Sequels carry a particular kind of pressure. Shield of Sparrows introduced readers to Odessa, a princess thrust into a political marriage in a monster-ravaged land, and the warrior who turned out to be her greatest threat and her greatest love. It earned a devoted following and landed Devney Perry on the New York Times bestseller list. Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry picks up in the immediate, breathless aftermath of that story’s devastating finale, then does something bolder than simply continuing where things left off: it breaks the map entirely open.
The result is a book that is more ambitious and, occasionally, more unwieldy than its predecessor. And still, it is very hard to put down.
A World That Refused to Stay Small
New Continent, New Bloodline, New Questions
The decision to introduce a second POV character, Caspia, signals from the opening pages that Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry has different intentions than a standard follow-up. Caspia is a princess from Nelfinex, a country on a second continent called Kenn, separated from Calandra by a vast, unmapped ocean. Where Odessa is fierce and impulsive, Caspia is careful and haunted by prophetic visions that no one around her will believe. Where the world of Calandra is built on a pantheon of Six gods, the Starling of Nelfinex answer to a divine force entirely their own. These are not cosmetic differences; they fracture every assumption readers carried from Shield of Sparrows.
The Starling are shapeshifters who undergo a rite of passage called the ritus, and their presence reframes what this series can become. Perry builds this second world with the same tactile care she gave to the five kingdoms of Calandra. The mews full of massive, horned swift birds. The copper-and-orange elfalter metal worn as status bands. The sacred weight of keeping a vow, enforced not by law but by bloodline and honor. It takes real confidence to pull a reader sideways into a new mythology mid-series, and for the most part, Perry earns it.
Odessa’s Long Walk Across Calandra
Separated, Hunted, and Still Running
The bulk of the story follows Odessa as she crosses from Turah through Ozarth and Laine toward Quentis, without Ransom, without her allies, and without a clear understanding of what she is walking into. She is not alone: there is a small girl named Evie, a tarkin named Faze, and a Voster priest with long, dark nails and motives he refuses to share. Their pairing is one of the novel’s genuine pleasures.
Evie absorbs loss faster than any child should, and watching Odessa become her protector through sheer force of will, rather than power or training, is where this story finds its emotional center. Perry writes Odessa’s interiority at a sprint. Sentences come short, punchy, and honest about fear. Whether she is hiding from bariwolves in a dead forest or biting her tongue to avoid cursing out a Voster priest, Odessa feels like a person rather than a plot device. Her drive to reach Ransom, keep Evie safe, and remain standing in a world determined to knock her down carries the book through its slower passages.
The Voster priests add genuine mystery. Their magic is quietly terrifying, their motivations multilayered, and their relationship with prophecy raises questions the book does not yet fully answer. Depending on your patience, that is either exciting or frustrating.
A Vision, a Ritus, and a Silver-Eyed Warrior
Caspia’s chapters open on a different continent entirely, and in the early sections the tonal shift can be jarring. Her story involves palace politics, shifter lineage, a forbidden ocean voyage with a pirate crew, and a cousin who is braver and funnier than either of them realizes. It reads almost like a companion novel for the first hundred pages.
As the story progresses and the threads between her world and Odessa’s begin to pull taut, the investment pays off. By the time Caspia sets foot in Calandra, the reader understands exactly why she matters and where the larger story is heading. Her romance with Andreas, a man she meets under circumstances best left for reading rather than summarizing, is warm and grounded. It is slower and quieter than Odessa and Ransom’s fire-and-blade dynamic, which makes it a welcome counterweight.
Where the Book Earns Its Critique
Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry asks a great deal of its readers, and not all of it is repaid at equal speed. At roughly six hundred pages, there are stretches where momentum stalls, particularly during the extended travel sequences. Odessa crosses so much terrain through so many kingdoms, forests, and deserts that the sense of urgency which made Shield of Sparrows such a propulsive read does, at points, dissipate.
The main romance also suffers from its own premise. Ransom and Odessa are separated for the majority of the book. Their chapters together are some of the most charged writing in the novel, but there are not nearly enough of them. Readers who fell for their dynamic the first time around will feel the absence keenly. Additionally, the sheer volume of new characters, including mercenaries, priests, pirates, and a child from an entirely different civilization, means some figures never have room to fully form.
And the ending does what second books in ongoing series tend to do. Readers who dislike open conclusions should adjust their expectations before sitting down with this one.
What Perry Does Exceptionally Well
Her action sequences read with physical clarity throughout. Bariwolf attacks, cliff jumps, and horseback escapes feel grounded rather than broadly cinematic. The emotional beats, particularly any scene involving Evie, land without being overworked. And the monsters of Calandra remain genuinely frightening. The bariwolves in a cursed, ash-black forest are among the most unsettling set pieces in either book.
For readers discovering Devney Perry through the Shield of Sparrows series, her contemporary romance catalog offers a window into the character depth she brings to every project. The Edens Series, beginning with Indigo Ridge, and her Clifton Forge books starting with Steel King both demonstrate the tension and emotional precision that have always been her strengths. Romantasy may be a newer genre for her, but it shows no sign of being a temporary detour.
If You Reach the Last Page and Need More
Books for the Space Between Installments
If Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry has left you restless and reaching for something with the same appetite for dangerous worlds and slow-burning romance, these may help:
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: expansive world, fierce heroine, political intrigue woven through dark romance
- Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: high-stakes military fantasy with gripping romance and a war college setting
- Gothikana by RuNyx: atmospheric fantasy romance layered with gothic dread and mystery
- The Bridge Kingdom series by Danielle L. Jensen: political marriages, embedded spies, and trust treated as a weapon
- Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco: lush historical fantasy with morally complex characters and mounting unease
Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry is a second book that takes real creative risks. Some of them pay off brilliantly. Others ask for patience the reader has to consciously choose to give. But the world Perry is constructing here is large and strange and full of things that have not yet been explained. That, more than anything, is reason enough to keep reading.