Shield of Sparrows

Shield of Sparrows (2025) is a new adult romantasy that draws inspiration from epic fantasies and fantasy romances such as The Witcher, Fourth Wing, To Kill a Shadow, and The Bridge Kingdom. The novel follows Princess Odessa of Quentis, who marries the prince of Turan to satisfy a peace agreement between the kingdoms that is called The Shield of Sparrows. While Odessa develops a romance with the infamous Guardian warrior—who eventually reveals himself to be the true prince—she remains conflicted about whether to fulfill the mission her father tasked her with completing: finding the Turan capital and learning how to infiltrate the city. The novel explores themes of The Human Roots of Monstrosity, The Importance of Freedom to Personal Growth, and Belonging as a Choice.

This guide refers to the Kindle edition published by Red Tower Books, an imprint of Entangled Publishing in 2025.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of illness, death, child death, animal death, death by suicide, emotional abuse, sexual content, and cursing.

Plot Summary

Odessa is the eldest princess of Quentis, yet it is her younger sister, Mae, whom the family has tasked with fulfilling the Shield of Sparrows, a peace agreement that stipulates that members of the five kingdoms of Calandra (the fantasy realm where the novel takes place) marry into each other’s families every few generations. However, when Prince Zavier Wolf of Turan arrives early with the powerful Guardian warrior to speak on his behalf—Prince Zavier doesn’t speak in public—he requests Odessa as his bride. Unable to refuse, Odessa’s father allows the marriage to happen. Though Zavier signs the marriage agreement, the novel later reveals that it is secretly the Guardian who speaks the vows aloud, marrying Odessa to the Guardian without her knowledge.

Before Odessa leaves for Turan, her father reveals that she must complete the mission Mae was trained to do: find the Turan capital of Allesaria and send word on how to infiltrate the city. He claims that Allesaria holds the key to defeating the crux—deadly, bird-like monsters whose migrations every few decades threaten the survival of the kingdoms.

Odessa travels to Turan, where she visits towns such as Treow and Ellder. However, no one will speak of Allesaria, and the towns are constantly endangered by monsters that bleed green. She becomes close with Zavier’s daughter, Evie, and the Guardian himself, whom she soon learns is infected with Lyssa, the same infection affecting the green-blooded monsters. This infection gives him inhuman abilities such as unparalleled healing, agility, and strength. Odessa also discovers that the Guardian is Ransom Zavier Wolfe, the real crown prince of Turan and the man to whom she is truly married. The man she knew as Zavier is his cousin and political body double, and Evie is his sister.

Meanwhile, King Ramsey of Turan travels across the kingdom, preparing for the next crux migration and searching for his lost wife, Luella. Unbeknownst to him, Luella relocated to Treow with her daughter, Evie, after King Ramsey tried to kill her years prior. Luella accompanies Odessa, Ransom, and their retinue when they relocate to Ellder, and Odessa soon suspects that Luella knows more about the Lyssa virus than she lets on. In response, Luella admits that she and her alchemists in Allesaria were working on elixirs to strengthen humans to withstand the crux. The elixirs worked, but when a monster bit Ransom, it activated the elixir in a heightened way and turned into a rabid disease that the monster then spread to others.

King Ramsey suspects a connection between his lost wife’s elixir and Ransom’s condition and has been attempting to replicate it to produce the same results in his own militia. However, he does not know about the role the bite played, so his efforts come to nothing. Odessa assumes that this information is the weapon her father sought against the crux, but she no longer plans to betray Ransom or Turan for her father. In particular, she fears that if Lyssa were to accidentally spread to the crux during the next migration, it would make them even more impossible to survive.

When one of Odessa’s lady’s maids, Jocelyn, betrays Luella’s location, King Ramsey arrives at Ellder’s gates with an army of soldiers. He simultaneously warns the town to evacuate to Allesaria because he’s received word that the crux migration is coming much earlier than expected. He confronts Luella for the first time in years, but the arrival of a crux that begins slaughtering everyone interrupts them. Ransom manages to buy time for Odessa and Evie to escape with the help of a magical Voster (an order of priests) named Brother Dime, who seems to have mysterious knowledge about Odessa’s deceased mother. Meanwhile, back in town, Ransom slaughters the crux, whose body transforms into a young woman with curly hair the same shade of red as Odessa’s.