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Reviewed by:
  • The Falconer by Elizabeth May
  • Kate Quealy-Gainer
May, Elizabeth. The Falconer. Chronicle, 2014. [384p](The Falconer). ISBN 978-1-4521-1423-1 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 7-10.

In 1844, Scottish society expects girls of Lady Aileana’s stature to focus on hunting for a husband once they’ve debuted, but Aileana has her eyes set on different prey. In the year since her mother’s brutal murder at the hands of a vicious faerie, Aileana has become a stealthy assassin, hunting and killing as many the members of the sithichean race as she can find in her quest for vengeance—all while playing the part of stylish debutante for the rest of Edinburgh. Just as Aileana’s closing in on the creature who took her mother’s life, however, Kiaran, her devilishly handsome partner in crime, explains Aileana’s true identity: she is actually a Falconer, one of the last guardians of the human race. This means that her vengeance quest has to wait, since one of the baddest faeries around is whipping up an army to cross into the human world and destroy it. Lady Aileana is basically Buffy in a corset and wielding a crossbow, and May offers a pleasing blend of witty dialogue, nonstop action, and campy humor in this supernatural romp through steampunk Scotland and its faerie folklore. The fight sequences are as pulse-pounding as the will-they/won’t-they romance between Aileana and Kiaran; May wisely resists the impulse to create a love triangle with one of Aileana’s childhood friends, instead using the pal to represent the life that Aileana could have had if it weren’t for the soul-sucking creatures that have invaded her life. Readers won’t join her laments over her loss, though; they’ll prefer her chucking knives at drooling hellhounds and pulling Kiaran in for a lusty kiss. More, please. [End Page 533]

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