She's a stunner, she's a liar, she's a murderer, she's a falconer.
Now I tend to be very picky with my faerie books, because I've been burned way too many times by terrible ones. With the falconer it sits somewhere in the middle. It had some really good aspects, but the predictability and overused tropes kind of hold it in this mediocre middle place. It could have been way better, but I still have hope for the next book, since this one ended on a huge cliffhanger.

I loved this book. It’s unique and fun and definitely one of the best ya fantasy books to come out in the last 10 years. If you’re looking for a YA fantasy that stands out, this one is it.

It was hard to get through this one. It was very trope-y with writing that sometimes came off as immature or false. It held too much in common with other fae YA series for me to get into the story. The only thing I really liked about it was the Scottish background.

This one was a pleasant surprise for me! I had been looking for a book similar to Holly Black, Sarah J Maas, etc with fae in it and this one was perfect. Just hit the spot! Our main heroine is so amazing, and her character development throughout the novel was so well done. Not to mention the author's writing style is so lyrical and descriptive, it was very easy to fall into the world of the Falconer. The way the book leaves us off and makes us crave so much more of this series, was excellent. Excited to continue this series!

This is such a great book! I have read all in the series, and can't wait for the author to keep writing! I put all in my school library.

My favorite thing about this novel was the heroine! I thought it was a unique spin on other books I’ve read with steampunk elements. My fault with it was that I lacked emotional connection to most of the characters. It was an enjoyable faerie read, but I don’t think it stood out a lot in comparison to all the faerie books now. However! I really liked the inclusion of the evil faeries, like truly evil, which was refreshing to this genre. I am definitely interested to see this author grow more.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get into this book. I appreciate the opportunity to read this title, but it was not for me. I will not be posting a review on Goodreads, so as not to skew the ratings. Best of luck!

I was disappointed with this title. There were too many plot faults and lack of development of characters.

Unfortunately this title just was not for me, I tried multiple times to read it and it just could not keep my attention. I may try again in the future but for now it is in the DNF pile.

I really loved this book! I loved the main character; I thought she felt real and honest and badass all in one. I enjoyed the folklore and I thought it was explained in a way for everyone to understand. I cant wait to continue the series!

I almost 100% loved this book! It's right up my alley being set in Scotland and about faeries. There's something I can't place that prevented me from giving it 5 stars but I did round up for GR purposes. Because I really did enjoy it a lot. Aileana (gorgeous name!) is a Falconer. Meaning she kills bad faeries. She is a faerie hunter. Yes please. The fight scenes in this book were so badass. Turns out the person (entity?) who has trained her to kill faeries is none other than a faerie himself. Why is he helping kill his own? Kiaran is a mixed bag and I can't quite put my finger on him. I loved Derrick, Aileana's sidekick bedroom pixie. Gavin I really liked. More than Kiaran but I liked Kiaran's story better. Thank goddness for the glossary of fae at the end of the book, super helpful! And hey, there was steampunk! Super fun! I need to read more steampunk! Can't wait to start book 2 after that cliffhanger and so glad the trilogy is completed!

This was ok, but I'm not sure that I am interested enough in the story to continue with the sequel(s).

Great for lovers of steampunk or historical fantasy. I had trouble getting into the dense world, but there is definitely a market and audience for such a rich and layered world.

I apologize for the delayed response on this title. As you can see from the timeline of this feedback, I was not able to finish this title in a timely manner. Originally I did not connect to the title as I had hoped. After some time, I grew to love this story, Aileana, and her story. I recently reread this title, and felt I had more words that would be better for this review. The premise was/is interesting - historically set in a world with fae that involves a prophecy. It is engaging, and it was originally what drew me in.

Aileana is strong, and I enjoyed her path to become The Falconer. The pacing for the beginning of the book originally didn't draw me in, but the second time around, I felt more engaged. (This happens to me a lot, depending on the book I previously read.)

The Falconer had every element that I enjoy in a book: strong female lead, swoony romance, continuous action, and a world that I could spend eternity in. Love, love, love.

I enjoyed the main storyline and the main character is pretty tough, but I can never get into the whole "in love with a cruel faerie" thing. Steampunk Victorian England, where the evil faeries have been mostly locked away for year. After the brutal murder of her mother, our hero must forgo the girlish things of her youth to go kick some faerie butt.

Free copy given in exchange for an honest review.

Elizabeth May is totally awesome, and so I really wanted to read her book. This order of events has totally ruined me before, but in this case all ended well. I enjoyed The Falconer from the beginning to the end, and pretty much need book two immediately after that ending. The Falconer is full of action, has an incredibly awesome heroine, and is sure to delight fans of Joss Whedon’s work.


Aileana is totally badass. I know this description gets overused, but she’s like a nineteenth century Buffy. Only she’s better than Buffy, because she’s really smart too. Not only can she wield weapons like a pro, but she’s also an inventor (of more weapons). She is, however, endearingly terrible at being the little high society lady she’s meant to be. The blurb makes her sound like such a prickish princess, but she totally hates her title and just wants to spend all of her time killing. In fact, the blurb says she “only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady,’ but actually she doesn’t look that much like one to society, since they totally think she killed her mom and she’s always disappearing from balls with a headache and returning disheveled.

Rarely does a heroine get off on killing quite as much as Aileana does. Watching her slay fae is a thing of beauty, it really is. She loves fighting, both knowing her own strength and skills and the rush of power she gets when the fae dies. In fact, her love of killing fae has left her reputation (and much of her wardrobe) in tatters, because she keeps running out of balls to go kill some. May also doesn’t make the battles too easy, which I love. Aileana is often in real danger, and she gets hurt a lot.

When Aileana isn’t killing faeries, she’s hanging out with her bestie, Catherine. I can tell that I’ve been reading too much YA when I kept expecting Catherine to turn on Aileana. Actually, this is undeserved, because Catherine is an awesome friend, who listens to Aileana and offers to beat down snotty debutantes to preserve Aileana’s honor. They are so bantery and adorable. In fact, all the characters are quite bantery, so you know I was a happy girl.

Though I’m usually most in love with the characters, what I liked best was the world. Historical Scotland, though much featured in romance novels, if the kilts on the covers are any indication of what’s underneath (OH MY), isn’t a time period I’ve encountered in YA. I squeed every time Aileana said “wee” or “aye” by the way, because my love of accents is absurdly high. Add steampunk into nineteenth century Scotland, and I’m a goner. Then, on top of that, we have faeries, but they’re not namby pamby boring faeries; they are killer, evil faeries, which YES.

So…that ending. Where was it? The Falconer basically just trails off mid-fight scene, leaving the reader sputtering and flipping around to make sure there wasn’t another page that got skipped or something. This cliffhanger is mean. I am not a fan of this sort of cliffhanger. In fact, cliffhanger seems to mild of a term, considering that it just cuts off partway through a scene. I really feel like each book in a series should close out some a smaller story arc while advancing the larger one, but this book doesn’t close out anything. The Falconer could easily have been a hundred pages longer, allowing for a bit more of a slow burn from the romance and time to close out a small story arc, and it would have been perfection.

Based on some things I’ve seen Elizabeth May say on Twitter (god, I sound like such a stalker, but let’s move past that), I think I’ll only like this series more as it continues. It’s only going to get darker and more painful from here, and, yes, I want that.

The Falconer was a mix of so much that I love. Fae, Scotland, a historical setting. It had elements of some of my favorite lore, including the Wild Hunt. If you are a Fae lover, I think it will suit you. The Falconer lets the Fae be mischievous, mean, and enchanting. It does not sugarcoat them the way many modern books do and that was utterly refreshing to me. I cannot wait to continue with this series. It has its claws in me!

Thank you for the chance to review this book, however unfortunately I was unable to download this title before it was archived

THE FALCONER was a pure delight to read, full of stabbing, dark faeries and murderous girls and the occasional explosion. I was absolutely in love the whole time and totally infatuated with this steampunk Scottish series. I definitely want more books ASAP. It also featured sass and engineering inventions and beautiful and dangerous faerie powers that were so intriguing.

Although I have to admit the ending really got me!! It was the wildest and worst cliffhanger in the world and I immediately want book 2!!

I really loved Aileana, our badass faerie killer. I loved how Aileana chaffed at her "proper" life as a lord's daughter and doing the balls and dresses etc etc...but she didn't diss them. Makes such a difference. And she was elegant and also badass and she was an engineer with all these murderous inventions to kill faeries. I mean, can she get any more awesome?! THIS is the kind of female heroine I love reading about!!

Also I loved how heavily this book features PTSD. I often find with fantasy we like skip over the "effects" and just focus on the battle. But this goes into the actual mental health side!! Aileana's mother was murdered in front of her (when she was little) and that absolutely messes with her all the time and the book really delves into the "cause and effect" reactions fo war.

Dark feral faeries are also my favourite. I loved Kiaran. He's very mysterious and also extremely powerful, but he and Aileana train to kill faeries. Aka Kairan is killing his own kind. But why? He has so many dark secrets and we only catch snippets and honestly it just makes the book ridiculously hard to put down.

I just really like how dangerous and wild all the faeries are. Everyone gets stabbed and bitten and poisoned. It's exciting and exhilarating to read a book that so grabs you!

I also loved the writing! It was really detailed and the added layer of describing all the smells made it really leap off the page. I thought the pacing was excellent and it interspersed things like balls and tea with lords and earls with huge action scenes, sassy faerie quips, and inventions of explosions and unravellings of mysteries that could end with the whole world in trouble.

THE FALCONER is a fantastic surprise and one I'll not be forgetting. It's full of dark faeries in a steampunk Scottish setting with a badass, engineering, and emotional heroine I absolutely want to read more about. It totally captured my imagination!

I remember seeing this book in stores when it was first published, but decided to give it a go when I heard the end of the trilogy was coming out (and admittedly, I received an e-ARC of the first one). Overall, I liked that the setting of this story was in Scotland and put the fae in a different light than most other fae novels out there. I did kind of feel like we were dropped into the middle of the story--almost as I was missing a prequel novel or something. Additionally, I just wasn't pulled in or attached to any of the characters. The steampunk elements of the novel seemed almost an afterthought only used when the fae and the humans were fighting so I was left wondering about the overall world and the technology they used. I would have liked to have more information of the world in general. While it was explained why one of the villains was a villain, it was hard to feel any hatred toward any of them because we were never really told WHY the fae were the villains, just that they were. I feel like the pace was slow until the final 10% of the book and I am left undecided if I will pick up the sequel and third book of the trilogy or not.

Disclaimer: I received an e-arc from netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Obviously, this did not influence my opinion in any way.