Amazing world-building and amazing story. I loved every page. And ohmy that cover is just pure perfection.

The Skylark's Song was AMAZING. It was well written, the plot was unique and full of life, and the characters were great. I could relate and I found them easy to like.

I decided after my month break to take a look at Netgalley again and find a book to review that caught my attention. I went through quite a few pages until I found The Skylark’s song by J.M. Frey. It is a sci-fi, fantasy, steampunk, YA book about a teenage girl during a war who adores the sky’s. I thought this novel had an energy like Sarah Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses, which I recently just finished.

The Skylark’s Song has a big World War 2 theme behind the setting. Frey is able to capture the dark, heavy feelings of a low income family during a war torn era. While I was reading through the book I consistently had images pop into my mind about my grandfather and grandmother during World War 2. My grandfather was a solider stationed in England and my grandmother was a young teenage girl during the war in England, who came home from school only to find her house blown up by a bomb. Whenever Robin talks about her family’s struggles with money and food, such a strong powerful feeling rings true to me and I know many people faced these exact hardships during the World Wars.

It was inspiring how Frey was able to capture the different emotions people experience during a war time. Reading about the caste system in Saskwyan and seeing how Benne’s saw themselves above the Sealie’s helped build the understanding about intra and interrelated conflict. Some Benne people put aside their station in life and saw the Sealie’s as their partner’s in the war, while other’s were narrow and simple minded about their views of the Sealie’s. The same rang true for the Klonn. Even during wartime pride, honour and prejudice push through and cloud people’s judgments and motives.

It was interesting to read through the book and appreciate the way that Frey was able to write the fear around The Coyote, and to understand how the Sealies and Bennes dehumanized the ace pilot. A tactic used to ease the hurt and destruction of the human soul while killing and taking a life. Robin has one mission, and that’s to end the war, she takes down 61 pilots before The Coyote gets a hold of her. This was only achieved by dehumanizing her enemy and building a false sense of loyalty to her country.

We get to witness both sides of the opposing country’s. Robin’s time with The 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, people he loves and the innocent. Something Robin can relate to and empathize with. Everyone loses during war, especially the innocent.

Frey developed a good understanding of religion in this series. Each race believing in their own system; multiple gods, a single goddess and science/ arts. The war being waged stemming from these different belief systems and believing one being superior to the other’s. Such an old concept and yet we continue to see this be the source of so much violence and death, even now there are wars being fought in the world because of this very concept. It was revolutionary to read how Frey has managed to capture the struggles with faith and the deception behind the uncontested acceptance of a religion.

The Skylark’s Song was fast-paced, complex and at many times emotional. I enjoyed the fact that it was set as a steampunk fantasy, but the imagery was very real. It’s hard to imagine the sacrifices people make during war, but we get to see Robin challenge her thoughts of blind pride for her country and religion and watch as she expands these simple ideas. Robin unknowingly picks away at the developed caste system by becoming a pilot despite being a Sealie and a woman, which is driven purely by her love of flying and being in the sky’s. She accepts the conditions of her vocation to enjoy the time she has indulging in her passion.

Frey left us with a well developed cliffhanger. My mind has been racing with the implications of the condition The Coyote was left in and how Robin is going to make her way back to Saskwyan. I don’t believe we have seen the last of The Coyote considering his significance in the war and his relation to the King. I have no doubt that the bloodshed and enlightenment will continue when the next installment is released.

I was excited when I saw this booo having read the blurb thinking ooohhh this sounds different but sadly it wasn’t my cup of tea. I struggled with it in places. Sometimes finding it a bit repetitive. Just not for me after all

I wish I was in time to download this book. I was on holiday so I could not download it right away, and a few days later the title was archived unfortunately. I was really looking forward to reading this, the description sounds amazing, especially the steam punk! Also, I love the cover.

I ended up DNF-ing this book about 60 pages through.

I really wanted to get into this book. I don't know if it was the dialogue or if the story itself wasn't speaking to me at the moment I picked it up, but I consistently found myself striving to figure out what was going on. The jargon of this world was hard for me to follow. I was confused for most of the story I read, and just as I would begin to have an idea of what was happening, I would become lost in the words.

I did however, like the concept of the story with a hardworking girl whose job is to keep the aircrafts flying. But it just wasn't enough for me to push through. There was a lot going on for my brain to try to catch up on.

**A HUGE shout out and thank you to Net Galley and the publishers for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review**

I am so thankful for this book, truly. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever read, but it did something for me that I will be forever thankful for. It pulled me out of a most dreadful reading rut; specifically when it came to reading young adult fantasy. I can’t deny that the last few fantasy books I’ve read have not been anything but less than stellar and that has been so heartbreaking for me. I want my fellow authors to succeed, but as a reader I want unbelievably good content as well. While it has its flaws, The Skylark’s Song by J.M. Frey was the hero I needed.

Before diving into the plot I feel like I need to mention that this book has a deep undercurrent of religious strife that plays heavily into the character’s actions and motivations. I wasn’t too thrown off by this, but I can see how others would be. The author wrote this amazing world, that had we gotten a history book that explained the lead up to the war, would have probably been helpful. Perhaps if the religions were ones that were easily known it wouldn’t have been a huge deal, but they were created in the mind of the author and so, to me, the reader needs a little bit more than what was outwardly given. There are tensions and class issues that I felt weren’t fully developed, but deserved to be.

To give you a rundown, there are different kingdoms, the two you really need to pay attention to in this book are Saskwya and Klonn who are duking it out in a religious war. Saskwya wants to keep their religions, which consist of the Polythesim of the lower class Sealies and the Monotheism of the upper class Bennes. Klonn doesn’t have any religions and therefore are basically an atheist society that feels Saskwya should follow suit, so BOOM war time.

GOOD POINT: Even though the world building felt rushed, what little I got I was impressed with. I liked this world and I wanted to see more of it. I feel Frey has laid the ground work for a prequel and I would be overjoyed if she followed through with that thought.

At the heart of this we have our MC, Robin, a mid-flight engineer and Sealie who is promoted to glider pilot despite her class. I thought her character was pretty great as far as female heroines go. She wasn’t trying too hard to be a badass to prove something, she just is a badass. However, I felt we got the bare minimum when it came to her character development as far as her love of flying and being basically the best pilot on the Saskwyan air force. There was a lot of telling and not showing going on as the book glosses over months of her training and taking down enemy ships. I wanted details, I wanted to see her fight and was left disappointed with what little I got.

GOOD POINT: Robin, Robin, Robin! I love her, but I would love her even more with a little more fleshing out.

On the other side of the war is the Klonn warrior called the Coyote who, in Robin’s head, becomes her arch nemesis. Through the quick montage of air fights we learn that the Coyote has been following her in the sky and eventually causes her to start avoiding battles for fear that she will be shot down. Everything comes to a tipping point when the Coyote sends a letter of challenge that is awkwardly called a “love” letter. This was a bit clunky foreshadowing, but I took it in stride.

Robin prepares to face her nemesis along with her own mid-flight engineer and best friend, Al. Al is a fucking jag-off, gosh that feels good to say out loud. He is supposedly written as one of Robin’s love interests, but there really is no contest as he is just plain awful. He is the stereotypical “friend-zoned” guy who tries to guilt trip Robin into kissing him. It is flat gross. What even makes it worse is, Robin has in my opinion made her feelings pretty damn clear up to this point, but still she is willing to have a serious talk with him about it and put this shit to rest once and for all because he is her best friend. However, like a normal person, she wants to wait to discuss it after they’ve flown against the Coyote, because emotions are a bitch in a dangerous situation and girl doesn’t have time for that shit.

Al accepts this until they are literally up in the air waiting for the Coyote to show up and he decides to unbuckle himself from the ship to come up and get right in her face to have this talk. WTF! I hated Al in this moment. Actually no, my hate came way earlier when he bitched about all the things he had done for her and I wanted to scream, “That is your job as her mid-flight you fucking idiot! You’re not special!” By the time he interrupts her as she’s trying to pilot I was indifferent to him and knew that if he died, I wouldn’t care even a little bit.

The Coyote shows up and takes her down because her true arch nemesis, the fellow pilot who hates her guts, has tampered with her glider causing her to lose control of steering. This was something else I could have done without quite honestly. I get we needed to set up the class system between the Bennes and Sealies, but did we really have to do it at the expense of having another story line where two women hate and rag on each other? It wasn’t awful, just disappointing.

Robin’s glider is shot down by the Coyote. She is injured and Al is dead (Sorry, not sorry). She is captured by the Coyote and a fleet of Klonn soldiers. The Coyote is of course much more handsome and gentle up close (Ugh!). It wasn’t insta-love, but it was enough to make me roll my eyes. Robin is taken away like all other mid-flights to work on a super secret project the Klonn have cooked up to end the war for good. The flaw in their plan is that they need an engineer to finish it, hence why the Coyote has been shooting down gliders and capturing mid-flights. The project is essentially a lone, single pilot jet-pack called WINGS.

We learn fairly quickly that the mansion Robin is a prisoner in belongs to the Coyote and in a way he is being held as a prisoner too. We then get a second montage of her fixing/sabotaging WINGS while being flirted/woo’d by the Coyote over dinner and games of chess. It was sad that it went by like a blur of images, but I guess it still worked; again the bare minimum.

I didn’t mind her budding relationship with the Coyote as much as I did Al’s stalker infatuation with her, but it was still creepy at times. The overuse of “My Dear” was too much to handle, to the point I felt my body begin to cringe whenever the Coyote appeared in preparation for it. Author’s, if you want your love interest to not come off sounding like a degrading garbage human don’t have him continue to call your heroine “My Dear” every single time he address her. Plus, repetition is just annoying.

GOOD POINT: I enjoy a good love story, especially a forbidden lovers story and this book sells it fairly well. More than that though, I liked that the love story wasn’t really the forefront of the narrative. It was second to the War story and even Robin’s own character development. I appreciated this.

Despite this and his sometimes overly rough treatment of her “for her safety”, it was a relationship I hoped would work out in the end. I have to admit that he does assist her and when the bet situation comes up he handled it how I hoped he would. Honestly, if that scene had gone the route of sexual assault I would have been thoroughly pissed, so thank you Frey for that.

I will admit that the ending had me shedding a few tears. Not so much for the Coyote, or their relationship, but for Robin herself. She had built up this relationship in her head and fought and railed against it. She used logic to stay grounded and in the end stuck to her ideals over letting her heart take over. But she does allow herself a single moment and it was enough to bring tears. It felt real and it was all Robin’s doing.

I will more than likely be keeping an eye out for the next book in the series. Like I said it wasn’t the greatest, but it was enough and I think that deserves a recommendation and my promise to pick up the next book. Besides, I’d love to see what becomes of Robin and maybe a little bit the Coyote as well.

If you’re into Young Adult, Fantasy, and Steam Punk I’d say this book falls right into where your priorities lie and you should pick it up and give it a shot.

BAD POINT: Not enough fanart!


4.5 Out of 5 Stars

Overall, The Skylark's Song was a fun read. I loved the steampunk elements and the idea of the glider fights. Robin was an interesting character, and I enjoyed the fact that she wasn't perfect. She had her faults, so I could relate to her. There were some issues. The religion/race aspects were portrayed as important yet were never fully developed. Also, while I liked the Coyote as a character, the way he constantly said "my dear" was a little grating; it kept making me think of moustache-twirling villains. But, as I said, overall this was an entertaining and action-packed tale, and I would like to read the second book later, to see how it all ends. I would give this book 3.5 stars, but a 3.5 that rounds up to a 4, rather than down to a 3.

This was such a long read, and just didn’t hook me enough to be able to make up for its length.

It had a good concept, and then definitely some twists and turns that I never saw coming, such as Al dying, and the such. I thought Robin was too annoying to keep the story up though, especially when she originally gets kidnapped.

I don’t know, I wish I could have liked this story more than I did. But I felt like it took me 10 years to read when squeezed into my busy schedule, and just didn’t hook me enough to make it worth it.

i quite enjoyed this one!! i’ve learned to go into books with absolutely no expectations and this one really wasn’t what i was expecting AT ALL (in a good way), and it completely blew things out the water for me. it’s not perfect, but it’s enjoyable and fun and a quick read (i swear i would’ve finished this in a day or two if it wasn’t for college) but anyway it’s definitely going to be one of those uber-underrated books that no one’s ever heard of which SUCKS because it really was a fun time!!

i think the writing was gorgeous!! J.M. Frey definitely knows what she’s doing here style-wise and you can absolutely tell. unrelated to her magnificent writing style, but i maybe had a few issues with the world building, which made for a wonky slide into the first few chapters of The Skylark’s Song because the characters were throwing around slang and slurs and country names and very specific pilot-related terms which you can’t really pick up on since you’re literally only just starting the book. it gets better as the book goes by, though, and i really do think Frey’s writing style makes up for most of it, but it does take you on a bumpy ride for the first few chapters. you are definitely, absolutely THROWN into this world without a mere second to snap on your seatbelt.

Robin is a really strong character, literally and physically. it’s very obvious that she’s been on Frey’s mind from the very beginning of the writing process because she’s extremely well fleshed out and her POV, actions, thoughts, etc., never get tiring. i absolutely LOVED reading her as a main character. the rest of the characters were a little bit meh but Robin really carries the weight of this whole story (and this entire world) on her shoulders like an absolute champ. the exception might be Wade who i SO WISH we could’ve seen more of!!! he was such a peach!!! an absolute petal!!! he was so good!!!! i formally and officially request a book written entirely in Wade’s POV don’t disappoint me @J.M. Frey

i mean i don’t think there’s anything else i can say at this point because i really enjoyed this book despite its small teeny tiny flaws but maybe that’s just me?? i’m willing to overlook all that stuff if i enjoyed myself at the end of the day because the reading experience is truly the thing that matters most to me so i’m happy to say that i’ll definitely be looking forward to the next book(s) in this series!! also!!! reading the acknowledgments made me feel so warm inside!! you can tell that this book is really important to J.M. Frey and in general i think she really did a good job. i can’t wait for more!! thanks again to NetGalley and REUTS Publications!!!

What Hooked Me In Was The Cover. I Mean How Gorgeous Is That??

Then I Read The Premise A Book About Pilots? I'm In.

Its A Good Book And It's Well Written. But It Is Kind Of Confusing. I Feel Like There Should've Been More World And Character Development And Building.

Then Again I Would Read More From J.M Frey And See Where He Takes The Story.

Wow great book! I received this ARC through netgalley and I’m so so glad I did. I loved it. At one point in the book my heart literally raced (my Fitbit can prove it) and I was on edge. I felt so many different emotions along with Robin. Very well written. I loved the flow of the writing and the story. I can’t wait for book number 2! I need it out now!

It took me awhile to get into this book. It seemed like it was the second book in a series as the prejudices between the various races wasn't really explored. Someone was called a "cow" and it seemed to go over as if they'd been called another c word (that rhymes with runt). A little background on things like that would have helped as I felt confused a lot of the time.

But I'm glad I persevered. I ended up enjoying the book and will read the sequel. I think it picked up for me around 35%.

The cover is glorious!

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the copy.