MS Review – Harlow Morgan and the Sky City – fantasy

Guide to Categories – MS Review – review of books for older elementary-aged and middle school-aged children

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About the Book

Book: Harlow Morgan and the Sky City

Author: Lyndsey Lewellen

Genre: Middle Grade Steampunk Fantasy

Release Date: November 15, 2025

Harlow Morgan: airship pilot, trouble magnet, possibly glowing.

Airship pilot-in-training, Harlow Morgan is a wiz in the sky—but her father’s disappointment on the ground.

In the steam-powered nation of Corshire, where science reigns and magic is outlawed, Harlow’s famous inventor father expects perfection. Her twin sister delivers. Harlow? Not so much. She’d rather be flying airships at the Academy than following in his brilliant footsteps.

But when a reckless lie puts a classmate’s future at risk—and exposes a hidden magical artifact tied to her family—Harlow finds herself swept into a dangerous underground war. With strange light burning across her skin and outlaw sorcerers on her trail, Harlow teams up with the boy she betrayed to unlock the truth behind the artifact… and survive the city in the sky.

If the deadly Magics don’t get her first, her father’s secrets just might.

Click here to get your copy!

MS Review

Lewellen, Lyndsey. Harlow Morgan and the Sky City. Byron Center, MI: Paths to Portals Books. 2025.

Harlow Morgan book 1

 Harlow Morgan and the Sky City has a plot line that was easy to get into and understand. Lewellen did a great job of quickly engaging readers and building her steampunk world. 

The characters are ones that readers will find something to relate to. Twins with missing mother and emotionally absent father. A  teen who is new to the area and treated differently because he is not local or understood. Two friends who are keeping secrets from their friends, the twins. While readers may not be able to relate fully to any one character, they will relate to feelings of emotional abandonment by a parent, being treated differently, or feeling the need to keep certain things a secret (whether for good or bad reasons). They may also relate to telling lies in order to protect their family – which one of the twins does. 

The teens band together, even when not necessarily liking each other, to combat evil and undo wrongs.

I found Harlow Morgan and the Sky City to be a hard-to-put-down book. I look forward to reading more books in the Harlow Morgan series. 

Harlow Morgan and the Sky City would be a great book for a K-12 Christian school library. It is appropriate for upper elementary and middle school. 

I received a complimentary copy of Harlow Morgan and the Sky City. This is my honest review. 

About the Author – Lyndsey Lewellen

Lyndsey Lewellen is the sci-fi and fantasy author of The Chaos Grid duology and the Harlow Morgan series. Growing up on a healthy dose of comic books, punk music, and sci-fi, she infuses all three loves into novels written for young adults. Inside her “what if” worlds, her characters take risks, grow, and fight for what matters. When she’s not writing or whittling down her endless TBR, she designs novel covers and paints on shoes. She lives on a small Texas farm with her best friend/husband, five children, and what some might call a zoo of animals (especially after meeting the peacocks).

More from Lyndsey Lewellen

Why Steampunk?

When I tell people that Harlow Morgan and the Sky City is middle grade steampunk, I either get that question—or the question, What is steampunk? I get it. Punk genres are niche. I answer the second question with references to Jules Verne and explanations of neo-futurism. Steampunk is a what if story where society advanced differently than it really did, keeping the Victorian culture and gaining cool steam-powered gadgets. There’s more to steampunk than that, but it’s my typical answer in a nutshell.

The reason I chose it to tell Harlow’s story goes back to my days working in a comic book store. As a budding artist, I treasured anything drawn by my favorite illustrators, and a comic titled Steampunk, penciled by Chris Bachalo, was no exception. Flipping through those striking pages was my first exposure to the genre. A refreshing change of pace from the usual superhero storylines I was used to. Growing up dyslexic, I had never read books like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or Journey to the Center of the Earth. I had no idea adventure stories like these existed. I was hooked.

In my twenties, I began teaching young girls the Bible in my church. By then, I had become a reader, albeit a slow one. When a few girls I was discipling told me they also liked reading, I was excited to have common ground. But then they told me the books they read. My joy deflated at the darker themes and lack of hope in these stories. Where were the hope-filled tales of my youth?

I wanted to shine a light for young girls. So, I took the genre I loved, added a spunky airship-pilot-in-training, and threw her into a battle between the forces of light and darkness. Harlow Morgan and her neo-futuristic adventures were born.

Though she lives in a wild Victorian world, Harlow navigates tough realities that kids face today. What does it mean to be a light fighting the darkness? And when the world—and our own thoughts—tell us we will never be enough to be loved, is that true? Do we need to earn the love of our Father, or is His love freely given?

My hope is that through a fun, whimsical adventure, young readers will find not only entertainment and the joy of reading but also a little hope to brighten their lives. Or even better, a story that points them to the brightest Light of all.

Take a ride with Harlow and her friends in this high-flying start to a middle grade steampunk series.

—Lyndsey

Blog Stops

Library Lady’s Kid Lit, February 17

Simple Harvest Reads, February 18 (Author Interview)

CeCe Reads and Sings, February 18

Pens Pages & Pulses, February 19

Guild Master, February 20 (Author Interview)

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, February 21

Fiction Book Lover, February 22 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, February 23

Stories By Gina, February 24 (Author Interview)

For Him and My Family, February 25

Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, February 26 (Author Interview)

Because I said so- adventures in Parenting , February 27

A Reader’s Brain , February 28 (Author Interview)

Labor Not in Vain, March 1

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, March 2 (Author Interview)

Artistic Nobody, March 2

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Lyndsey is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card and a paperback copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/htf4G/harlow-morgan-and-the-sky-city-celebration-tour-giveaway

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