Review : The Falconer by Elizabeth May

Summary (from Goodreads)

Title : The Falconer (The Falconer #1)
Author : Elizabeth May
Publication Date : September 26th 2013 (UK)
Publisher : Gollancz
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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?

 Personal Thoughts

Combining historical fiction and paranormal, Elizabeth May presents readers a stunning debut that clambered  high up my favorites of 2013 list. Folks, this might be the best YA paranormal book I've read this year.

As soon as we open The Falconer, we are introduced to Ailena, a remarkable young woman who has constantly been accused of murdering her own mother. Ailena was a fantastic main character, easy to fall in love with. She was strong, brilliant and fought for what was right. However, Ailena was not all sublime. She had imperfections that made her a realistic character. Her blemishes came mainly in the form of her insecurities and the intense grief and guilt she felt over her mother's death. Plus, she was badass in every sense of the word. What I liked about Ailena the most was that she wasn't one of those dumb YA heroines who didn't think through their decisions. Over the course of The Falconer, the reader also gets to watch Ailena develop into an even more mature character. The Falconer also had a fabulous cast of secondary characters. My favorite was, undoubtedly, Derrick, a pixie who Ailena befriends. He was just so adorable, witty and funny. He was also quite blunt and did not hesitate to tell Ailena what exactly he thought of her sometimes. And he kept getting drunk on honey and said the most random things which made for some seriously cute scenes. Besides being adorable, Derrick was also a good friend to Ailena and I loved how protective he was of her. We also get to meet another fae, Kiaran, who was an intriguing and highly complex character. His character was the kind that we slowly got to peel over the course of the book and the more we got to know about him, the more I liked him, but by the end of the book, we still did not know much about him. Characters as captivating as Kiaran as many of you know, are a definite favorite of mine and I'm looking forward to getting to know him better in the subsequent books.

The world-building was also solid, according to me. The only fae books that I have read are the Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. So, this was a relatively new concept in YA for me. I thought the author did a good job at presenting the readers with a decent world, without info-dumping. Of course, we don't get to know everything about the world in The Falconer, but we do get a satisfying amount. I liked the idea that not all of the faeries were good, but that most of them were plain evil. I still have a lot questions about the faeries themselves that I'm guessing will be answered in the subsequent books. The plot was action-packed from start to finish. I thought the pacing was perfect and I was especially fond of the action scenes. They were descriptive and vivid. It was very easy for me to visualize the scenes in my head. The author's writing style was also very absorbing. She has a simple, but gorgeous writing style. When it comes to historical fiction, I expect a lot of detail when it comes to describing scenes, and the author provided me with exactly that. There was also a romance in The Falconer that developed at a slow and intense pace, never overtaking the actual plot-line. I was rooting for the couple from the very start because they did have a lot of chemistry together when they were basically trying to kill each other off during their practice. I do feel like the couple is going to have a lot of hurdles to overcome in the subsequent books what with the love interest being a faery, but I'm excited for the prospect.

All in all, The Falconer was a brilliant debut and Elizabeth May is undoubtedly one talented writer. I can't wait to see what she comes up with in the future books. Action-packed, intense and entertaining, The Falconer was an impressive debut that will appeal to all fans of YA historical and paranormal.

Rating

Cover : 4/5
Plot : 5/5
Characters : 5/5
Writing : 5/5