If you've just started Devney Perry's Shield of Sparrows, or you're trying to keep everyone straight mid-read, this guide has you covered.
Rites of the Starling, the second book in Devney Perry's Shield of Sparrows trilogy, releases Tuesday, April 7, 2026 If you are looking for a full recap spoilers included check out our Shield of Sparrows Recap.
We've organized every major character, their role in the story, and what makes them worth paying attention to, all without spoilers. We've also included a full guide to the monsters of Turah if you want to know what's out there before you encounter it on the page.
New to the series? Start with our Shield of Sparrows spoiler free summary and world guide before diving in. And if you're building your romantasy reading list while you wait for ACOTAR 6, we have recommendations for that too.
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Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry Book Cover
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The Main Players
Shield of Sparrows centers on four characters whose fates are tangled together by ancient treaties, secret identities, and a kingdom on the edge of crisis. Understanding who they are and what they want from each other is the engine of the entire story.
Odessa Cross
The less-favored daughter of the King of Quentis, Odessa has spent her life in the shadow of duty, never meant to rule, never trained to fight. When she's unexpectedly chosen as the bride prize in an ancient treaty, everything changes.
Thrust into the politics of a foreign kingdom and a life of espionage she never asked for, Odessa's arc is fundamentally about figuring out who she is when the life she was handed is stripped away. She's an easy character to root for precisely because she starts from zero.
Prince Zavier of Turah
Zavier shocks everyone, including Odessa, by invoking an ancient rite to claim her rather than her trained-for-diplomacy sister. His kingdom is suffering under a mysterious illness and increasing monster attacks, and his motivations run deeper than they first appear. He is not a straightforward love interest, which is a good thing.
The Guardian / Ransom Wolfe
Zavier's brooding and fiercely loyal protector, Ransom, has a mysterious past and a complicated connection to Odessa's family, and he is tasked with guiding and training her in her new role. He is as much a threat to her heart as the monsters stalking their path and if you've read Devney Perry before, you know exactly what that means for pacing. (If you haven't: expect a slow burn that takes its time and earns every moment).
Ransom is the character most readers find themselves thinking about when they put the book down.
Mae Cross
Odessa's younger half-sister, Mae, was groomed to be The Sparrow and trained in espionage from childhood. She was meant to be Zavier's bride. Her talents and secrets run deeper than Odessa ever knew, and her loyalties may not be what they seem. Mae is one of those characters who rewards close attention from her first appearance.
Odessa's Inner Circle
Every fish-out-of-water story lives or dies on the people surrounding the heroine, and Perry builds Odessa's support system with real care. These are the characters keeping Odessa grounded and occasionally complicating everything.
Brielle
Odessa's handmaid and trusted confidante. Grounded, practical, and deeply loyal, Brielle acts as Odessa's emotional anchor when everything else is falling apart. In a book full of people with hidden agendas, Brielle is a steadying presence.
Josalyn
Odessa's other handmaid, who accompanies her on her journey. Not everything about Josalyn is what it seems. Pay attention.
Tilia
A loyal Turan warrior who serves as Odessa's primary combat trainer and a key source of information about Turan customs and the monsters threatening the kingdom. She is married to Halston.
Tilia is the kind of side character you wish had more page time.
The Turan World
Turah is not a simple place to land, and Perry populates it with characters who have their own histories, loyalties, and agendas long before Odessa arrives. These are the people who shape what Odessa's new life actually looks like.
Evangeline (Evie) Banner
Zavier's adopted daughter, with ties to the Turan royal family's deepest secrets. Wise beyond her years and fiercely observant, Evie brings both heart and mystery to Odessa's new world. She is a small character with an outsized presence.
King Ramsey
King of Turah. A book-burning tyrant consumed by grief, jealousy, and paranoia. He is not a nuanced villain. He is the kind of character who makes you understand why everyone around him is operating in survival mode.
The Voster High Priest
A powerful and ominous figure who serves the gods and holds the keys to the blood magic and ancient treaties that shape the fate of kingdoms. His presence in any scene signals danger, secrets, and divine manipulation. Keep your eye on him.
The Complications
Not everyone in Shield of Sparrows is an enemy, and not everyone is an ally. This section is for the characters whose presence makes things harder the ones with competing claims, grievances, and their own definitions of loyalty.
Banner
Odessa's former fiancé and a general of Quentis, driven by loyalty, pride, and a thirst for revenge against the Guardian for his brother's death. He is not a villain exactly, but he is a problem.
King of Quentis
Odessa's father, who orders her to spy on her new husband and the kingdom of Turah. His priorities make his relationship with Odessa exactly as complicated as you'd expect.
Margot
Queen of Quentis and Odessa's stepmother, who had been a ladies' maid to Odessa's late mother. She is the mother of Mae and determined to see her status cemented through Mae.
The Support Network
Two of the most quietly important characters in Shield of Sparrows operate at the edges of the main action but their knowledge, their secrets, and their constraints shape what Odessa is able to learn and when. Don't underestimate either of them.
Luella
Ransom's mother. A fiercely intelligent alchemist whose love for her family drives every decision she makes. Guided by a mix of brilliance and desperation, she's a complex figure whose past choices cast long shadows over the present.
Cathlin
Luella's best friend and a confidante for Odessa. Bound by a blood oath, she cannot directly reveal the truth, but she strategically helps Odessa uncover it herself. Cathlin is one of the most interesting narrative devices in the book, wearing the costume of a minor character while doing significant work.
The Monsters of Shield of Sparrows
The monsters in Shield of Sparrows aren't in the background. They're a central problem, and Perry has built a genuinely original group of creatures. The monsters of Turah feel distinct from the standard fantasy fare: specific in their physical details, genuinely threatening, and in the case of the Crux, intelligent enough to make every encounter feel high stakes. Understanding what's out there, and why everyone fears the migration season in particular, adds real weight to the stakes before you encounter these creatures on the page.
Devney Perry shared artwork by Whiskey Ginger Design depicting several of them, and it's worth knowing what you're looking at.
What is the crux in Shield of Sparrows?
The crux are the central monster of the Shield of Sparrows series and the reason everything in Calandra is falling apart. They're intelligent, winged predators with sharp beaks, clawed limbs, and spiked wings. Unlike the other monsters haunting the five kingdoms, the crux aren't mindless beasts. They hunt in coordination. They remember. They plan.
What makes the crux particularly terrifying is that they're part of a larger pattern. A green-blood infection is spreading through Calandra's monsters, and the crux carry it. When they kill, the bodies of their victims sometimes change. When Ransom killed a crux in the final attack on Ellder, the body he retrieved from his sword wasn't a monster at all, it had shifted into a woman with Odessa's exact red hair.
What the crux actually are, what they transform from or into, and why they're drawn to Odessa specifically are all questions Shield of Sparrows sets up without answering. Rites of the Starling is where we find out.
What is the crux migration?
The crux migration is the event the entire first book has been building toward — and the one the kingdoms have been dreading for generations. Every so often, the crux travel across Calandra in a catastrophic sweep that reshapes kingdoms, kills thousands, and leaves whole regions uninhabitable.
The migration has a predictable timing. Cities prepare for months. Supplies are stockpiled, walls are reinforced, people who can afford to leave do. It's survivable, but barely, and only with preparation.
In Shield of Sparrows, the migration arrives months early. Nobody is prepared. Ellder is caught mid-celebration, mid-negotiation, mid-everything. The walls aren't ready. The supplies aren't stocked. King Ramsy's army shows up on the same day the first crux appears over the city. Chaos and devastation follow immediately.
Why the migration came early is another question the book doesn't answer. The working theory within the book is that something is accelerating the crux, possibly the green-blood infection, possibly something tied to Odessa herself, possibly something the vosters know and aren't saying. Rites of the Starling picks up in the middle of a migration that should still be months away.
The monsters of Calandra explained
The crux aren't the only threat in Calandra. Shield of Sparrows introduces a full bestiary of creatures that have been corrupted by the green-blood infection, and each one has its own territory and its own way of killing.
Bearwolves. Sometimes spelled bariwolves. Pony-sized predators with scaled, spiked backs and coarse fur the color of cinnamon. They communicate through a distinctive clicking sound, which is often the last thing their victims hear. Bearwolves are the monsters that attack the jungle city where Odessa is held, and they're where she first realizes she can actually fight — she kills several of them while protecting children hiding in the wreckage.
Marroweels. Aquatic monsters with four eyes, turquoise-tipped scales, iridescent fins, and a large bone protruding from the head. They're the ones that attacked the ship during the crossing from Quentis to Turah. Odessa went overboard during that attack and nearly drowned.
Tarkin. Armored beasts with violet eyes, pearly white fangs, pink and red striping, and dense armored scales along the back. Extremely difficult to kill with conventional weapons, the armor turns most blades.
Grizzur. Long-snouted predators with large spikes along the back and cinnamon-colored fur. Often confused with bearwolves at a distance but significantly more dangerous in close combat.
Lionwick. Leathery-skinned hunters with black barbed claws. Fast, quiet, and hard to see coming.
All of these monsters now carry green blood when cut. The mark of the infection Luella created in her alchemy experiments. The green blood matters because it's how Ransom and Odessa learned the infection was spreading. It's also how they're identifying which monsters have been corrupted and which, if any, are still natural.
Why are the monsters attacking Odessa?
This is the question that reshapes everything in the second half of Shield of Sparrows. The attacks on every city Odessa visits aren't random. Every time she arrives somewhere new, the monsters come. Every time she leaves, the attacks stop.
Ransom and Odessa piece this together late in the book, and Odessa carries the guilt of every death she believes she caused. Something inside her is drawing the monsters to her specifically. A voster priest who touched her arm felt it too. His magic hurt her in a way magic isn't supposed to hurt anyone, and before he could ask the real question, he asked a smaller one: who was her mother?
Odessa doesn't know. Her mother died when she was too young to remember her. Her stepmother Margo has spent her entire life hiding Odessa's red hair, dressing her in gray, keeping her small. Odessa doesn't even know what her mother looked like.
In Rites of the Starling, the crux migration is still following Odessa. She's separated from Ransom, hunted across the realm, and being kept alive, for now, by whatever is inside her. Whatever drew the monsters in book 1 is still drawing them. And the voster's question is still unanswered.
Books Like Shield of Sparrows
If Shield of Sparrows has you deep in a romantasy spiral and you're not ready to surface, we have a full list of recommendations coming soon. In the meantime, start with our books to read while you wait for ACOTAR 6. There's significant overlap.
Frequently asked questions
What is the crux in Shield of Sparrows? The crux are intelligent, winged predators with sharp beaks, clawed limbs, and spiked wings. They're the central monster of the Shield of Sparrows series. Unlike other monsters in Calandra, they hunt in coordination and carry the green-blood infection that's destroying the kingdoms.
What is the crux migration? The crux migration is a catastrophic, realm-wide event where crux travel across Calandra in a coordinated sweep that devastates kingdoms. Migrations are supposed to be predictable, and kingdoms prepare for months in advance. In Shield of Sparrows, the migration arrives months early with no warning which is exactly where Rites of the Starling picks up.
What are the monsters in Shield of Sparrows? The main monsters in Shield of Sparrows are the crux (intelligent winged predators), bearwolves (spiked, pony-sized pack hunters), marroweels (four-eyed aquatic monsters), tarkin (armored violet-eyed beasts), grizzur (spiked long-snouted predators), and lionwick (leathery barb-clawed hunters). All of them carry the green-blood infection Luella created.
Why are the monsters attacking Odessa? Late in Shield of Sparrows, Odessa and Ransom realize the monster attacks are following her specifically, every city she visits gets hit, and the attacks stop when she leaves. Something inside her is drawing them. A voster priest who touched her arm felt it too and asked who her mother was, a question Odessa can't answer. Her true parentage is one of the central mysteries heading into Rites of the Starling.
Who is Ransom in Shield of Sparrows? Ransom is the real crown prince of Turah and Odessa's actual husband, not Zavier. For 10 years he ran a ruse with his cousin Zavier, who plays the prince in public while Ransom poses as the Guardian who travels with him. Ransom was bitten by a monster four years ago and became superhuman. The reveal that Ransom, not Zavier, is Odessa's husband is the biggest twist of book 1.
Is Evangeline Ransom's daughter? No. Everyone in Calandra believes Evangeline is Ransom's daughter, but she's actually his half-sister, Luella's child from an affair after years of a loveless marriage to the king. Ransom protects Evangeline by letting the lie stand.
When does Rites of the Starling come out? Tuesday, April 7, 2026. Hardcover, ebook, and audiobook are all available at launch. Barnes & Noble has a Deluxe Limited Edition while supplies last.
Is Shield of Sparrows a series? Yes. Shield of Sparrows is the first book in a new series by Devney Perry. If you've read her Calamity Montana or Treasure State Wildcats series, this is Perry in full romantasy mode. Same emotional precision, completely different world. You can grab it on Bookshop.org, Libro.fm, or Amazon.
Is Shield of Sparrows spicy? Devney Perry writes romance with real heat, and Shield of Sparrows follows that pattern. Expect slow-burn tension that earns its payoff. If you've read ACOTAR, the heat level is in a similar range. It's not fade-to-black, but the buildup is where Perry does her best work.
Who is the love interest in Shield of Sparrows? The central dynamic is between Odessa and Ransom Wolfe, the Guardian. If you love a brooding protector with a complicated past, Ransom was built for you.
Is Shield of Sparrows good for ACOTAR fans? Yes. The combination of political intrigue, a fish-out-of-water heroine finding her power, morally complicated men, and genuinely original world-building puts it squarely in the same reading space as ACOTAR. It's on our list of books to read while you wait for ACOTAR 6.
Where can I get Shield of Sparrows? You can order Shield of Sparrows from Bookshop.org to support independent bookstores, listen on Libro.fm if you prefer audiobooks, or find it on Amazon.
What should I read after Shield of Sparrows? If you loved the brooding protector and political intrigue, start with From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout or The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent. If the fae court dynamics were your thing, The Cruel Prince by Holly Black is essential.
Which character were you most suspicious of and which one surprised you? Drop it in the comments. And if you want new releases, reading guides, and recommendations like this in your inbox every week, subscribe to The Weekly Bookmark!
