Title: The Falconer
Author: Elizabeth May
Series: The Falconer #1
Genre: YA Historical Fantasy
Format: Hardcover, 378 pages
Release Date: May 6th 2014
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Source: eARC provided by publisher via Edelwiess in exchange for an honest review

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Heiress. Debutant. Murderer. A new generation of heroines has arrived.

Edinburgh, Scotland, 1844

Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, was destined for a life carefully planned around Edinburgh’s social events – right up until a faery killed her mother.

Now it’s the 1844 winter season and Aileana slaughters faeries in secret, in between the endless round of parties, tea and balls. Armed with modified percussion pistols and explosives, she sheds her aristocratic facade every night to go hunting. She’s determined to track down the faery who murdered her mother, and to destroy any who prey on humans in the city’s many dark alleyways.

But the balance between high society and her private war is a delicate one, and as the fae infiltrate the ballroom and Aileana’s father returns home, she has decisions to make. How much is she willing to lose – and just how far will Aileana go for revenge?


YA books that include Fae in them can be very tricky for me. They can be very hit and miss and if they are a miss, they are a MISS. So when I read the synopsis for The Falconer, I was hesitant because I did not want to hate this book. But what happened was the exact opposite. I fell in love with this book from the first page, because we meet Aileana and from the moment she started to narrate I knew she was going to be fierce and a great heroine for this book.

The main reason I loved this book so much was Aileana, she was fierce from the very beginning. She knew was society wanted her to be and she wanted to be the exact opposite. She had so much passion for what she was doing, and that was killing Fae. Her reasoning behind killing these creatures was great. Well not great for her, but a great back-story for us readers. She had so much hatred to these creatures, and i believed it. I felt it through every page of the book and that made me love her even more. Aileana was tough yet extremely creative. She made her own weapons, which was bad ass, and she was so confident in her abilities that any man who thought she couldn't do something, she proved them wrong.

The setting for this book was brilliant. I loved the time period of Victorian times and the inclusion of "some" steampunk elements. It was great to mesh so many different genre together, and the best part was that it worked. I never felt like I was confused to not understanding the world because the author did an amazing job of including us in its description. The way she weaved together, historical fiction, steampunk, and fantasy/paranormal was brilliant and I don't think it would have worked with any other story. Because everything about this book was perfect.

The secondary character in this book were brilliant. Each had a purpose and each made a difference to the story. I think my favourite of these characters was Aileana's faery that lived in her closet. He was the comedic relief and a great character for a story that was very dark and dreary. There is a sort of love story in this book but it was not the focus, which was refreshing and it was slow building, which was also very refreshing. Lastly I need to talk about the villains. Although they were not present all the way through the book, I thought they were done quite well. I know that they will be more present in coming books, so I am very excited to get my hands on them!