Book Review: Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry

Title: Shield of Sparrows
Author: Devney Perry
Publisher: Red Tower Books
Publication date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9781649378514

Synopsis:
The gods sent monsters to the five kingdoms to remind mortals they must kneel. I’ve spent my life kneeling—to their will and to my father’s. As a princess, my only duty is to wear the crown and obey the king. I was never meant to rule. Never meant to fight. And I was never supposed to be the daughter who sealed an ancient treaty with her own blood.

But that changed the fateful day I stepped into my father’s throne room. The day a legendary monster hunter sailed to our shores. The day a prince ruined my life. Now I’m crossing treacherous lands beside a warrior who despises me as much as I despise him—bound to a future I didn’t choose and a husband I barely know.

But what if I refused the role chosen for me? What if I made my own rules? What if there’s power in being underestimated? And what if—for the first time—I reached for it?

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This is the book that is the Sarah J. Maas and Rebecca Yarros hangover cure! Except now I have a new book hangover and there’s no telling how long we’ll have to wait for book two! Oh, to discover an amazing brand new series, she laments.

Shield of Sparrows is everything you could ask for in a romantasy book. not since Throne of Glass have I read anything with so many complicated threads weaving together to form something new and exciting. Perry has created an incredible world: expansive, magical, terrifying, violent. Nothing is off limits in these kingdoms. Nothing is as it seems and as truths begin to unravel, more questions rise up and more doors open to new and even more complex paths ahead. I can only imagine where Perry is going to take us poor readers next! We’re entirely at her mercy.

The Guardian is a very mysterious character who carries a cloud of intrigue until nearly the very end of the book. If anyone can rival Penn Cole for their slow burn, it’s Devney Perry. While my suspicions for the bargainer did come to fruition, I didn’t have a real theory about him until more than halfway through the book. The author maintains the secrecy around him, not only for the characters in the book, but for the readers as well. Not only is there intrigue around him, it follows the secondary characters and the kingdom of Turah as well.

Odessa is an incredible FMC. What I loved about her (so far) is that she is utterly and entirely ordinary, but there are hints that there is so much more to her than we readers can even guess at. She has no measurable skills in weaponry and fighting, she has no discernible magic, she’s not particularly skilled in spycraft or deception. She’s caught up in her own losses, at least in the beginning. But a slow and steady transformation happens for Odessa throughout the book as we get to know her stubbornness and her fire, her rage and her determination. She has spent her life under the control of the men around her, but I expect we’re going to see her rebellion grow in the books to come. Odessa is a survivor and a fighter and I can’t wait to see more of her.

Shield of Sparrows is one of the first books in a long while that lives up to the hype. I’ve been seeing it everywhere and it’s no wonder. This book is fabulous and unique, and as a romantasy lover, it’s the PERFECT book to sink into this summer.

Happy reading!