The Vanishing Throne is a book that has sat on my bookshelf for what feels like absolutely ages. I read The Falconer, the first book in this series, as a review book just before it released and it absolutely blew me away. It still is one of my all-time favourite fantasy books of all time and I couldn’t wait to continue. So why wait so long to read this one, I hear you ask? Well The Falconer had one hell of a cliff-hanger and I expected the same of The Vanishing Throne so I decided to wait till closer to the release of the third and final book in the series. I am so glad I waited but at the same time I am kicking myself for not reading it sooner because of how good it was.

Aileana tried her best to save the human race for the awful fae destroying her world and taking over. But there was only so much that she could do and now she finds herself taken captive from one of the worst fae imaginable and with no idea what has happened to her world and her friends.

The Vanishing Throne has quite a slow beginning in my opinion. I loved every moment of it but it wasn’t until Aileana came to fight back and there was more of an action packed storyline that I got totally into it and started loving it as much as I loved the first one. The Vanishing Throne introduces us into some new characters and I adores them. They added so much to the storyline and it made me read this book so fast because I wanted to know more about the new characters as well as to know what was going to happen with the original characters too.

Aileana really comes into her own in this book. We saw a totally different side to her from her actions and behaviour in the first book. In the first book Aileana is totally overtaken by her need for vengeance but we see a much more vulnerable side of her in this one. We see Aileana try to stay strong throughout her captivity but see a part of her starting to give up. She still stays strong and kick-ass but you really see a new, more softer side to her. After that, we see her become even more independent and kick-ass as she starts to grow into her powers.

I absolutely loved Kiaran, as I did in the first book, and my love for him just grew and grew the further I got through this book. I loved Kiaran’s sister in this book. She was one of the newer characters in this book and she was so amazing. I loved seeing another fae that really wanted to be on the sides of the humans in this war.

The Vanishing Throne was absolutely amazing. I loved every single moment of it and I was right about the ending. It ended in yet another cliff-hanger and I cannot wait to read the third and final book and see how it is all going to play out. Where we are in the story at the moment I can’t see how it is all going to be solved by the end of one more book but I can’t wait to see how Elizabeth does it and if she can’t wrap it all up I am hoping for a spin off series. I just adore Elizabeth’s writing and want her to continue this amazing series forever.

If you’re looking for a new YA fantasy series to becomes obsessed with and fall in love with then I highly recommend The Falconer series. I loved every single moment of it. Roll on the The Fallen Kingdom.

3.5 stars

It’s been quite a while since I read the first book in this historical fantasy trilogy, The Falconer, and I’m ashamed to say this second book has been waiting on my NetGalley shelf for a few years. I did have to read a quick summary of the first book, just to remind myself who some of the side characters were and remember some of the finer points of the plot, but for the most part I had a lot of fun with this sequel despite it taking me a while to pick it up.

The Vanishing Throne moves this story from historical fantasy into the realms of alternate history. This isn’t a 19th century Scotland we can recognise, because this is a Scotland that’s been by hit by what’s essentially a fae apocalypse following the events right at the end of The Falconer. The story opens in the fae realm, where Aileana is being kept prisoner, and we find a rather different girl to the one moulded by bloodlust and vengeance that we met in the first book.

This is very much a middle book. We get answers to a lot of questions we have about May’s version of the fae, and the falconers themselves, but everything in this book is leading up to whatever is going to happen in the third and final book. I did find the plot a little confusing and convoluted at times, though. Some parts in the middle really dragged, with not a lot actually happening, only for the ending to feel quite rushed. In fact I felt like the climax of this novel happened over the course of about three pages when it easily could have been stretched out, and I think it would have made more of an impact that way.

That being said, there was a lot about this book that I liked a lot. I love that May lets Aileana be sad and guilt-ridden, and lets her sit with her feelings and work through them. The whole world Aileana knew isn’t that world anymore, so it’s to be expected that Aileana doesn’t really know what her place is in it.

I enjoyed Aileana and Kiaran’s relationship a lot more than I expected to in this book, too. I never disliked them, but I definitely felt like I got them in this book and I’m so glad that May still refused to go down the love triangle route with Gavin. The only thing that made me a little uncomfortable had to do with Catriona, the falconer Kiaran loved years before whom we learned about in the first book, because Aileana gets a little jealous of her – and jealousy is a perfectly natural emotion, so I get it – but Kiaran essentially ended up having to say that he didn’t love Catriona as much as he loved Aileana so that Aileana would believe his love for her.

I get that Aileana’s only 17/18, and I can understand not wanting to be second best, but it rubbed me up the wrong way a little. It’s possible to love more than one person during your lifetime (even more so if you’re an immortal fae) and I don’t think characters need to pit their lovers against one another like that.

Thankfully, Aileana’s relationships with some of the other women were a lot more positive, and one thing I remembered being frustrated about in The Falconer was how often Aileana was the only girl in the room. We got to see more of Catherine, Aileana’s best friend, in this book, and I love the young woman she’s grown into. She’s such a genuinely good friend, someone who has Aileana’s back no matter what, and I’m so pleased we got to know her better.

I actually thought it was really interesting how, through Catherine, May broached the idea of an apocalypse in the 19th century making inter-class marriages possible; Catherine has a romance of her own in this book, and there’s no way she even would have met this man if life the way she once knew it had continued.

We also got to meet Kiaran’s sister, Aithinne, and her friendship with Aileana is probably the best thing about this book. Catherine will always be there to support Aileana, but Aithinne can understand her in a way a lot of other people can’t and I loved how quickly they became friends. Women supporting women is everything I want in my fantasy, thank you very much.

Just like The Falconer, The Vanishing Throne was a lot of fun to read. I’m definitely interested in completing the trilogy, but I can’t deny that I’m in no great rush to get to it. If you love books about the fae and you haven’t tried this series yet, though, I’d recommend picking it up!

Oh boy. This was so good! It was everything I loved about the first book, The Falconer, but on turbo steroids. Everything was upped. The level of imagination, already high for this series, was blown clear out of the water in comparison. Such an excellent sequel - I just loved it!

Aileana, having blipped through the portal she was attempting to seal shut in The Falconer, has been trapped in a mind-bending, twisty world of mirrors and magic enough to drive anyone insane, whilst slowly having her memories scoured by Lonnrach. During this same time, the human world has been all but obliterated. This was most certainly not the plan, but this is the situation, and Aileana must now deal with the consequences of her failure.

We see tremendous growth from Ailenana in this book and also get some much needed back story on Keiran. I also particularly enjoyed his sister, Aithinne's, contribution to the story. The world-building , which required some extra focus as it's essentially a completely new world Aileana is faced with outside of the portal, was excellent. All in all, this book had more of everything, including the feels!

Book 3 in this series, The Fallen Kingdom, has just been released and I can't wait to get to it. God damn you, TBR pile!

5 Stars ★★★★★ A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.