Breakaway Books

Authored by Devney Perry; Published May 2025; Fantasy

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️

Shield of Sparrows takes the concept of slow burn to an extreme. The world the author creates, full of magic and monsters, is fascinating, but if you are not ready to wait… and wait… to see the hero and heroine get together, I do not recommend this book.

In Shield of Sparrows, princess Odessa is unexpectedly married off to the crown prince of a mysterious rival kingdom Turah in order to uphold a peace treaty that has maintained a fragile truce for centuries. Unbeknownst to Odessa, her sister, the planned princess for the marriage, had been trained to spy on their rivals, and the last minute switch with Odessa has thrown her family’s plans into disarray. As Odessa is hastily torn away from her home, her husband immediately dumps her into the lap of his kingdom’s premier warrior, the Guardian. As Odessa learns more about Turah, she discovers an illness is wreaking havoc on the kingdom’s monsters—and humans. However, Turah keeps many more secrets that Odessa must decide whether to report back to her father or keep to herself.

In many ways, this novel is excellent romantasy material. The set-up builds enjoyable tension into the core of the plot—Odessa’s role as the less beloved princess who has never been chosen in her life, her covert mission to spy on her husband, the mysteries he presents with his taciturn nature. The world that the author builds has unique elements to whet the appetite of any fantasy lover, including a dreaded “migration” of horrific beasts that haunts the kingdom once a century, with each generation living in fear of the periodic event. The precise nature of the magic of the kingdom remains elusive to me, and how it is intertwined with the disease that has infected many of Turah’s beasts and humans is fascinating to untangle. We learn about Turah right along with Odessa, and although her constant internal questions started to grate on me by the end of the novel, I understood her confusion. Enough mystery remains at the end of the novel that I want to pick up the next one to understand more.

But the romance aspect of this romantasy novel was not my favorite. It was certainly not bad—just not my favorite. Odessa seems to struggle with a bit of the “Bella Swan” syndrome: a female romantic lead who doesn’t seem to be distinguished by much of anything except a pitiable situation. She’s a blank slate, which does allow the reader to project whatever personality they like on to her, but her most distinctive characteristics are her deficiencies. No combat training, no sense of espionage. The male romantic lead is… fine. Strong and noble, I guess? I wish the couple had more strengths to compliment, and perhaps that will come with later books in the series. I just hope that the next novel will move a little more quickly.

Shield of Sparrows is an excellent choice for readers looking to feed their romantasy addictions—just don’t be too choosy about the quality of the romance.