Book: Shield
of Sparrows
Author:
Devney Perry
Pages: 511
Date(s)
Read: December 7th, 2025 to January 25th, 2026
Date
Published: May 6th, 2025
Rating: 3/5
Genre: Fantasy, Romantasy
Characters: 3/5
Writing style: 4/5
Story: 3/5
Ending: 2/5
Cover: 2/5
Format: Hard Cover
Date Bought: November 20th, 2025
Book Cost: $23.04
Review:
Shield of
Sparrows is a good book, but it's no 5-star read. Far from it, but still, I
will be reading the next book. It is a fast-paced romantasy that, while not
particularly memorable, will scratch that romantasy itch.
In this
kind of convoluted story we see Odessa forced to marry a prince, Zavier,
instead of her sister Mae, the initial intended bride. It's got a lot of
interesting court intrigue, but you are left with far more questions than
answers by the end of this very long book. Another frustrating thing in this
book is the sheer amount of unanswered questions our heroine has that people
just flat out blow off. It's at times stressful and kind of hinders the story.
Odessa is
timid and artistic, which is a nice change of pace, but over like two months
she changes into badass swordswoman extraordinaire, so in the end she's just
like every other romantasy heroine. The male love interest is fine. Brooding?
Check. Man of few words? Check. Guy whose nice to only her? Check. You're not
going to find anything other than basic character archetypes. Don't look for
personality nuance because it's not here.
The story
itself isn't particularly easy to follow or interesting. There's a lot going
on, but you aren't told most of it until the absolute last few chapters. And
then you're still plagued with more questions. You want to know the answers but
enough to buy it the second it comes out at full price.
As I said,
it's not a bad book, but nothing stands out except the lack of depth. There's
much better choices out there than this book, but if you've exhausted all your
resources, this one won't be bad...just not great. It's decent.
