Book Review: Rites of the Starling

One of my top reads last year was Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry so I was very excited for the sequel, Rites of the Starling. I just finished the book yesterday and loved it.

The book picks up shortly after the end of Shield of Sparrows. After the Crux attack, Ransom is trying to find and reunite with Odessa and little Evie. But, when Odessa and Evie were escaping they were intercepted by the Vosters and taken on a different journey that they told her was crucial to her destiny.

Odessa, Evie, and their pet monster, Faze, have no choice but to follow the Vosters (sort of like magic priests). As they travel, Odessa reads from a journal and storybook that Ransom’s mother gave her. But what’s most interesting is the stories she reads from the book come to life as they travel, like seeing a man with scars just like in the book or a man who wears an alligask skin coat like in the stories. Odessa doesn’t know what the Vosters need her to do, but she wants to get it done and make her way back to her father’s kingdom before the migration begins and their lives would be more at risk from the Crux and beasts than they already are. Meanwhile, Ransom is trying to reunite with his wife and family.

The story has alternating POV chapters between Odessa and a woman named Caspia, who came from another continent searching for her sister who disappeared. Odessa is also trying to complete her people’s rites to become a Starling. Starlings can shift into other beasts and where she is from there are beasts similar to the ones in Calandra but there they are friendly and any Starling can tame and calm them. But when Caspia arrives in Calandra the beasts are nothing like what she is used to – there is something wrong with them. We read as Caspia meets Andreas and the two’s relationship deepens as she tries to figure out why she was drawn to Calandra and make sense of the visions she has.

All these stories come together to give readers the ultimate backstory and information for the history of these lands and the crux and monsters. The book started off a little slow for me at first, but once I came to terms with the fact that the main focus of this novel is not the romance between Ransom and Odessa, but is primarily to give readers the history behind what is going on, then I gained a new level of appreciation for the novel and I loved it. It’s going a lot of “a-ha!” moments! We still get Odessa and Ransom – would I have liked more? Of course! But I loved what the novel really was too and the love story between Caspia and Andreas was everything!

I did tear up towards the end, but can’t say why without spoiling. I can’t wait for the third and final book to come out next year. I need it to have a happy ending!

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