks ago, but have thought about it often since then – a sign of a good book.
*One thing I don’t like about digital galleys or ebooks in general is you can’t flip through and find stuff. I thought I’d made a note of exactly what her ethnicity was – mulatto [half African], etc., but I can’t find the note I made and I can’t find it in the galley either…
Overall rating: 8.5 out of 10