The Falconer Book One of the Falconer Trilogy

I've had this on my tbr for years. Found out about the revised edition and here I am. It was a lot of fun

I. NEED. THE. NEXT. ONE. NOW.

TW to be added later

Loved this book! I liked how it actually took from folklore concerning the fair folk -- unlike many other popular stories now, which instead pull from Tolkien's elves. Slow burn! Plot points in the last 50 pages or so felt very rushed and not fully thought through, or, just a means to get the action points down rather than developing them a bit further. Can't wait to read the second!

Loved Kam's development and personality! Great novel ☺

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Strong rage-filled Buffy-the-vampire-slayer energy. Except the targets are faeries, bloodthirsty, human-killing beings. The rage is because one particular faery killed the heroine's mom and She Can't Forget That. Luckily, she finds a non-human-killing faery to teach her how to fight. And kill. Also, he's not human, but boy is he gorgeous. O.O Lots of action, lots of yearning toward the faery* Kiaran, lots of rebelling against her society's constraining roles for women. Even though she has the resources and time to build an ornithopter, a steam-driven locomotive that doesn't need tracks, and to build various devices for killing faeries. A little too frenetic for me to really enjoy. And I'm not really a fan of "Oh, I SHOULDN'T love this being, but OMG so HANDSOME" tropes. But that's me. Warning: the book ends abruptly and without a resolution of the story. If you want to know what actually happened, I guess you'll want to go ahead and buy the next volume. I don't really care, so I won't. *Also, I personally HATEHATEHATE the spelling "faery." But again, that's me. If "fairy" is good enough for Susanna Clarke, it's good enough for me.

I thought this book had a lot of great world building, with some great characters! I really enjoyed this book but it was slower to get into. But the concept of the story was great, it had great plot and characters and was an exciting entrance to the world, I think this book set the second one up perfectly and that it can only get better and better. Would definitely recommend, there was a character in this much like Rhys from ACOTAR so if you like that vibe you’d like this.

DNF at 77% (pretty impressive huh?) Laaaaaaaaaadies & Gentlemeeeeeen! ☆☆ Why-The-Hell-Did-I-Try-To-Read-This Productions proudly present ☆☆ FEVER. DECAFFEINATED. ☻It won't keep you reading until 4 am! ☻It won't make you want to throw away your underwear across the room! ☻Now stress-free! ☻Now angst-free! ☻Faint-of-heart enabled! ☻In a steampunk setting! ☻Amidst the exotic landscapes of beautiful Scotland! ☻With a teenage MC! ☻A dream come true! Why bother with the real lethal deal when you can enjoy the so-healthy-you-might-get-bored-out-of-your-mind, diet version?! Why? Because you're a TOTAL MASOCHIST that's why! Let's cup the crap and get down to it shall we? I'm pretty sure you are all dying to find out just how much The Falconer differs from Fever. Because clearly both series have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN COMMON: ☢ Meet Alina Mac Aielana. She was born to kill fae. It's a gift she had all along and never knew about. You don't say?! ☢ Her sister mother was killed by fae. You don't say?! ☢ Her weapon of choice is the Sinsar Dubh sgian dubh! You don't say?! ☢ Meet V'Lane Kiaran, the damnably beautiful Unseelie Prince daoine sìth who fights his own kind because they are cruel, unfeeling, destructive creatures who crave power above all else. And he is way above all that. You don't say?! ☢ V'Lane Kiaran takes away Alina Mac Aielana's seilgflùr (a magical thistle of all things) whenever they meet. You don't say?! ☢ When faieries are around the strangest thing happens: you become Priya faestruck. You don't say?! [Unfortunately, this being YA-rated there are no bra on/bra off games to be expected *sighs*] ☢ Meet Barrons Gavin. He can see the Fae too! You don't say?! [Again, this is YA-rated so he totally lacks JZB's awesome assholeness *sighs*] ☢ The Unseelie evil fae are about to escape from a prison and slaughter thousands of humans. It will happen on Halloween when the lunar eclipse occurs on midwinter. You don't say?! Anything else? Aileana. This girl. She awakens the serial murderer in me with her serial I am's: I am so totally cool. I am not broken or empty. I am so freakingly awesome. I am a genius. I am an inventor. I am so unbelievably remarkable. I am unburdened. I am complete. I AM SO TIRED OF THIS SHIT ← that was me, not Aileana. Just in case you were wondering. And the icing on the cake: this was all MIND-BLOWINGLY BORING. Note to self: next time you want to self-destruct consider death by tequila. Not by YA.

This was thrilling book! I loved it so much! A must read!

Scotland and Fae?! Yes please. Not as excited about the steampunk aspect but i loved the world it was an entertaining read.

Publicado originalmente: El Extraño Gato del Cuento Antes de leer el libro me tope con algunas opiniones del libro un tanto acusatorias, sobre que este libro se parecía mucho a otro, pero como no leí ese libro (del cuál no recuerdo el nombre ahora) no fue tan aterradora la afirmación, pero aún así decidí posponer su lectura. Hasta que me di cuenta que se me pasó la fecha de publicación xD Las hadas y el steampunk era una combinación a la cual no me iba a resistir, sobre todo si me lleva a la tierra misma dónde todas las historias comenzaron, Escocia. Últimamente estoy buscando nuevos escenarios reales para mis lecturas, casi siempre son algún lugar de USA, ya siento que puedo a ese país y no perderme en ninguna de las ciudades. Escocia fue un lugar genial para hacer turismo librero, sin duda ha retado a mi imaginación, la necesidad de variar era abrumadora. Y no me decepcionó, me tuvo buscando imágenes de las ciudades, las cuáles había visto muy por encima, sin prestarle mucho atención. Sobre todo al querer adaptar la Escocia de 1840 real a la Escocia de 1840 según Elizabeth May, una en la cuál existen maquinas voladoras, electricidad y bombas hechas por la protagonista que pueden hacer caer a grandes hadas y todo un puente. The Falconer me ha gustado mucho, es una historia que se ha catalogado en lo Young Adult pero lo sentí un poco más maduro, quizá sea por la protagonista quién no es una damisela en apuros, a pesar de las circunstancias que llevaron a Aileana a conocer el mundo Faerie, no puede negar que ese lado oscuro es parte de ella, quizá incluso desde mucho antes que ella lo supiera. Y eso es lo que me gustó, una protagonista que disfrute con el peligro y no ande lloriqueando por las esquinas lo cruel oh cruel de su destino. Siendo yo una persona bastante fría, encontrar una protagonista que disfrute como yo de la aventura y matanza me hace feliz. El romance, o la casi ausencia de este, es otro punto de que me encantó, es algo más de segundo plano, y es más un efecto que una consecuencia. Sólo que a pesar de todo lo bueno que pude encontrar en el libro, el final no me convenció del todo. Soy muy mala imaginando batallas y peleas, a pesar de que me gustan verlas, por lo que de vez en cuando se me hacía bastante difícil meterme del todo en la piel de Aileana. Y además todo ese de "Eres el elegido" por alguna razón, por más que era algo que ya sabía, me decepcionó un poco, creo que estaba tan contenta con la personalidad de Aileana y distraída por el lindo de Kiaran y el adorable de Derrick que en algún momento olvidé por donde es que iba la historia. Es un buen debut, de la escritora modelo. Elizabeth May ha salido en varias portadas de libros por lo que no solo los escribe, está en ellos xD Twitter || Blog || Pinterest || Tumblr || Instagram

so bad. so so bad.

The Falconer is one of those books that my sister has been recommending to me for the longest time and that, for one reason or another, I always found myself forced to push further down my TBR. Thankfully, my recent drought of fantasy reads and my desire to fall in love with yet another fae male generated the perfect conditions for me to push aside every other book and finally pick up this series. My friends, I was not disappointed. The story follows Aileana, a young and beautiful Scottish noblewoman who has tragically lost her mother one year prior to the events of the story. Her mother’s death changes Aileana in more ways than she can count. She can no longer be the submissive girl her society requires her to be. Her heart and soul are consumed by the need for revenge against the faerie who murdered her mother. If only things could be so simple though, because Aileana’s destiny is far more interwoven with the faerie world than she could ever imagine. Aileana is exactly the kind heroine that I love to read about. She is not the perfect, on the contrary she is quick to anger, broken, vindictive, but she is also creative, restless, fiercely loyal to the few she loves. Her layered personality shines all the brighter thanks to an amazing cast of secondary characters, starting with the little pixie that lives in her closet, Derrick, to the fae who has trained her to murder the faeries, Kiaran MacKay. Now, Kiaran deserves an entire paragraph all for himself. My lady friends, if you’re debating whether or not you should pick up this series let me draw you in with the promise of a new book boyfriend to add to your sure-to-be-already-huge collections. Kiaran is exactly the kind of male that makes me weak in the knees. If you’ve read A Court of Thorns and Roses and The Cruel Prince, I would call him the product of Rhysand and Cardan’s love. Dark hair that rebelliously falls over his brow and makes you want to reach into the book to tuck it back. Starry violet eyes. Lips capable of spewing the worst venom but also the sweetest of poems. Not convinced yet? The guy even tells you amazing things in a faerie language. He’s of the sassy but dark and brooding kind, the kind of male full of secrets and mysteries that you’re just dying to unfold. Kiaran MacKay has stolen my heart. He might even have become my favorite book boyfriend at this point! All this greatness is perfectly expressed through Elizabeth’s May enchanting writing with Scotland being more than just a background. This country’s folklore feels like a character thanks to the author, who does not shy away from exploring it and giving it a fantastical twist that is original and addicting. My only “issue” was that while the book is mostly fast-paced and action filled, there are some sections that are a bit slower and threatened to put a night reader like me to sleep. Other than that, this book is perfection. I know the five stars will be flying with the sequels. Recommended for all lovers of fantasy. All of them. Just pick this up and read it.

3.5 stars I dithered between 3 and 4 stars when rating this as I enjoyed it but I also felt quite detached from the story. I wish I had liked it more but it was interesting. I didn't hate it and I liked it enough to want to read the next one.

Oh how I wanted to adore this book. A steampunk Edinburgh with faeries and a female faery hunter, that sounded exactly like my cup of tea. Unfortunately, this was not what was delivered. • Lets start with our protagonist Aileana. I don’t think she was a bad one by any means, I just found her a little annoying and hard to connect to. It says in the synopsis that she’s beautiful, but she doesn’t think so with her copper hair and because she has freckles. I just don’t care for when everyone else can see she’s beautiful, but then she doesn’t think so. It seemed a cheap way to make her ‘flawed’ and not good at everything. • The ‘romance’ in this was not to my taste. I just found Kiaran to be so bland and boring. He’s a cold faerie and that’s all there is too him. There is some back and forth between him and Aileana, but to me it just seemed like the author was trying way too hard for us to root for them. Zero chemistry in my opinion. • I also had trouble connecting to the world. I knew it was in Edinburgh, but there wasn’t enough description to really immerse yourself in the setting. Victorian, steampunk Edinburgh sounds to atmospheric, but I found none of that here. • The plot is one that sounded so promising and compelling, but I was just bored. I don’t think the fight scenes were engaging enough. I had a hard time picturing everything that was happening. The cliffhanger ending was also the absolute worst. Nothing is at all resolved and it just felt like a cheap way to get you to buy the next book. Would not recommend to anyone really. Many say it’s similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I’ve never watched it but maybe if you like Buffy you’d enjoy this.

You can see the full review on my blog along with others at: She's Going Book Crazy Blood. My need for vengeance exists because of the night I was baptized in it. I've always considered that to be my night of lasts---the last time I saw my mother alive, the last time I was a girl who had never seen violence. Now the darkness inside me wants little else than to kill again. I can't help but wonder if this is all I have left: the nightly hunt, all for that singular moment of intoxicating, all-consuming joy at the end. Lady Aileana Kameron, the daughter of a Scottish marquess, has little to worry about in life. She has position and comfort, but also beauty and smarts. Living a life of extravagance can be set to ruin when something cruel, tragic, and terrifying happens. She witnessed her mother's death by a faerie.  Encourage by revenge, Aileana funnels her emotions into hunting down not only her mother's killer, but faeries in general.  Set in the Victorian era, steampunk gadgets and folklore collide in a battle between humankind and faerie folk. ------------------------------- I had so much fun with this read. Was it absolutely perfect? No. However, it's entertainment value was simply undeniable---and sort of bizarre. But oddity is a famed thing.  Aileana is the exact replica of what I imagine as the main character in a steampunk novel (even though this is the first "steampunk" book that I've read.) She is sweet, as little sassy, and very resourceful. Gliding around in opulent Victorian dresses by day, blood-seeking fae hunter by night. Aileana leads us through a storybook of Scottish and Celtic folklore. From her pixie "friend" Derrick, to Kiaran theDaoine Sith, there are redcaps, revenants, and the like. We quickly get the picture that the fae are creatures not to be trifled with. Yet, that's exactly what Aileana does.  With the help of Kiaran, a not friend, but also not a foe, Aileana learns how to track and fight the different types of fae. However, Aileana's attraction to Kiaran is undeniable---but causes some obvious attention, seeing how he's a fae, and she human.  Luckily, there is no love triangle in this book. For a bit, I thought there would be, but the risk tamped down.  I really liked Kiaran's character. He reminds me a lot of Rhysand from A Court of Thorns and Roses series, but way better in my opinion. This book is more Young Adult reader appropriate than ACOTAR, as it was able to stay true to it's genre. Kiaran and Aileana's relationship is full of all different types of tension, and you don't quite know what will happen because of the many complications standing between them.  In regards to the steampunk aspect of it, I thought it was appropriately proportioned to the rest of the tale. Instead of taking the focus away from the main plot line, as I thought it would, it was a nice little icing that added some kicks to the overall plot. I mean, there was a steampunk metal horse and flying machines, fae-hunting gadgets, and Victorian ensembles!? It was pretty cool.  I didn't find that the overall plot wasn't extremely complex, but I didn't seem to care much about that, because I was so caught up with just enjoying each facet of this book (especially the creatures of folklore.) The only part that really bothered me was the "war" towards the end...because there just wasn't much detail given about it. It seemed rushed, and somewhat forced. This is the main reason why I'm rating this 4 out of 5 stars. I needed more build up, backing, and complexity. Overall, I liked this read, and am looking next to The Vanishing Throne.  Violence: Quite a bit - seeing how Aileana's main quest is to hunt and kill fae. Vulgarity: I think there is some. Sexual content: Kissing.  4 stars.

I thought this was a fun read. I liked the world and how the fae characters were the focused. I also really loved how this story took place in scotland and thought it also had a regency air to it. I also thought the this book also a fun romance but it was def not my favorite read. I struggled a little bit with the the pacing and the plot of this story it was quick listen!! Hope to tackle the rest of this season soon!

If you don't like cliffhangers, don't read this book lol. I HAVE TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. this was a very entertaining book, with great world building. I loved the interplay in faerie lore, real world places, history, and steampunk all interwoven seamlessly into one story. It's made all the better that I've spend time in Edinburgh and can picture many of the places May describes in the story. Hopefully book two is as good as this one!

Find this review and more at my blog here: Sometimes Leelynn Reads "Crimson suits you best." I stumbled across this book at the library here in Virginia, and when I read the synopsis of it, I knew that I had to try it out. Lo and behold, it would end up being one of my favorite books this year. For one thing, the steampunk aspect of this book, paired with 17th Century Scotland was something that I didn't expect to work so well but it really did. Maybe the only thing that kind of messed me up was that I would keep forgetting that Aileana was Scottish until she'd say "Aye". It was as if I was in an entirely new world filled with the infamous Fae creatures that I've come to learn and love - well some of them anyway - in an entirely new light that was nice to hear about. Let me start off by saying that I personally liked Aileana. Yes, she's actually a proper Lady, with money, status, and a title that not all women can say they have. If she were to get married, her husband would probably inherit a lot of wealth and prestige. However, ever since her mother was murdered right in front of her eyes, she had no desire to be a part of that world anymore. She had vengeance in her heart, almost to the point of hatred, and all she wanted to do was find the Fae that killed her mother and exact her revenge. In the meantime, she did what she could: taking care of the other dangerous Fae around Edinburgh so that the human casualty rate wasn't ridiculously high. But how did she go from a lady that only cared about society's parties, to someone that would spend her days inventing new weapons and her nights slaying the Fae? She had a mysterious teacher, one that wasn't all that human himself. She spent an entire year training with him, a Fae named Kiaran, one of the most powerful breeds of Fae in existence. But what she didn't know was that there was something far worse at stake, and all of her nights that she spent fighting alone behind Kiaran's back would make her a target, and the real fight would begin. She would have to put aside her revenge plans and figure out how a barely trained Falconer, a breed of warrior woman that have the power to kill the Fae, would be able to save the world on her own. Aileana was an interesting protagonist. She had no problem letting us know that she was in pain, and having the memory of her mother killed right in front of her eyes was something that she couldn't let go of so easily. Anything that even resembled her mother would bring her back to that night, and it would fill her with such a rage that it was almost dangerous to be around her. She knew that, and she tried to suppress it as much as she could around Kiaran so that he wouldn't know her weakness. It was something that despite all of her efforts, she just could not let it go. She felt like it was her fault that her mother was murdered because she didn't do anything to stop it. It led her to go out the next night and immediately try to kill a different Fae, and while she almost died, it was a good thing that Kiaran found her. She was thoroughly untrained that first night she tried to fight, and even though she knew it, she still wanted to satisfy the lust for death in her heart. The more she would kill, the happier she felt, even if it was just in that moment when the light would leave her victim's eyes. I also liked the fact that she is an inventor. She created her very own flying machine, even though it seems like many of the rich families have at least one of their own. She designed and created her own, with a bat as the inspiration for its wings. She created all of the weapons she would use against the Fae. It was something that she would do with her mother, and even though her mother was gone, she kept up this important hobby that would become useful to her in her future battles. All in all, I liked her personality and her ingenuity. One of the things that confused me though was how sometimes the chapters would jump through time. One chapter would end with a certain event going on and the next chapter would start off hours or even half a day later. It made me feel like I was missing something, or that I needed to go back and make sure that I didn't skip a page or something like that. I understand that not all chapters have to take place back to back but it still left me confused. The ending as well was one that I didn't understand. It ended up abruptly that I had to go back and see what happened, and yet I still didn't quite get it. Something definitely happened, but hopefully the next book will be able to explain it better than this first one did.

I honestly did not expect to love this book as much as I did. I saw it on Instagram on various bookstagram accounts and found the cover to be absolutely stunning. Ran to Goodreads, added it in my TBR shelf and forgot about it for a while until I was suddenly in need of a book to read and started this. It was perfect! Aileana Kameron is one of my new favorite female leads and Kiaran MacKay is officially added to my book boyfriend list. I found the writing enjoyable from page one, so much so that I was immediately sucked into the story. I can't wait to start the second book, aka I'm doing it tonight and I'm staying up until my eyes bleed!

A fun read but I don't think it's worth reading the next one. And to really get anything out if the story you really need to read the next book. Which I feel like is an investment I don't really care about. *spoilers after here* Don't get me wrong I enjoyed the story but it feels fairly ya generic girl with powers and mysterious past, the bad boy and the childhood male friend who saves the day.

The Falconer feels like it’s a steampunk version of Buffy The Vampire Slayer set in Edinburgh and I’m not mad about it! I’m eager to learn what happens in the sequel! 3.5/5 ⭐️

This book reminds me a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And by that I mean nothing with the story and everything to do with who 18 year old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas truly is: A Falconer. Falconer: a female warrior born with gifts to hunt/kill fae. ..or really a Vampire Slayer minus the vampire and plus the fae. So we have steampunk, based in Scotland. So just add a red-headed warrior-heroine, sprinkle in a pixie, and a lot of faes. And you have this book. I think the narrator, Susan Duerden (★ ★ ★ ★ ★) made me love this book even more because she has a Scottish Accent and it just drew the whole setting into a complete circle. She was easy to understand and it was just a glorious listen. So Aileana leads a double life. She is the proper daughter and lady she is suppose to be during the day, and a fae hunter by night. She goes against everything that she is suppose to be purely because she wants revenge. A fae murdered her mother right in front of her. She wants to kill her in the least, probably torture to the greatest. "Crimson suits you best." She is being trained by the exactly thing she hunts, a fae named Kiaran, in how to survive, and she has a little pixie named Derrick who helps mend her clothes for a cost (side note: Derrick was my favorite part of this whole book. He's hilarious and I need a pixie in my closet). There is romance in this book, though it isn't the main focus. I will say that there is another Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference towards the romance side, you know the whole "forbidden" and "I hunt your kind, you kill my kind" type of deal. I loved the fact that we didn't start out with her being oblivious to the world and not knowing what she is doing and all of sudden she is so great and wonderful and spectacular at this random thing that dropped in her lap and blah blah blah blah. Insta-stars are so annoying. She has been doing this for a while and she knows what she is doing and she trained her butt off to be as good as she is. It's a great read for anyone who loves things about Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court things. I can tell we are going to expand on that in the next books. Basically if you love fantasy, steampunk and just kind of BA things, this book is up your alley and you should read it so we can discuss it!

This was really enjoyable, and I'm excited to read the other books!