My copy for Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry finally arrived and I couldn’t be happier! After finishing two ARC books (those reviews are on my website also!) I could finally dive in to this book which is the second book in the Shield of Sparrow series and we already know when we can expect the third book; March of 2027!

At the end of book one a whole lot happened; a Crux scout attacked a small town and killed many people. A couple of those were friends and family of Odessa. Luella who was Ransoms mom and the teacher of Evie but also Zavier whom everyone believes is Evie’s father. When fleeing the town, not knowing if Ransom survived, she is intercepted by a Voster called Brother Dime who has been waiting in the Dungeons with her horse Freya.

Odessa and Ransom always told each other that when they get separated during some attack, they would meet up in Quentis and Odessa should keep Evie save. So, on an adventure they go or so she thought. It felt more and more like some kind of imprisonment since brother Dime never left her alone and always kept holding the reigns of Freya so she couldn’t escape. Brother Dime had other plans but since every Voster has been bound by some magical oath, they can’t say much. Somewhere along the way another brother joins the journey. Long days on a horse wearing a carrier in which a tarkin sits and holding on to a young child who is grieving isn’t for the weary.

When brother Dime goes back to the high priest the other brother takes over the journey, they aren’t heading to Quentis where Odessa is from but are going to Ozark, why? She doesn’t know. Something about retrieving something only she can do? With monsters roaming the lands and Lyssa having spread through the continent nobody is save on this quest. Meeting new friends along the way that give them food and shelter in between the horrible hours riding the horse. Once Ozark is done, the priest left Odessa and Evie to their own devices, only telling them how to get back to Quentis.

Having learned the old language and having been handed a journal with stories or rather visions from someone because the stories she has read are stories she’ll see played out in front of her on her journey. A man wearing a monster’s pelt so the monster won’t attack helping her through a monster invested bog and after that she meets missionary’s, people who you can hire to take you someplace save with only one woman with white hair, just like the stories. Hiring them to have a save passage to Quentis. Once arriving in Roslo, the place where she has been born and raised, where the castle stands and her family resides – she isn’t welcomed with open arms. There have been attempts on her live by the castle’s guards and her father, once a warm man, does everything to not have to be in her presence. What is going on in this godforsaken castle she thinks?

We’re also following Caspia in this story, a woman from Nelfinex from the Starling bloodline. A woman with red curls and golden eyes. Waiting for the calling of some type of rite. After a starling has been called for her rite, they get to shapeshift. Finally feeling some kind of thrum Caspia decides to explore. Hiring a boat with crew and captain to take her to where she thinks she needs to go. Once onboard and well on their way, they find a stowaway, her cousin Xandra.

After many moons, a dwindling food supply and no land in sight the captain wants to return but Caspia begs for just one more moon and with that, finally finding land. It doesn’t take long for Caspia and Xandra both to get sick and within a couple of days Xandra shifts but she doesn’t shift like they do in Nelfinex because there you can shift back and if you shift, you still have your own conscience. Xandra turns in to a murder machine, having no feelings for Caspia and trying to kill her. Caspia has no options left, the only thing left is jumping of a cliff.

Caspia wakes up in a bed, but it doesn’t feel like her bed back in Nelfinex. Everything comes crashing back and she remembers losing Xandra and diving of a cliff. She’s in some kind of cabin and not long after being awake a man comes in. A bond grows between her and Andreas and within a couple of days they are inseparable and within a couple of weeks they decide they don’t want to live without one another.

A whole lot happens but that is for you to read about.

This book was an absolute ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐star read – Loved being back with Odessa and learning about her past and future.