#Review - The Skylark's Song by J.M. Frey #Steampunk #Fiction

Series: The Skylark Saga #1
Format: Kindle, 288 pages
Release Date: September 4, 2018
Publisher: REUTS Publications, LLC.
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Steampunk / Fiction

A Saskwyan flight mechanic with uncanny luck, seventeen-year-old Robin Arianhod grew up in the shadow of a decade-long war. But the skies are stalked by the Coyote—a ruthless Klonn pilot who picks off crippled airships and retreating soldiers. And as the only person to have survived an aerial dance with Saskwya’s greatest scourge, Robin has earned his attention.

As a pilot, Robin is good. But the Coyote is better. When he shoots her down and takes her prisoner, Robin finds herself locked into a new kind of dance. The possibility of genuine affection from a man who should be her enemy has left her with a choice: accept the Coyote’s offer of freedom and romance in exchange for repairing a strange rocket pack that could spell Saskwya’s defeat, but become a traitor to her country. Or betray her own heart and escape. If she takes the rocket pack and flees, she could end the war from the inside.

All she has to do is fly.

The Skylark's Song is the first of two parts in author J.M. Frey's The Skylark Saga. This is a series filled with intrigue, forbidden romance, and a touch of steampunk. Sergeant Robin Arianhood is a mid-flight mechanic and a Sealie in the Saskwyan Air Patrol. Saskwyan has been at war with Klonn for 10 years and they haven't exactly been winning. The Coyote is the Klonn's ace pilot. He has taken down more Saskwyan aeroplanes than anyone.

 

Robin and her family’s struggles with money and food are real and heartbreaking. Her parents truly love her and want the best for her even if it means Robin walks away from the one thing she's spent years striving to be better than anyone else. Except for Captain Wade, who saw the Sealie’s as their partner’s in the war, other’s have narrow and simple minded about their views of the Sealie’s and their stations in life. After all, they are have had their entire history sabotaged by a power hungry despot who doesn't seem to understand he's losing the war.

But, after Robin and her Captain Wade are sent on a mission they are not expected to survive, they encounter the Coyote. Robin comes out a hero for not only saving Wade but also managing to bring her broken plane back to base. Shocking since Coyote has a reputation of not leaving anyone alive who he encounters. For Robin, it means a promotion to Captain by the King himself and her own plane and mid-flight crewman. The Robin begins to dominate the skies not unlike the Coyote.

Then something amazing happens. Klonn pilots run away from the aeroplane with the Robin painted on the nose. She becomes an ace pilot. Everything is not glimmer and sunshine for Robin. She's treated as though she is pond scum by the Benne pilots. Certain Benne pilots try to make her life miserable. Robin is better than anyone of them and they absolutely hate her for it. She ends up with her best friend as a mid-flight crew member only to be shot down by the very man she dreads the most; the Coyote. The Coyote has shadowed Robin for weeks before finally making his move.

 

Robin soon becomes a Prisoner of War and the Coyote keeps her in a palace with an idea that she will work with him or face the consequences her other countrymen have faced. The Coyote is working on some sort of weapon he claims will bring the war to a halt. Something Robin has been dreaming of for a long time. Robin’s time with Coyote helps her understand that her enemy is not a one dimensional character. 

 

He is a person like herself with his own motives and driving force behind his actions. He is not fighting for his country but for his family. Long story short, Robin finds a way to survive as long as she can by doing things that will give her a way to escape her captivity. What's apparent is that Coyote has known who Robin was for a very long time and was impressed with her skills at surviving. Is this building up to a romantic interlude? Or, will Robin find a way to escape and return home? If she returns home, will she be considered a hero, or a villain, or a traitor to her country? 

 

"Robin had the sudden foreboding sense that the gods had planned something for her, that they were positioning her on a playing board without Robin even knowing she was a part of the game."

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