Spoiler Review: Is Shield of Sparrows, the Latest Romantasy Sensation Sweeping Booktok and Bookstagram, right for your TBR?

Another highly anticipated Romantasy read of 2025 hit shelves a couple weeks ago, and I finally had a chance to read it. Should you? It depends. Shield of Sparrows by Devney Perry is her first foray into fantasy, and at times, it shows with the uneven pacing and inconsistent worldbuilding. But I absolutely loved the premise: an unexpected arranged marriage, and the coolest monsters set in a multiple kingdom fantasy world. If you liked C.L. Wilson’s The Winter King, it has very similar plot vibes. I do believe if you’re normally a contemporary romance reader, and you’re thinking of dipping your toes into fantasy, this might be a great place to start. It follows the same beats as a Romance, which isn’t surprising since that’s Perry’s backlist. As someone who doesn’t typically reach for contemporary romance, I really enjoyed her Indigo Ridge, a Montana small town romance, so I was excited to give Shield of Sparrows a shot. I knew going into this, since she’s a contemporary writer, there was a possibility of modern language sneaking its way into the story, and unfortunately, there were many instances. It’s a huge pet peeve of mine when reading fantasy, as it pulls me right out of the story. But I realize this is definitely a style preference and some readers aren’t bothered by it. While the creatures are incredibly cool, the actual worldbuilding was somewhat lacking. You do a bit of traveling, but most of the descriptions aren’t super in depth, or inconsistent, and the only way we learn things is by Odessa, the FMC, asking lots and lots and lots of questions. This gets a bit old and definitely affects the pacing of the novel as a whole. The action sequences were fantastic though, and the very end of this book saved it for me. I absolutely loved the last 15% or so, after a certain reveal happened, and I’m definitely excited for book two now. I imagine this will be on many of Booktok and Bookstagram’s Romantasy favorites lists, and as a first time fantasy writer, this series has a lot of potential. We’ll see where it goes in book two!

P.S. This absolutely gorgeous first edition printing includes these sprayed edges:

Things to Know:

• Book one in an unfinished series

• Adult Romantasy with spice

• TW: death on page, gore, child death

• Arranged Marriage

• Bodyguard

• Magical Monsters

• Secret identities

• Cliffhanger ending

***SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT—YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!***

If questions as worldbuilding don’t bother you (or you loved Poppy constantly asking questions in From Blood and Ash, you will love Odessa). I would consider her a soft FMC, but she doesn’t roll over either. She’s not a warrior though, and honestly, that was a little refreshing compared to the blueprint of many FMCs in Romantasy these days. The Guardian absolutely carried this book. He had banter, was super protective, and of course, he excels at killing monsters. Odessa a bumbling, clumsy mess, and I did find her to be a bit annoying at times.

Odessa’s family is pretty rotten IMO. There’s a treaty requiring a princess of her Kingdom be married to a prince of a rival Kingdom, and her stepsister’s been trained since birth for it. But the prince decides he wants Odessa and three hours later she finds herself married and doesn’t even get to say goodbye to her little brother?! Oh and her father wants her to be an expert spy with zero training. It was a little fast.

Then we spend a lot of the book traveling, fighting an infected monster, traveling, fighting an infected monster, traveling, some training, fighting an infected monster, more training…not a whole lot of substance happened in the middle of this book, which really hindered the pacing. There were also a lot of details that were brought up and never mentioned again…like the necklace…is that going to come back into play? What happened to the second guy who was infected? She was only attacked by one, and the second guy is never mentioned again. I also felt like some of the ‘villains’ died wayyyy too fast for my taste. Where was the showdown between Odessa and that snake of a maid?! The Crux (aka Dragon) gets the pleasure?! Also, we still don’t really understand why the King is burning books. It’s alluded to, but then they confirm they’re not sure that’s the reason. Also a big deal is made of the fact that Turan women don’t wear dresses, and yet, Luella is mentioned wearing a dress multiple times and lifting her skirts to run.

The Voster are also a bit of a conundrum. I don’t mind having to wait for more reveals in book two, but it would have been nice to have a little more context and background on them as a whole. Similarly with the random gods being name dropped, but never explained. The world needed to be fleshed out a bit more because some of it felt very random.

Most of the ‘twists’ were painfully obvious if you’re paying attention, but I will say, the very last page had me gasping. I did not see that coming!

Things I loved:

• The magical monsters were super cool.

• The one-horse trope is a fan favorite, and of course, I loved it.

• Appreciated that it was a mostly slow burn romance

• Loved that Odessa was somewhat of a soft FMC, which isn’t the norm these days, and while she does learn to use a blade, it didn’t come super naturally to her like so many other books. This was refreshing.

• Faze is the absolute cutest and must be protected at all costs.

• The ending! Made me so excited for book two.

Things I didn’t love:

• The modernisms that snuck in (it’s a personal pet peeve of mine when this happens—it pulls me right out of the story).

• How long it took to FINALLY reveal Ransom. I mean…we all knew who he was from the wedding, right?

• Odessa, girl, why are you CONSTANTLY tripping on literally everything? It was a little much. No one is that clumsy.

• I could not get through the audiobook. I think this narrator is going to be one you either love or loathe. Unfortunately it was the latter for me, as the narrator had a super irritating intonation at the end of every sentence, and I had to switch back to eyeball reading.

• A Pony Express in a fantasy book? No.

• Random gods being name dropped, but zero information actually being told about them.

• Treow for a tree city was also a little on the nose.

• Monster dung is fantasy Oxy?

Final Thoughts:

After finishing this, I can absolutely say it was worth sticking it out to the end, as I really enjoyed the last portion of the book, but it definitely fell short for me in terms of pacing and worldbuilding. If you’re an avid epic fantasy reader, you might not enjoy this book as much as the Romance readers who aren’t used to expansive fantasy worlds and their details. This series definitely has potential though, so I’ll be looking forward to book two, and hopefully see Perry progress even more as a fantasy writer!

Fave Quote:

“Praise is for the bedroom, Cross. Not the training ring.”

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