Wings and Tails by Isaac Lee Review
Hey, you crazy cats and kittens. Step into the spear line with me as we talk about the most recent #HaremLit book that I’ve ever read! This book was a lot of fun, scratching my love of military main characters. It was about a WWII fighter pilot who got yeeted into another dimension full of beastkin! This book was a lot of fun to experience, so pull your ripcord and join me as we dive in feet first! It had everything, hot girls, a fun harem dynamic, and all of the animal girl shenanigans you could ask for. So, join me on this crazy adventure and dive into the deep end of crazy with me, Lance Spears!
Book Title: Wings and Tails
Author: Isaac Lee
Narrator: Evan Reed and Amber Hartt
Audio Publisher: Royal Guard Publishing
eBook Price: $4.99 USD
Audiobook Price: $29.66 USD or one Audible Credit
Whisper Sync Pricing: $12.48 USD
Pages: 408 Pages
Audiobook Length: 11 Hours 15 Minutes
Keywords: Pilots, Portal Fantasy, Isekai Fantasy, Fantasy, Foxkin, Wolfkin, Otherkin, Lionkin, Beastkin, Fox Girl, Wolf Girl, Lion Girl, Military, WW2, WWII, Aerial Combat
Summary
Flying is a freedom only a few can understand.
One sunny day, a routine airshow ended with me flying through a portal to another world. Here, warplanes aren’t the only thing in the sky. Oh, and my mind has a tendency to see what others are thinking.
Now, amongst airships, beautiful beastkin, floating continents and telepathic powers, I’ll have to pick a side to fight for.
When I do, I’ll have to prove my loyalty, my skill, and play my part in saving this world from an evil that crossed from my world into this one.
On the ground, I’m just a man, but in the air, I’m as powerful as a dragon. Fortunately, the beautiful fox, wolf, and lion girls of Dione don’t just need me in battle, they need me in their beds too.
All is fair in love and war.
I’ll fly any plane, pat any head, and develop my skills as a minder, all while sniffing out spies as I work my way to a hundred kills.
The summary by the author was spot on! He gave us a hint of what to expect, showed his authorial tone, and generally made me want to read this book. The kick-ass cover helped, but the blurb sold it for me.
Characters
The premise alone made this a fun story, but really hit the ball out of the park were the characters in this novel. This novel is told through the eyes of the main character, Captain Walker. We did get a few brief glimpses through the eyes of other characters, but they were the exception to the larger story. While James was the main point of view character, the other players in this novel felt fleshed out, too! Everyone felt real like they could walk off the page and join me for a cold beer or piping hot coffee. I say that about the cast of characters all the time because it’s important and very often a place where authors fail to fully actualize their worlds. And just because James is the main character, his love interests, his friends, and other beastkin were given the gift of life through how they were portrayed by the author.
Captain James Walker: He’s a US Army Air Corps fighter pilot, but he earned the status of double ace against the German Luftwaffe while he served in Great Britain’s Royal Air Corps. When he was shot down late in 1942, he was sent back to the United States. His nation was forced to join the war effort after Japan attacked the US at Pearl Harbor. That was quickly followed by their alley, the Third Reich, declaring war on America, and it was off to the races. So, like many other American combat pilots, he was sent home. Unfortunately for him, his hero status as a double ace meant that he was considered more useful selling war bonds. He never got to fight under the American flag because, during one of his aerial demonstrations in his North American P-51 Mustang, he got sucked through some sort of rift into Dione. There he has to pick a side in the Great War raging there and put his skills to good use. And those skills exceed the purely martial; we learn that he is a skilled minder or mind reader. Well, among other similarly situated skills. But no spoilers. Read the book for yourself! Trust me, you’ll thank me later!
Major Courtney “Court” Welch: He is a wolfkin member of the Crestian Imperial Air Forces and a fighter pilot. He’s the son of a Grand Duke and lives a rich and lavish lifestyle. He goes by Court to his friends and has a harem of four for his wives. When James enters the picture, he’s about to be shot down by fighter pilots from the Thurnmar Republic, but James comes to the rescue and takes down the two pilots attacking him. In return for that debt, Court helps him adapt to a new world full of beastkin of every kind.
Agent Madeline Reynolds: She is a minder and an agent for the Crestian Empire’s Ministry of State Secrets. Like Court, she’s a foxkin, but she has minder powers like James does. She is the daughter of nobility as well, though an illegitimate child of the peerage of Crestia. She quickly falls in love with James, and we get to experience a whirlwind romance as she teaches him to use his minder powers. Like all of the love interests in this genre, she’s extremely beautiful and has white hair to match the color of her ears and tail. She’s in her mid-twenties, like James, and is significantly shorter than him. She barely reaches his chin, but she makes up for it with a pair of perky breasts on her lithe body. What could I add besides that she was hot?
Flight Captain Hope Barnett: She is a fighter pilot for the Thurnmar Republic who James shoots down during the opening engagement. She is a wolfkin who didn’t join the canid nation, staying to serve the nation where she’d grown up. When the Crestian Empire attacked Tretshire and killed her parents in the raid, she joined up. She became a skilled pilot and a triple ace, having taken down more than 15 enemy planes in aerial combat. She’s a feisty personality who loves deeply and is extremely loyal. She has the stereotypical dog traits, loving the head pats and being told she’s a good girl. Like all of the harem books, the women are gorgeous, and she was no exception. She has grey furry ears, a matching tail, and silver hair that curls just right to frame her face. She has average-sized breasts, a bubble butt, and a lithe body. What can I say? The author has a type. Or is it just that you have to be at peak fitness for military service? Whatever, she’s sexy and a lot of fun! Now, quick, give her a Scooby Snack, and maybe she’ll do a trick for you!
Lieutenant Colonel Addison Harris: She is a fighter pilot for the Thurnmar Republic and a triple ace as well. She was a famous actress who joined her nation and served with honor for her nation. She is a lionkin, who was Hope Barnett’s role model and the reason she went into the Thurnmar Air Corps. She’s a blonde, with ears and tails to match, but more of a curvaceous figure than Hope or Madeline. She leads a fighter wing on the Astral Communion, a carrier under the command of her brother, a naval officer. She leads the Black Lions, a fighter squadron made up of mostly women, the long period of war creating a male to female imbalance.
Plot and Pacing
First, I’ll be blunt: this book was paced so well that I lost track of time and was shocked when the audiobook ended 11 hours after I started it. I listened to this in two settings because I couldn’t put it down. I was hooked from word one and loved every second of it! Moving on, this story was extremely well written, with a clear and concise plot that made sense to me. The adventure felt like there was a grand plan for the shenanigans. I don’t know if the author plots or makes it up as he goes, but it felt like he had a roadmap for this novel. Even cooler, there was just the right amount of action split up with thematic lulls where we could catch our breath and refuel our fighter planes. We get to see James’ dog fight with his enemies and then relax as he bonds with his squadron. Then the good captain gets to biblically experience his love interests, and then we’re back to the action sequences. Plus, there was political intrigue and action outside of the cockpit. It kept me hooked from start to finish, and I listened to this audiobook in two sittings. Sleep? Who needs it? Not me!
Audiobook Quality
I listened to the audiobook version of this novel, and it was perfectly done. I shouldn’t be surprised; it was put together by Royal Guard Publishing, and they’re constantly raising the bar on audiobook production. I truly loved hearing these two narrators read the story to me. The accents were odd but built an otherworldly vibe and didn’t grate on my ears. I quickly got used to it and even learned to appreciate it because it built the lore of the world in my mind. The performance of Evan Reed and Amber Hartt was amazeballs. Seriously. They did a phenomenal job, and it was a joy to listen to!
Sizzle Factor
There are several romantic interludes in this book, and James has the time of his life! You will, too, when you listen to it or read the printed word. The author, Isaac Lee, wrote these scenes in plain language without losing the O-Face Factor! The moments in this book weren’t pure sex either; there was romance and intimacy. The love and lust were mixed with genuine feelings that came from the heart. I really felt this was a romance novel that happened to have schmexy time.
This wasn’t a novel where there was constant sexual tension. This was a military portal fantasy, and the ongoing Great War was integral to the plot and pacing. The sex was a bonus, a gloriously hot bonus. The icing on the cake of cool WWII planes doing manly and cool things in the air. Never mind, I take it back… there was sexual tension. The aerial combat was a stand-in for sex, or so my pilot friends tell me.
Honestly, the sex didn’t feel like it was an afterthought. It wasn’t added to fit into the genre tropes. No, the romance and sex were lynchpins that held the plot together. The romance and intimacy were baked into the very worldbuilding. Seriously, we had a few casual blowies, some ‘wham, bam, thank you ma’am’ scenes, and even a tryst between James and his plethora of ladies. I’d write more, but I want to let you experience it for the first time for yourself.
Overall
First, I’ll throw this out there… this is the first beastkin story that I’ve read. I wasn’t sure I would be a fan, but after this, I’m here for it! I’m in it to win it, you might say! I loved how Isaac Lee kept the characters ‘human’ side while they had an animal form. They had ears and tails that could shapeshift on a full moon, but they were still human except for some traits from their animal side that made them a fun concept without being overdone.
Now, let’s address the elephant in the room… this is a military story, so the action scenes matter. The military culture felt real and lived in, sticking with what you’d expect from someone who’d been there and done that. Even cooler, the dog fights and aerial combat in this novel were well written. I could envision everything in them and was convinced that Isaac Lee had some throttle time, or at a minimum, time as an aircraft mechanic. Wrong, he is just a solid writer who did a crap ton of research. I am usually not incorrect; this was one time I did, to Isaac’s credit.
Moving on, this story is set in the 1940s, and James exists under the shadow of that moment in time. That dynamic, pastiche, was an ambitious setting, but Isaac Lee pulled it off. We got to experience this story through the eyes of the main character, Captain Walker, and it was fun. He’s a World War 2 fighter pilot, a double ace, and cocky as the day is long. Seriously, it was fun… probably too much to be legal in my home state! But you’ll dig the shit on a shingle that Isaac Lee is serving!
I really enjoyed that we got a main character who was a fish out of water. As James learned about the world of Dione, we did too. This gives him a fallible opinion, which can be fun to experience. I normally prefer stories in third person omniscient, but this is how first-person stories should be written. We saw the world through his eyes, which was a lot of fun. He viewed the world with the sensibilities of someone who was part of the Greatest Generation, and it kept things fun for the reader. But don’t worry, you don’t have to be a history nerd to enjoy this story!
Another aspect to consider would be the culture and temperament of the nation states involved in this story. I won’t give any spoilers, but the Crestian Empire was a rare gem of creation. It felt like the German culture around WW1, except they didn’t have a Kaiser, as far as I could tell. The canid nation-state had the tech of WW2, with some new cool stuff from the magical rare earth mineral that gave them awe-inspiring flight capacities. From the grey uniforms to the names of various things, this felt like a real nation. This is the first polity that we got to experience. I can’t give you spoilers about the big reveal, but this was masterfully done.
The next political entity we learned about was the Thurnmar Republic. They’re at war with Crestia because of an event reminiscent of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Except instead of dying, this republic was angered at the marriage of the Crestian Grand Duke because it expanded their territory. These kinds of land expansion disputes happen, and in this instance, it felt like a perfect merger of the WW1 and WW2 motifs in a fun way. All of this made sense to me, fitting my understanding of geopolitics and my general historical nerdiness.
Now that we’ve covered the world, we have to talk about the characters. I don’t know how much I should say, but the big reveal with the wolf girl (Madeline) at the beginning shocked the hell out of me. Just when I got the vibes that the empire was like that, BOOM, it happened. It was caught off guard, and I loved it. I read so much that I’m rarely shocked, and this one got me. Hats off, Isaac Lee!
And because we’re on the subject of the characters we get to meet, I really liked the two pilots, Hope and Addison. They were a lot of fun and extremely likable. I normally hate the enemies to lover’s trope, but in this case, it was expertly executed, and I was there for it! I also loved the rest of the men and women who made up the fighter squadron that James ended up flying with. Their teamwork and comradery felt real and genuine in a way that makes sense for people with whom you’re trusting your very life.
Next, we should talk about the prose in this story. The author knows how to string words together and make them sing. The wording was a perfect balance between flowery and purple prose with just enough workman-like storytelling to keep you on your toes. The author didn’t whip out a thesaurus; it just felt like he merely has a good vocabulary and it showed in this book. This was made perfectly clear in how the sex scenes were written. It was written in simple terms, allowing you to just luxuriate in the moment. However, during the worldbuilding scenes, you see some flowery descriptions of the setting. A good balance. I loved it. Finally, on the writing side I also thought the author paced the story to perfection. It kept the story moving along without losing you in the minutia, exactly how it should be done!
Anyway, I’ve taken up enough of your time! So, let me wrap this up by saying that I really loved this novel. The story was so much fun to listen to that the time flew by. I listened to it during my daily walk, and I was shocked when the story was over. On the fortuitous side, this novel added 1,000 steps that day. Happier and healthier is the way to go, ensuring that I live to listen to Wings & Tails Book 1,000!! If you can’t tell, I’ve been jonesing for book two! I know that it’s currently up for pre-order, but I want the audiobook! I want this next book so badly that I’ll have to decide if I wait for the audiobook or break out my Kindle and read it that way. I will be following the story because I’m seriously hooked. But don’t take my word for it; you should read it too! Do it, or the space Nazis win!
As we close, I’d like to request that if you loved this book too, go over to Amazon and leave a review. This is a small thing, but it really does help the authors find visibility. Since I’m hooked on this genre, I want the creators I’m growing to love to be able to give us more of this literary crack that’s piped straight into my earholes!
And if you liked Isaac’s book, you can sneak a peek early by joining his Patreon.