Book Review: Shield of Sparrows

Title: Shield of Sparrows
Author: Devney Perry
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Romantasy

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What It’s About: Odessa stares out at the cliffs wondering if she should just jump and whether it would give her peace, but she thinks of her step mother and knows that she is not going to be happy when Odessa arrives late. Before she can return to the castle, a man rides up on his horse—Banner, her fiancé and the King’s General, telling her that he’s here to just take a break. She’s not really sure what to do with him as she doesn’t want to marry him, but it is her duty. Banner, on the other hand, spews his anger at the Guardian who he claims has murdered his brother. Once she assures him that she will be heading to the castle, Banner leaves, and Odessa jumps off the cliff, diving into the ocean below.

Later, she is slinking through the castle, her clothes wet, in an attempt to avoid getting into trouble with her stepmom. She goes through the gallery depicting the cruxes and the migration—an event that happens every 30 years, where the people have to hide below the ground in order to be spared from death at the clutches of these massive birdlike monsters. While in the gallery, she runs into one of the Voster—an emissary to her father, who has magic in his veins and wields it. The man creeps her out but also makes her body tingle in a painful way and he doesn’t talk to her but instead, he uses the water in the clothing to show her a crown. She leaves him as soon as possible and makes her way to her room, but before she can enter, she is accosted by her stepmother, Margot. Margot helps Odessa get ready for the meeting with Prince Zavier of Turan, one of the realms, and gets annoyed with her because now she has to re-apply the powder that hides Odessa’s red curls, and painfully brushes Odessa’s hair. Margot tells her to show up soon, before leaving.

Odessa makes her way to the throne room, slipping in a little late, which doesn’t go unnoticed by her father, the King. The Turans are announced, and walk in alongside the Voster. The king talks to them all, giving the men a box of gold coins, one that Odessa thinks would have fed many families. The Guardian responds on behalf of the Prince, and makes it clear that the money is no longer enough. After a bit of deliberating, the Guardian asks for a bride price—one that the prince can ask for because he killed seven female marroweels on the way into Quentis, and thereby triggering the Chain of Sevens. The Guardian then points to Odessa and tells them that the prince wants her as his bride. Odessa’s father, Margot, and Mae, her half-sister, are indignant, and the King pushes back against it. The Voster tell him that the Chain of Seven does exists and it must be fulfilled, so he has no choice but to back off and allow it to happen. Banner, of course, gets angry because Odessa was his connection to the royal family and blurts out that she is his fiancée. The Guardian only smirks at Odessa, pissing her off enough to want to find a way to wipe it off his face. Once the King agrees, and the Turans leave, he sends his guards away. The whole family turns on Odessa demanding to know what she did that made the Prince want her, and Mae throws a bit of a pout when Odessa tells her that there isn’t anything that she did, nor did she want this either. The King tells her that they have no choice but to now make her prepared to do Mae’s mission—something that she has been training her whole life.

Odessa spends a lot of time with her father that day going over all the information that they know. He reveals to her that even blood oaths can be destroyed—at least he thinks so, but he needs her to get to Allesaria, the hidden and secret capital city of Turan, because it holds the answer to what he is looking for. But the King doesn’t trust Odessa as he doesn’t tell her what she is looking for or what the mission was that Mae was supposed to carry out, as after all, Odessa is expected to fail. He only asks her to send back one of her two lady maids, with the information that she learns. Later, Margot is helping Odessa get dressed in clothes for he wedding, and keeps asking Brielle, one of Odessa’s lady maids, to bring a blue dress, and all Brielle is bringing to Margot is the grey dresses, because that is all that Odessa owns. All of Odessa’s items have been packed into three trunks, and her room will be now emptier. Margot leaves and Odessa takes a moment to pull out her journal and a necklace she found in the hidden compartment in her bathroom, for the hidden compartment. She doesn’t know where it came from but figured that perhaps one of her ancestors left it behind.

When it’s time, she goes to meet with her family and they go to the room, where the wedding will happen. It’s a simple ceremony—a signing of the treaty that created the Sparrows, where a female royal is forced to marry the male royal of another realm in order to keep the treaty and the magic protecting them from the monsters alive. The Voster High Priest begins the ceremony, and at some point the Guardian speaks up on Zavier’s behalf, with the Priest’s permission, to share their vows. Then they use their blood, which Zavier pulls out in a vial from his belt, and Odessa’s father uses a vial of her own blood taken earlier, to add it to the treaty and then sign it. The Turans leave Odessa and her family alone, telling them all that they will be leaving the port at dawn the next day.

Sure enough, Odessa finds herself at the docks at dawn with a soldier, and wanders around while waiting for the Turans to arrive. She overhears the townsfolk talking about the marroweels so she goes to see them and sure enough, there are seven. At some point, the Guardian appears as she looks at them, and they talk, though she is annoyed by him. Then, with her lady maids, they get on the ship and take off. Jocelyn and Brielle are both miserable as they get seasick, and so the two lady maids stay beneath the deck, while Odessa often finds herself heading out to get some fresh air away from their sickness. The Guardian continues to tease her and test her, but Zavier surprises her, talking to her finally, though he tells her that Turans only trust other Turans and that he will not be talking to her in front of her lady maids.

At some point on their voyage, they get attacked by a marowheel, and while Odessa tries to go back inside with Brielle, the Guardian tells them that it is better to stay on deck in case the ship gets crushed. So they stay, with Jocelyn coming to meet them as well, but Odessa doesn’t follow instructions to hold on as the ship gets tossed and turned. As a result of this, she gets thrown overboard and the marroweel almost eats her while the Guardian pulls her in. He uses her as bait to kill the marroweel. A few days later, Odessa comes out again and looks at the Marroweel, which is leaking green putrid blood.

They make it to Turan and the ship drops them off on a random beach, where they are loaded up and ride through the woods before stopping for a day to camp. Odessa had asked to get a sword, to which the Guardian’s response was to begin training her at the camp. It was frustrating for Odessa as she couldn’t hold onto her weapons. They continue traveling and at one camp, the Guardian ends up killing the Grizzur, a bear-like monster, which had almost attacked the camp. The plan was to take Odessa to a fort town, but they make a trip to Treow first. This is where Odessa learns that they built a city on treetops, and she continues to not only learn how to fight with the Guardian, but also with Tillia. At one point, she learns that the little girl that she took note of during one of her mornings, is actually Zavier’s daughter, and during a walk, he admits to her that he wouldn’t have told her if she hadn’t witnessed it. He also adds that they want to keep Evangeline away from court, but will not tell her why. Odessa makes friends with Cathlin, the town’s librarian, and watches in horror as the King arrives with a contingent of his soldiers demanding to see Zavier, while the Guardian left Treow in a fury.

Odessa begins to trust Brielle, telling her the truth about what her father wanted her to do, and devises a plan to go to the nearby town, which actually goes to plan in terms of her leaving, only for her to get caught by the Guardian at the Inn. She’s not sure how she knew she was there, or figures it was a trap. She does tell him in her fury that she wanted to explore and see Turan, and the Guardian tells her that all she had to do was ask. He sleeps on the floor and the next morning when she wakes up, the Guardian had left her a message on his pillow that she shouldn’t wander far. So Odessa walks around and runs into Cathlin, just as they get attacked by a pack of monstrous wolves, one which has a missing eye. The Guardian stands against them alone, and Odessa and Cathlin do make it into the inn, only for a wolf to jump through the window and then kill the innkeeper. Cathlin and Odessa escape into a room upstairs, and Odessa decides to use the crossbow she had grabbed to help the Guardian by killing some of the wolves that were attacking him. But he kills the remaining two wolves just before Odessa falls through the roof. They stay another night, and the Guardian brings her to Ellder, the fort town. There, Odessa spends some time getting close to Evangeline (’Evie’) and spending time with her, between lessons. And then training as well with the help of the Guardian. The situation with the wolves makes Odessa ask the Guardian to let her go with him to explore the cause of it.

They eventually return to Treow with Evie, and there is a Tarkin—a catlike monster—that had come into the town. All the rangers were away dealing with another one, when this one came around, and Odessa had just stared at it, but then two children had come up the ladder. Suddenly the boy slipped and Odessa made it down to pick him up and save him, but the Tarkin had focused on the two of them. She ended up protecting the boy with her body as the Tarkin attacked, only for it to be killed by the Guardian. She ends up in the infirmary as she is woozy and both of her lady’s maids check in on her along with Tillia. Eventually she goes back to her place and follows along with the Guardian, sneaking behind him. He tells her that he knows that she is there, and together they head out to find the nest that the Tarkin had left behind. There, they find most of the baby Tarkins dead, except for one, which the Guardian nicks just to make sure that there is no green blood—Lyssa. He had explained to her that it was an illness, though they have no idea how it started, and Odessa realized that he was sick with it as well, hence the enhanced abilities. He asks her to make sure to kill him once he is too far gone, and she promises him to do so, so he gives her his name—Ransom.

They spend another few days in Treow, while she nurses the baby tarkin to health. Then Ransom takes her with him to Rivalli, which he claims had a monster attack. They speak with someone at the tavern, to get a room, and then they head out to the blacksmith. He introduces her as Queen Odessa Wolfe, which garners respect and notice by the man, who tells them that the newspaper man was the one who had been the one to spot the monster. They head over to the house belonging to the newspaper man, and he tells them what happened. He also reveals to them that he is Samuel Hay, and Odessa recognizes him as the author about the book on Quentis. While Ransom goes around to talk to other people, she stays with him, talking to him about things. When Ransom returns, they head to the inn, where they sleep the night. Ransom and Odessa leave at dawn, but as they’re attempting to leave, King Ramsey arrives with his guards. He talks to them and tells the Guardian that he expects him to be in Allesaria in a month. Then they burn Samuel Hay’s home, and his son, Jonas, is begging to save his father. The Guardian goes in, gets Samuel Hay along with several books and some of his sentimental items. The King leaves them alone, and the group heads off to Ellder together.

Odessa spends time training with Ransom, and then reading the books that Cathlin has been leaving her. Then, one night, she catches her Lady’s Maid, Jocelyn, sneaking around with one of Zavier’s men and Zavier himself. She sweeps into her room, ignoring Ransom waiting for her in front of her door, as Zavier chases her to explain. The Guardian and Zavier talk, and then Ransom comes into her room with her permission, and she tells him that she felt relieved about Zavier because she doesn’t want him, and that she wants Ransom. Things quickly unravel and Odessa learns that the Guardian is actually the real Prince Zavier Ransom Wolfe. She is angry about it, and when she meets them in the training ring, the man who has been pretending to be Zavier reveals that his name is Dray. Odessa and Ransom train in the training ring, with her taking her anger out on him. But eventually, the feelings of anger dissipate as Tillia arrives with her husband and Odessa realizes that she is pregnant. Tillia explains why Ransom did what he did and then adds that they came to Ellder because they were attacked and had found two men who are ill that they needed better care for. Ransom did reveal to Odessa that Evie is actually his sister, and that their mother is alive, having been disappeared from Allesaria because Ramsey tried to kill her and Ransom is the one who stopped him from killing his mom. But Ransom doesn’t reveal anything about his mother’s whereabouts.

They are attacked by a larger pack of wolves, led by the same one-eyed wolf, and Odessa tries to save a boy from a gruesome death, only for the one-eyed wolf to attack and kill the child. They do manage to kill some of the wolves but then the rest of them run away. Then, a different morning, after Ransom had headed out with his men to investigate another attack, Odessa goes walking and gets attacked by one of the men who had been brought in from Treow. He crushes her windpipe while talking nonsense, but Odessa uses the dagger that Ransom had given her and cuts opens the man’s throat, killing him and showing his green blood. It is while she is recovering, she realizes that Luella, who is Evie’s tutor, is also both Ransom’s and Evie’s mother. The woman tells her the truth, and when Ransom comes rushing back, she leaves them be to spend two weeks together in bed, finally having sex. All of Odessa’s anger around being kept in the dark about who Ransom is, dissipate, and she also learns that there are things that Ransom cannot tell her not because he doesn’t want to but because he has taken blood oaths that prohibit him from being able to share it. Odessa puts together enough information about what Lyssa is based on the notebooks and books that Cathlin had been sharing with her, and goes to confront her with Ransom. Unfortunately, Cathlin is unable to share much because she also took a blood oath, and Luella walks in on the group with Odessa accusing her of knowing. Luella tells them all the truth—she created a potion that was intended to use monster’s powers to help its people to be stronger, faster, and more powerful. She had wanted to do something to save Ransom from the migration, and gave it to him when he got a cut to help him heal, but what really changed the potion from being medicine to being a sickness, was the bite that Ransom suffered at the hand of the wolf monster. She apologizes to her son, telling him that she will find a cure, but he needs a moment and then disappears for the rest of the day. Odessa searches for him after having a longer conversation with both Cathlin and Luella, finding him finally in their home with the Tarkin.

Ransom tells her that he will go to Allesaria, and his mom will come with him, in order to try to speak to the King and beg him to stop experimenting with the medicine on his soldiers—that is the militia that he has been building for the last few months, and using the medicine with some type of the monster to inject it into his men in order to create more guardians, but many of the men had gone missing; have died. He cannot ask the men to kill his father, because he put a blood oath to ensure that Ransom doesn’t do a coup, but he will try to kill him to the best of his ability. The day before Ransom is about to leave, King Ramsey shows up with all of his men to Ellder, and it is a strong army. The King tells them all that they had seen a crux—a scout that will be bringing the migration in a month or two, but it’s too soon for this to be happening. Odessa thought they had more time, and then she is shocked to find Banner with King Ramsey’s army. It is revealed that Banner has come for his fiancée, who is none other than Brielle, and Jocelyn, Odessa’s lady maid was also a spy that had shared information with the King of Quentis as well as the King of Turan. They bring out Luella, and the King is happy that he finally found his wife, but before he can punish her by killing her, Odessa pulls Ransom’s sword on him. He lets go of Luella and grabs Odessa, before telling Ransom that his wife is bothersome, and shoving her towards Brother Dime, the Voster priest that Odessa had met in Quentis and who has shown up several times since. Brother Dime had shown up with the High Priest as well and asked her about who her mother is, but Odessa never got to answer nor ask more about why they were asking since they were interrupted. She did, however, share her feelings about the Voster with Ransom, telling him that their magic is extremely painful for her. So when Brother Dime touches her and she starts screaming, Ransom tries to intervene, only for screams to come from elsewhere in the encampment.

The Crux had arrived, and started tearing down homes, buildings, tearing people apart. In the chaos, Ransom tells Odessa to get his sister and get out, and as she rushes around to get back to Evie, Odessa watches the fight between Ransom and the Crux. She then watches in horror as the Crux cleaves Luella, who had been helping an injured man, in half. Odessa makes it to the house, finds Evie with Tarkin, packs them up and even picks up some of the books that she knows Luella had hidden in a secret compartment that were also a secret stairs into a dungeon to hide during the migration. As she leaves the house with Evie, Banner shows up and in fury, fights with her. He wants to get the Guardian, who he now has learnt is the King’s son, back for killing his brother a few years ago. Odessa is unsure whether Banner was aware of what his brother was doing—stealing girls to work as slaves—but she doesn’t let him hurt her, and using her training with Ransom from over the months and weeks, she ends up actually burying a sword in Banner’s gut. But not before Banner threw daggers at Dray, embedding them in his gut. Evie cries, and Dray tells Odessa to get her out, so Odessa apologizes to him but then whistles out loud that help is needed, and heads out with Evie. They make their way through the chaos of the town towards the dungeon, and Odessa also sees that Jocelyn gets killed, while Brielle allows herself to be killed by the Crux. She meets with Ransom, who helps her get to the dungeon, telling her to take his horse and go to Treow, that is where they will meet after this is all over. But once she gets to the dungeon, she finds Brother Dime with her horse, Freya, and he tells her to come with him, leading her and Evie out of the dungeons for good.

The day after the attack, Ransom surveys the bloodbath, and finds Cathlin looking over his mother’s body, which is now in a grave. His father and his father’s men had disappeared that morning after the attack, which is just as well. A lot of lives have been lost, but Drey had been saved by a healer the night prior because she heard a whistle calling for help, and Tillia is demanding that someone look after her husband, Halston, who had lost part of his leg. He decides that it is time to stop hiding and let Dray have his life after so many years of him pretending to be the prince. He tells Cathlin that he’s going to find his wife, when she asks him where he is going.

My Thoughts: I had a feeling from the beginning that the Guardian was the prince, so I was waiting for that reveal to happen in the book. So it wasn’t a surprised when it finally did. I do have to say that it’s a pretty mediocre book—not an amazing 5 star read, but I would put it between a 2.5 and a 3 star read in my book. It was a bit slow, as Odessa seems to always be speaking in a million questions type of monologue, which can get annoying, but also shows her very inquisitive mindset. It does feel as if the first book was meant to set up the world, so it was a bit slow for that reason, but also I wished that there was a bit more tension between Odessa and Ransom, that there were those little vicious spats between them or a bit more back and forth between them before the full truth of who Ransom really is was revealed to her. Still, I enjoyed the story and I am looking forward to the release of the second book, the Rites of the Starling, to see how Odessa’s and Ransom’s story continues; how, they find their way back to one another.

If you’re interested in reading this book, you can get a copy here.