Intro
Ok, I haven’t written a book review in a while. I haven’t written a native book review in a while, so bear with me while I try to find my footing again. This is a review of Rites of the Starling, the audiobook version.
The Gist
This book review is on “Rites of the Starling” by Devney Perry, and this is the second book in the “Shield of Sparrows” series. I didn’t bother to write a review on the first book, well, because I was planning on it and then I forgot. I work fulltime with the public, sometimes I forget that during the work week I have zero energy left once I have crawled back home, when I make these plans after a good night’s sleep.
Generally speaking, whatever issues I had with the first book, I had with this book, only exponentially bigger. And with so many more eye rolls. Also, I chose to listen to the audiobook version of this, which added to the frustration. But let me explain.
The Details
I have been sitting on this review for about two months. At first, right after finishing the book, I seriously considered having three shots of liquor and making a rant book review video. I was so fed up with this story, especially because there was so much potential, and the first book ended on such a good cliffhanger. I was genuinely excited for this one.
But here I am, once again getting sucked into romantasy stories and then complaining about the very elements of this genre that defines them. But honestly, once a story becomes more of a how-to manual for having sex, I think I’m allowed to voice my opinion.
Before I continue about the manual-like nature of the “love scenes”, let me rant a bit about the structure of this book.
What the hell? It’s chapter 2 and all of a sudden we have a completely different character, who we have never seen before, takeover. I think her name is Caspia…? I actually checked to see if I accidentally switched audiobooks. That was badly done. And I hate when people say “oh just go with it, it all makes sense at the end”. I don’t care about the end, if I have to suffer through 17 hours and 22 minutes of being hella confused just to get that “ah, ok I get it” moment in the last 5 minutes of the book. What kind of lazy writing is this?
I feel like the author didn’t have material to continue the story of Odessa and Ransom and had to make up an entire new character to fill the pages. Because, guess what? This new character took up more than half the book.
Not only that, but now we get sex scenes with this new character, who I don’t care about. At all! What was the purpose of this?
And when we do have some chapters with Odessa, it’s only to read about her all-night romps with Ransom in detail. I don’t know, but I need a good 7 hours, most nights 8 hours of sleep to function. Here I am doing the math: Odessa and Ransom doing it “all night long”. But then she is described as waking up in the morning, so let’s factor in ca 1 of sleep. And then she spends all day being awake, and functioning. The math isn’t mathing on this.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate a well written spicy scene. It can go a long way and bring depth to the story, but once it happens every time the two main characters are together, it starts to feel forced and boring.
The World-building and Narration
The world building is absolute crap. With this Caspia character now in the mix, there is this entire other realm that only gets mentioned through her. And it’s tedious. It is a lot of telling and very little showing. It’s annoying and doesn’t do anything to keep my attention.
The new narrator didn’t help either. Her voice is monotone and has zero personality. I’m not sure if that was intentional, it definitely didn’t help. And if I have to hear the phrase “by the grace of the divine” another time, I will scream.
The Verdict
Overall, I know that this genre likes to toe the line between romance/fantasy and erotica, so I shouldn’t be surprised when I read multiple spicy scenes. But please for the love of a good story, give me some substance with it.
I have to confess that I was so fed up with the whole Caspia part of the story that I skipped her chapters. I still didn’t seem to have missed much. I figured it all out by the end of chapter 2.
I doubt that I will get the third book in this series. Or maybe I will just to see whatever will happen with Ransom. I actually like his story arc. But I cannot with a good conscience recommend this one. But I guess one has to suffer through, if one wants to know how Odessa and Ransom will fare at the end of it all.
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
