The Falconer
The Falconer # 1
Paranormal, Fantasy, Young Adult
Chronicle Books
May 6, 2014
Hardcover
378
Pinoy Book Tours
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?
In the spirit of reading something new to me, I decided to sign up to review The Falconer because I haven’t read any novel on faeries ever. Okay, maybe I have but those were children’s books and they’re not about the same kinds of faeries present in The Falconer. Faeries are mythical, powerful creatures who hurt and kill humans, not at all like the “fairies” one reads about in fairy tales.
So, anyway, the fact that I’m new to this genre made the book a bit confusing to me at first because of all the fae terms that I wasn’t familiar with. Luckily, the author included a glossary of fae terms at the back of the book, which I only discovered midway through the novel, but it still helped a lot. I’m pretty sure those who are more used to reading books from this genre wouldn’t find it so confusing.
Story-wise, I can’t compare The Falconer as well to other fae novels but I can say that it’s very intriguing. The setting is in Edinburgh in a time when society really puts pressure on conforming and following societal rules. But, the protagonist, Lady Aileana Kameron, is so modern in the way she thinks and acts. I actually love her character. She’s so bad ass! I love how she’s so smart and how she’s able to create so many different high technology contraptions that help her kill faeries. She’s not at all like the other ladies in her time, which earns her a bad reputation. But I love the fact that she’s a rebel.
I also love her friendship with her faery friends Derrick and Kiaran Mackay. The fact that these two are mostly good faeries and actually help her capture and kill the bad ones are intriguing. It makes the reader curious as to their motivation for doing so. Little by little their motivations were revealed in the book. But for sure we’ll only understand them better in the succeeding books (oh yeah, this is a series).
I am curious about how Aileana’s relationship with Kiaran will progress because she’s human and Kiaran is fae. I wasn’t at all thrilled when they started becoming romantic towards each other. I like Gavin / Lord Galloway more for Aileana. Lord Galloway is Aileana’s friend from childhood who eventually became her fiance because of some societal pressures.
The book was a bit dragging at first but I find that most first novels of a series are like that anyway. There’s still a lot of explaining and setting up to do. But eventually, as the story of The Falconer progressed, it became more exciting because of the turn of events and the action scenes. I’m curious enough to want to read the next books on this series.
I’m not really fond of old stories/settings in books or movies. I don’t know why! Feeling ko nag-ooverload ang mind ko!
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These are the types of stories I like!
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Like Roxi, not my type of story. More on love/life story type ko. 🙂
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I feel that my brains function well when I read intriguing stories.
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Sounds interesting!
Oooh I love reading fantasy books! Haha, the dork in me really emerges no?
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I love reading fantasies too!
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