Rites of the Starling (Shield of Sparrows #2)

A thousand times a day.

Available at Amazon.com

Rites of the Starling
Devney Perry
Shield of Sparrows, book two
Hardcover, 500 pages
Published April 7, 2026
ISBN 9781682816752


Calandra’s five kingdoms are on the verge of destruction. The crux migration is coming. And in the wake of a devastating attack, I’ve been separated from the man who owns my heart.

I’m lost. Terrified. Homesick. Hunted by monsters, driven to exhaustion, and kidnapped by a powerful priest, the only thing keeping me going is the little girl counting on me to keep her safe. It’s my turn to become the Guardian.

Our lives change one fateful night. A night of death. A night of monsters. A night of truths. That night, I learn the real meaning of fear—and the depth of my own strength.

Everyone wants me to be something I’m not—a queen, a spy, a sacrifice. But what if I embrace my crown? What if the secrets I uncover save our realm?

What if my sacrifice means salvation for the man I love?

For too long, I’ve feared the monsters we make.

It’s time to discover the monster within.

The long-awaited sequel to my first five-star read of 2025.

And yet...

If 'This could have been an email' was a book.



Caspia. A Starling. A new character with visions of her sister's murder by a silver-eyed male.

Murdered by the Guardian.

By Ransom. Who is currently searching for his wife.

Odessa, the Sparrow.

I could see it barely thirty pages in... I was going to need a chart.

At thirty percent in, I was bored. I was so, so bored.

Then, finally, at forty-five percent... the return of Ransom!

Thank the stars, the Eight, the Divine, the Shades even. Because I despised Andreas. He is so dull. So nice and so dull. One of those characters that will do anything you ask and believe anything you say. I think he'll wind up being my most loathed character of 2026.

::Spoilers imminent::

I was so rage-inducing bored with that side story. And even when things started to click about how they fit into the plot, what with Caspia having visions and likely being in the past and therefore would potentially be Odessa's mother... leaving Andreas to potentially be her father...

I had been curious why we never learned the Golden King's name while reading the first book.

Then he had disdain for the golden castle which was a feeling Odessa attributed to her father.

And he lit up when he saw Odessa's red hair only to immediately shut down...

Yeah, thankful when the signs clicked into place because I needed *something* to make them tolerable.

I loved Ransom. May he never be left out of the story for so long ever again.

But in the end, I would attest that this is a highly skippable sequel. Very little progress is made. While the first book revealed the origins of Lyssa, this.. urgh... this revealed the origins of the monsters that may not even be monsters if not for magic. Corrupted magic? Basically, power dependent religious fanatics are to blame. And there's a long forgotten land that holds Odessa's ancestors.

Again, all of it could have been an email. A few chapters stretched and stretched and stretched again to fill a five hundred page sequel.

Oof.

3 out of 5 stars.

Available in ebook | hardcover | audiobook

Previously in the series:

2026/16

Veil of Web and Ruin

Gods be kind to me.

Available from the Author

Veil of Web and Ruin
Aria Ashbrook
The Hirathean Path, prequel
ebook, 99 pages
Published January 1, 2025
Free Read


Before Rose enters the tournament that will change her fate, she’s fighting a different kind of battle – one she can’t afford to lose.

Cast into the slums after Prince Kyor’s lie shattered her family, Rose is barely surviving. With her parents gone and her younger sister facing a future as bleak as the frostbitten alleyways around them, Rose will do anything to protect what little she has left.

So when a ruthless underworld queen offers Kay a respectable job in exchange for a single favour, Rose takes the deal. The task? Steal a deadly plant from the Goddess’s own temple garden – a theft punishable by death.

The heist forces her into the heart of Wrohelm’s sacred rings, where priestesses tread softly, wolves sniff out lies, and the Goddess of Life watches from every shadow.

And when the night twists into bloodshed, Rose discovers that even the smallest choice can stain her hands forever.

𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒈𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝒏𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒂 𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝑹𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒗𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍 – 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒏 𝒔𝒉𝒆’𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑻𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒊𝒇𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒇𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅𝒔, 𝒍𝒐𝒚𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒖𝒓𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆.

This novella is available only to those subscribers on Aria’s email newsletter!

This prequel was done right! It has everything one might expect to get a fine taste of the series. The protagonist. The villains. The despair. The bloodshed. The grit. The spice. The world as a whole is introduced in these mere ninety-nine pages, and it absolutely will have you greedy for more.

What it doesn't have is the MMC.

What it has too much of? Ruben.

4 out of 5 stars.

Available in ebook

Also in the series:

2026/15

The Bridge Kingdom

The truth is…
the truth is that I am the villain.

Available at Amazon.com

The Bridge Kingdom
Danielle L. Jensen
The Bridge Kingdom, book one
ebook, 354 pages
Published August 1, 2024
Paperback, 448 pages
ISBN 9780593975183


The iconic Bridge Kingdom series begins: a sweeping, sizzling fantasy romance filled with political intrigue and passionate love, from the New York Times bestselling author of A Fate Inked in Blood.

A warrior princess trained in isolation, Lara is driven by two certainties. The first is that King Aren of the Bridge Kingdom is her enemy. And the second is that she'll be the one to bring him to his knees.

The only route through a storm-ravaged world, the Bridge Kingdom enriches itself and deprives its rivals, including Lara's homeland. So when she's sent as a bride under the guise of peace, Lara is prepared to do whatever it takes to fracture its impenetrable defenses. And the defenses of its king.

Yet as she infiltrates her new home and gains a deeper understanding of the war to possess the bridge, Lara begins to question whether she's the hero or the villain. And as her feelings for Aren transform from frosty hostility to fierce passion, Lara must choose which kingdom she'll save... and which kingdom she'll destroy.

Daughters of the king of Maridrina.

A dozen half sisters. Including Lara.

One chosen to wed the prince of Ithicana and become its queen.

They’ve spent the entirety of their twenty years of life kept in solitude in a desert palace, training in strategy and combat. Molded to be their father’s spy and blade.

The day has come and the girls have gathered together one final time to what would become of the rest of them once their chosen Twitter becomes queen. What other alliances would they marry for. What advisers would their father gift them to as wives.

But Lara is different from her sisters. She is cunning and calculating.

She knows her father has no ambitions for any of them other than the crown. And she knows he favors Marylyn.

So here I am, reading the words, forming the pictures, and anticipating dear pink-hating Lara is going to run. She’s going to flee and find herself an adventure.

No.

Not quite.

Lara just poisoned them all. My jaw fell… just has one of their heads dropped into her bowl of soup.

And yes, I did applaud.

4 out of 5 stars.

Available in ebook | hardcover | paperback | audiobook

Also in the series:

2026/14

The First Scar (Heirs of the Shattered Veil #1)

I don't fear the end of the world...
I fear the end of you.

Available from the Author

The First Scar
Celeanne Dorrington
Heirs of the Shattered Veil, book one
ebook, 411 pages
Published April 28, 2026
ISBN 9798995161622
ARC


The day the Veil shattered, the world broke—and every soul was marked. Every fae now bears a soulmark. Luminar or Shadowmarked. Revered or enslaved.

But our fae heroine was born with both.

And he was forged to destroy her.

Some say their bond is prophecy.

Others call it a curse.

Either way—if it completes, it could end the war…

or end the realm.

Real enemies-to-lovers, slow burn, fated mates, morally gray, shadow daddy, the chosen one, found family, unhinged banter, stabby fmc, Creature companion, kid Touch starved, and level 3 spice but with deep themes and epic fantasy world.

Note: The First Scar contains no spice. It lays the foundation, emphasizing the slow in Slow Burn. Then snuffs out the candle.

I matched my steps to hers, falling into her rhythm like a shadow stitching itself to her heels. Every splash she made, I made. Every pause, I paused. She was listening for me—that animal awareness prickling across the dark between us—but all she heard was herself.

The echo of a girl who believed she was alone.

A world shaped by tyranny and a dual-marked fae at the core of an everchanging prophecy. Magic abundant and rage throughout.

Although most of that rage was admittedly my own.

Because what do you mean Kaelen goes unchecked for Ch17?

How is Maxx still breathing without the aid of machinery after the stunt he pulled in Ch23?

And Brannik? That man was everywhere I wanted someone else to be. Just seeing his name on the page was sending me into a spiral.

Give me more Dreadscale.

Give me more Crownforged.

Yes, more of Eryndor, an MMC that will hunt, taunt, and confidantly adore his target. Their trajectories intersect and in a matter of heartbeats, Amaria had slipped beneath his armour, between and beyond the layers of buried truths, and saw not the man, but the boy that they had broken. Chapter six was where the spark of anticipation was lit for me and I lived through each page awaiting his glorious return.

Give me less of Kaelen.

And far, far less of Brannik.

This book was running havoc on my feelings up until the very end but the justification to be had after struggling with seemingly undue aggression for so long made it so very worth it.

4 out of 5 stars.

Available in ebook directly from the author.

Also in the series:

2026/13