The Airship Racing Chronicles Books in Order

The Airship Racing Chronicles sits on the more steampunk adventure side of Melanie Karsak's work. The series begins with Lily Stargazer, a gifted airship pilot whose life is far messier than her flying. She is talented, impulsive, bruised by her past, and trying to stay one step ahead of self-destruction. That combination gives the books their energy from page one.

The hook is not just the airships, though those matter. Racing gives the series its speed, glamour, and danger. Lily moves through a world of crowded skies, volatile machines, eccentric inventors, and risky public spectacle. It is a setting that feels mechanical and romantic at the same time, the sort of place where victory can arrive with applause one minute and catastrophe the next.

But these are not sports novels in costume. Once Lily gets pulled into the larger mystery at the heart of Chasing the Star Garden, the story opens into something stranger. Secret packages, shadowy motives, old myths, and powerful people keep pushing her far beyond the racecourse. Venice, London, and other corners of Europe become part of the adventure, and the series starts to feel bigger than one woman trying to win a trophy.

Lily is what keeps it grounded. She is not a polished heroine. She is messy, wounded, stubborn, and often running on nerve alone. That makes her easy to root for. Her relationships matter too, especially the ones that force her to choose between escape and honesty. Romance is part of the series, but it never replaces the adventure. It rides beside it.

If you like steampunk with motion in it, this series delivers that well. There is airship action, mystery, travel, and a heroine who keeps getting shoved into situations that are larger than she expected. The books carry some darkness, especially around addiction and old trauma, but they are still built to move. Think high-flying fantasy with grit on its boots and a strong taste for danger.