The Falconer (The Falconer #1) by Elizabeth May

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?

My Rating: 3.3/5
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Paranormal (Fey), YA

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Have you ever caught yourself wishing there was that novel out there that you have "never read before"? 

By this I mean that you wish to read something different, something filled with adrenaline instead of romantic interludes, something that.... while reading it you will not know what happens next.

That's how I started reading The Falconer, as the reviews of my Goodreads friends promised me that this is my salvation incarnate. 

You know, I hated this book, and truth is that it is not a bad book - it is just not yet a book. I have a dream, dear reader, and that is that one day the novel called "Falconer" will be published! Ya know, one which is well written and not just scribbled on a paper and hastily put together! One that will actually display an effort on the writing style and the continuity of the story, as even the toilet paper called Twilight has! (No pun intended ^.^)

And truth be told, I wouldn't have hated this book if it didn't have a whole lot of goodies in it, displaying here just a few so you can get a glimpse: a beautiful kick-ass heroine who happens to be an engineer, a handsome morally gray warrior as her love interest, a wonderful friendship between boy and girl and some interesting relationships between girlfriends, mothers, daughters and fathers that were surprisingly well portrayed in this draft of a book. Still on the bright side, E.May pieced together technology and fairies flawlessly, and surprised me again and again with her knowledge of the fae lore - although she didn't manage to do the same with the displayed technological inventions of that time, which I found laughable and absolutely not construct-able by any means. 

As you may have already been warned, the ending is a cliffhanger, although I prefer to call it "I was rushing to the publisher's and couldn't write another chapter". Still, as it is E.May's debut novel, I want to believe that book no.2 of the series will be better and that, with time, I will forget the mishaps of the Falconer and live a happily ever after myself.

Overall, the 3.3/5 stars are a vote of confidence on the Falconer series, together with an extra 0.5 sector which belongs to Kam, who is one very special female character in this Mayhem of Mary Sue's that lurk out there.