Science Fiction Paranormal Romance in SkyLark
By
This is a very different kind of paranormal romance, and one that isn’t even a romance until well into the second half of the book. But it is a great start to what promises to be a very interesting fantasy world that will definitely include enough paranormal romance in it to satisfy anyone. We begin with our girl Skylark, a teen in a city that is the last remaining holdout of humanity, enclosed in a bubble and slowly crumbling into a lower state as its power sources dwindle.
But when we meet Skylark she has no awareness of any of the political ramifications of where she lives. She only knows that in a city where everyone takes pride in their childhood ending and their true life as an adult beginning when they are called upon by the state to have their innate gifts “harvested”, she has been left behind. Every year when they call on others her age, and younger, to be harvested, her name is never called and she doesn’t know why.
But then she is called, and discovers that she has been held back because she has a special power, for she is a Renewable. This means she can give her magical ability for harvesting again and again as it regenerates itself after each harvest. Unlike the others who are harvested and then returned to the city to contribute as adults, she will stay and be harvested endlessly.
A Secret Uncovered
While in the hands of the city architects she discovers a secret that changes everything and makes her more determined than ever to get away. Finally, tortured beyond her ability to stand, she escapes into the wilds of beyond the city dome, unsure if she can survive but determined to never return to the city.
Outside the city dome the world has gone crazy. Most of the world has been destroyed by war, and what has survived has been twisted by it beyond recognition. Her struggles to not only survive, but find others like herself bring her in touch with a wild boy.
An Unlikely Paranormal Romance
He helps her to elude the cannibalistic creatures that once were humans and hide in the pockets of magic that dot the earth. In time she finds the answers, not only to her quest for others like herself but also to understand the wild boy and just what he means to her.
This story will grab you almost from the start. There is an element of the science fiction post-apocalypse world here, and a fair bit of magic as well. There are fearsome creatures written so starkly you will envision them all too easily. But most of all, what I loved about this was the relationship between Skylark and the wild boy who befriends and rescues her.
I consider it a kind of paranormal romance, even if it never quite progresses there physically, because the paranormal romance is there emotionally for both of them. There is an insight into what it would take to survive this kind of world, and into what it takes to love someone as different from you as they are to each other.
A Coming of Age Tale for the Future
Skylark’s journey through a terrifying and sometimes beautiful countryside to find the Iron Forest is a classic journey from childhood to adult but with none of the clichés we find so often. Skylark believes that even monsters can be redeemed and her ultimate belief in the goodness of others is both her strength and her weakness.
It is what makes her so human, and so much a character we cheer on to succeed. In Spooner’s Skylark we find the perfect fable of the journey of discovery we all make in our life, wrapped in a paranormal romance adventure that is just really beginning. I can’t wait to see where she goes from here.
