We Are Not Okay: Our Rites of the Starling Review

Book Besties, we are still processing this one. Host R.J. (Rosemary Jean-Louis) and returning Book Club Bestie guest reviewer Paige Green conduct a spoiler filled, “therapy session” to unpack the gut wrenching “Rites of the Starling", the sequel to “Shield of Sparrows”.

Connect with Paige on IG: @popthebutterfly

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Key Takeaways:

• The sequel expands the lore, fantasy and romance of book one
• Dual narrative and (spoiler alert!) timelines reveal Odessa’s family tragedy
• New characters Caspia and Andreas' heart wrenching story breaks us
• Voster priests are bad guys who created a false religious system
• Cliffhanger ending parallels how Odessa’s mom died.

Shout out to Stephanie Nemeth Parker the voice artist behind Odessa for the Graphic Audio dramatized books. Part 1 drops July 7th, and Part 2 comes
out August 25th.

IRL News and Events not to miss:

May 30, 2026 at 1 pm-1:30 pm ET: Join the in real life Must Luv Romantasy book club virtual club meeting | Topic: What’s on your TBR? RSVP by joining. 

June 27, 2026 at 1pm-2:30 pm: Join the Must Luv Romantasy book club in person at Souper Jenny  real life book club meeting at Souper Jenny North Decatur Rd. Decatur, GA to discuss “King’s Guard” by Victoria Aveyard.  RSVP by joining.

June Book Recommendation: “Our Vicious Oaths” by N.E. Davenport. Book Cub Bestie reviewer Asiah Muhammad returns to review. 

Listen to Asiah’s past reviews:

• Brimstone Review: What a Hot Mess! 
• Quicksilver Review: A Brutally Honest Take

Follow us on IG: @mustluvromantasy

Transcript

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Welcome to Must Love Romantasy, your recs and reviews podcast where love, magic, mayhem, and hot takes collide. I'm your host, Rosemary Jean-Louis, but call me RJ. A sci-fi fantasy lover who love romantasy so much, I started two book clubs. Join in monthly for what romantasy books and content to obsess over or not. And interviews too. So grab your sword or your coffee and let's fall in love. One epic story at a time. Hi, Bookbesties. How you doing? No, how are you really doing? Still processing Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry, the sequel of Shield of Sparrows, right? I know I am. So let's do it together. Rites of the Starling is our recommended read for this month of May, and we're reviewing it in this episode. Warning. There will be lots of spoilers. So if you haven't finished the book, hit pause, read the whole thing and come back to process with us. If you don't mind spoilers and enjoy a good conversation to help you decide to read it, that's okay too. Listen on for our review segment next. Back for the review is book club bestie and member of the in real life Must Luv Romantasy book club Paige Green. Yay. Paige, thank you for coming back. Thanks for having me back, I'm excited to be here to discuss Rites of the Starling. Excellent. So in addition to being a book club member, remind listeners of your other identity and how they can find you. I'm Paige. I am a bookish influencer better known as pop the butterfly on almost every platform. ~ Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are my most frequent ones. I review books for trad publishers and indie authors. I post book reviews and bookish content and I also live in Atlanta with my husband and two dogs. There you go. You have the full shmiel of pages and how to find her. So make sure to connect with her. And if you are in the Atlanta or Decatur area, you're looking for a book club at the end of the podcast, I'll be giving you information on how you can join the in real life. Must Luv Romantasy to see book clubbing. You can meet me and you can meet Paige. Thank you for sharing all that. As always, I like to find out how you consume the book. I did Kindle Unlimited with Audiobooksync, which is a new thing for me. And I would let the voices read the book to me and follow along with a new experience. It was interesting that at the beginning, Samantha Brentmore, who narrated Odessa, pronounced the Turin capital differently. So in Shield of Sparrows, there was a different pronunciation. in... This book, she pronounced it as Alice Sah-ree-ah, which was weird because in the other book, Shield of Sparrows, she pronounced it as Alice Sorryah. So that's of course how I have been pronouncing it. And I think I ran into another person who made that same comment. It was kind of funny. So I remember at book club, cause we did this for our book club meeting back in April,~ Rites of the Starling You brought the hard cover to a club right so that that was your jam right Yes, I bought the hardback at Little Shop the day it released ~ and that's how I consumed the book. Excellent. And when she says little shop, she's meaning little shock of stories, which is a local indie bookshop in our area, the Decatur area specifically. How long did it take you to fish when you do a hard back like that? It took me eight hours and 30 minutes. About five of those hours were from my reread of it because midway through I restarted the book. Wow. Okay. Okay. But you are fast. I commend you on that because it took me several days, you know, ~ playing it ~ during my commute. I played at lunchtime at work, then I'd sit and play read at the same time. So it took me a little bit, a little bit longer than eight hours. As I mentioned in the intro, we're processing this book. Well, at least I know I am Paige.~ We'll see if you have that same sentiment, but before we go into therapy, here's a quick and dirty plot recap with spoilers beginning now. Here's what happened in Rites of the Starling by Devney Perry. When we last left Odessa, she was fleeing the Crux carnage with Evie under the protection of Brother Dime. Except the Voster priest had his own agenda. He passes her off to Brother Skore. Who uses her to find a mysterious glass canister hidden in a cave. Meanwhile, we meet Caspia, a royal starling shapeshifter from a distant land, who wants revenge against the silver eyed man she believes killed her sister Emery, the woman the dead Crux shifted back into at the end of Shield of Sparrows. With her cousin Zandra, Caspia heads to Callandra. To do just that, where the Ritus is calling, the transformation that reveals their true shape shifting selves. But Zandra's Ritus goes horribly wrong. She turns into a crazed bariwolf almost kills Caspia. Back in Odessa's storyline, Odessa is attacked by monsters twice and saved first by a white-haired warrior woman and her mercenaries, the Mavens, and then by the Guardian. Together, Odessa, Evie, the Guardian, and the Mavens head to the capital of Quintus, where Odessa is desperate to find a cure for Lysa. Caspia, meanwhile, is nursed back to health by a guy named Andreas. They fall in love, and he agrees to help her find a way to save Zandra. So they head to the capitol too where Caspia uncovers the truth about the Vosters Their so-called holy power comes from demon touched descendants whose remains are trapped in glass canisters or orbits. Poisoning Calandra's land And just when it feels like Caspia and Odessa are about to meet, ⁓ nope, it's not meant to be.⁓ Because the story is following two timelines. The big reveal. Caspia and Andreas are Odessa's parents.⁓ Shortly after Odessa is born, Caspia turns into a Crux to kill the Voster Priests. coming to take the infant. Andreas, or King Cross, then kills her before she kills him. Book besties, we are not okay. All right. Now that we're all caught up, just want to mention that rather than deep dives, our reviews are more broad strokes, what we like, disliked, need a hug for. That said, let's get a vibe check. What did you think about this book overall, Paige? Did you like it? Did it stress you out? Were you bawling? Overall, especially on the reread, I really liked the book and I thought this was an interesting way to continue the series, but also an interesting way to bring in more lore into the series. The book did stress me out in places,~ especially with the animals.~ And I did consider quitting the book at one point after Freya's death.~ But upon my second read through, really... ~ I really liked the book and I really vibed with it, especially with Caspia. And I'm just, I'm so excited for book three.~ I loved it as well. ~ I loved that it leaned heavier on the fantasy, the world building, the character building. It introduced new characters that I enjoyed as opposed to getting confused by who the heck is this news, who's this now? And I love the great backstory of the mom, Caspia, just like you, loved her as a character. I felt it in... inserted spice where it made sense. Sometimes it did feel like, I need to add a love scene here for good measure. Cause we're going too long with fantasy. But, ~ ultimately I wasn't annoyed by that. There was that funny moment in the, kind of in the beginning of the book when Ransom and Odessa were about to try to get it on, on a ship and they got interrupted. And that was really hilarious.~ and of course the big reveal at the end.~ just broke my heart. couldn't put it down. made the mistake of listening, trying to get to the end of it before going to bed. And, ~ that's when I heard the big reveal. And then of course I couldn't sleep after that because I was shocked. was like, okay. Wow. Did not see that coming.~ overall, I think you, you alluded to this a little bit, but maybe get into a little bit more as a sequel. Did it work for you or?~ you know, it sounds like it did. Why?~ I just... I really had to sit with the book as well and I thought that was the the relevations in it were really shocking.~ But once I especially on the read through when I went back through it,~ the whole of the sequel made entire sense because there's this whole other story that you really need to know ~ to get further in to especially where book three I think is going to go.~ you need all of that background information. And I really appreciate instead of a prequel, we got a multi POV throughout this one. Yeah, that is true. Rather than get on to just drop a book two that just continues with a whole lot of adventure and stuff and then a book three and then, by the way, let's give you back in the day when ~ Caspia and Andreas were young or something like that. So yeah, I thought it was great that they did that as well, making this the second book to Give us the explanations, the backstories, the understanding of now why ~ King Andreas, who spoiler alert, we learn ~ is Odessa's father as a young guy. And of course, Caspia is the mother ~ that we get their point of view. The other thing that was, I found very interesting was that this book really the religious beliefs that was built in the first book. Right? In the process that was, of course, was one of those things that never saw that coming. And of course it did answer the question about whether the Voster priests are bad guys or not. I think you basically, you're so discerning. You call things so well. You're like, I don't think these guys are good people.~ And you nailed it as usual. Well done, Paige. Well done. Thank you. So let's then get into the big reveal upfront.~ Caspia introduced as a new character as we have just been saying and spoiling and spoiling and I will spoil it once more that she is Odessa's mom, duh duh duh. but talking about Caspia. not only is she Odessa's mom, she is introduced as the new character that we get a new dual narration and perspective of. And of course, Andreas, as part of the plot, he's the woodsman who rescued a Caspia in the woods after a bear wolf attack. I think you, being such a shrewd person, you probably figured this out. So I'm just very curious. Did you like, by chapter? four or five, like, I know this, that's the father and the mother. actually didn't figure that out until book club meeting. I hadn't finished the book by the time we got to the book club. And so when people were like, yeah, that's her mom and that's her dad. I'm like, ~ well that makes way more sense than what I previously was thinking. I thought we were just all going to be besties meeting up in the woods somewhere, but no. Well, well, well, I am shocked because you are just like the Sherlock Holmes or Nola Holmes rather of ~ a book Discernment there page. So Wow. Okay. So Devonnie Perry had us all fooled~ I Definitely enjoyed her caspious narrative as I mentioned The entire time I thought, goodness, when are these people going to meet? Come on, meet, meet, meet. Especially when they were at the castle. like, you get a meet in the hallway or something, please. ~ Of course, the end of the book of a Shield of Sparrows. thought the Crux who was revealed as ~ a woman was, probably Odessa's mother. and then as I was reading this, I'm thinking, okay, no, actually I think Emery must be Caspia's sister. That that's probably who that is. So, ~ I'm thinking that all of them are sisters that it's Caspia is Odessa's sister. Emery's the sister and the mother just disappeared or whatever. And of course it turns out that Emery was Caspia's sister.~ Another spoiler, RIP Emery, because,~ she's gone since the last book.~ So what did you think of ~ delving into now Caspia as a character? ~ Initially at book club, you weren't feeling her, but this is, you hadn't quite finished it yet. You were like, ~ I don't know about this dual narrative thing. it sounds to be like you did warm up to her and what did you think of her visions?~ I absolutely love Caspia now. She is definitely a favorite in RIP Caspia.~ Hahaha! Alright, wait. You kind of hopeful that ~ we would get a reunion of her and Odessa in book three and that it would be this really nice scene where Odessa would finally have a biological family member that actually did love her.~ That was completely shattered.~ I really liked her vision aspect and that's one of the reasons I actually went back and restarted my read of it was because I wanted to delve deep into Caspia's B as visions. And I think I'm going to do that again,~ right before book three comes out as well and try to really try to figure out who is like, which one is this one possibly talking about and where this be and stuff like that. I thought that was an entirely unique aspect and I love how Devney Perry utilized the visions in it. You know, initially for me, the visions were giving me whiplash because it was every time you got to her chapter, it would start with a vision. And that's one of the things that also like you were like, sometimes I was stressed out. That was me too. I was getting stressed out by those visions. I was trying to understand who are they talking about, especially cause Devney Perry, man, she is just taking you down a path that is not. You know, not the true thing and she knows it.~ but she's taking you down the path thinking that. Caspia is coming, ~ to Callandra to off the guardian because she's has this vision about man with the silver, silver eyes. And then we learn of course, by the end, they're never going to meet. And she's just having this possible future vision. of her daughter and this man with the silver eyes, which we'll get to in another spoiler, moment about the other big reveal at the end.~ the other vision where,~ it was kind of a little confusing where even for her, she was saying, my visions are of things that occurred already. And then she started to think they were of the future and that if she changed her actions, that she could change the future. like specifically a good examples when she started to have that vision of Andreas marrying somebody else and seeing him playing with a blonde haired child and one of the visions she was like, oh, let's see how I can change that. you know, she's seeing that he gets killed. How can I change that? And of course, the marriage turned out to be that It was his marriage to Margo and that blonde haired child, spoiler alert, is not even his. It is the son with the general Jujujujuj Yeah, and you know, whatever his name was. Hawksley Hawksley thank you. sleep? I promise you I will get better at these characters. I've written a lot of the ones that matter to me. lot of characters introduced in this book. It's entirely okay. This is true, but, it was interesting that we learned that May and,~ Arthie all these years Odessa thinks those are her siblings and not quite. which of the timelines, because this was done in a dual narrative timeline, which is some sometimes is in a sense of trope with romantic that they do that, or they sometimes have, but it's usually. the narrative perspective of the couple, right? It's usually the female main character, the male main character going back and forth, and this time it's two female main characters. Did that work for you? also ~ in terms of narratives rather than timelines, because as we're reading, we're not even aware that they're two different Which ~ narrative were you more invested in or were you invested in them equally? So at first, the dual timeline was not working for me. I'm very picky when it comes to dual timelines and POVs. And that was part of the reason I didn't like the book at first until my reread.~ But I really liked it the second time.~ It really worked for me, especially when we got into more of the world building and lore of the world.~ I'm still way more heavily invested in Odessa's storyline. But I did really enjoy Caspias as well and trying to connect the two puzzle pieces between their stories. Interesting because I became more invested in Kaspia and Andreas's storyline. course, once they hooked up, once he saved her and they started trying to figure out how to communicate. And then they got into a vibe where they were communicating and, and, ~ understanding each other. And He made a point to say, ~ that. Yeah, I know you're going to go through that right is transformation and it transforms you into who you are meant to be. he was like, I like you as who you are now. And then I think I'll like you even more as who you're meant to me. So, Hey, I would like to tag along. was like, ~ and then they switched over to Odessa and Odessa just traveling along with the brother score, brother Dine. Then she meets the Mavens they're tight. And I'm just like, this is nice. Bring me back to Caspia Andreas, please. So, and I think to your point about, because you got a lot of explanation ~ from them about the mythology and they were the ones providing the mystery reveals, if you will. That's why I wanted to also stay in their timeline because I felt like we were getting more information and I was getting more.~ context and understanding of the fantasy world did how Caspia and Andreas and how they ended with big spoiler here that at the end we do learn that Andreas had to kill Caspia because she turned into a Crux and went nuts. But that whole rumor that they were running back in Shield of Sparrows that Odessa was mad about.~ I think it was, was it, was it Samuel Hey, who was ~ the author who was, who had the newspaper in the first book who said,~ yeah, I think that, yeah, your dad killed your mom and he put it in a book she was like, ~ no, no, no, we got to talk. Cause That is not true. I think the person's name is either Samuel Hey or or I know the last name is hay. ~ I it's Seth. Seth Hey and I think his his ancestor is Samuel Hey who was in this book who? Unfortunately, RIP. We're gonna be doing this. Yeah, RIP another person died ~ Ultimately what we're saying here is that it turned out Seth Hey his rumor that~ That Andreas killed ~ Odessa's mother turned out to be true And did knowing this make it all the more devastating and painful for you and your understanding of Odessa and how her life was so lonely after you found out that yes, this was true. I I really felt for Odessa,~ I still do not care one bit about Andreas. I am forever writing the Andreas hate train. You I'm glad that someone loved him at one point, but that someone is not me, unfortunately, and thankfully. ~ I feel for Odessa. She's essentially an orphan as her father just completely abandoned her after her mom died. And I just, like that her story just becomes so much more heartbreaking and like little lines like, ~ I, where she's looking upon Xavier and Kathleen and Evie and she's like, this is my new found family. And I'm like, that just makes it so much more heartbreaking for me. What I found ~ interesting and strange at the same time was that on the interesting level was that you learned that as this young man, he was such a compassionate, kind guy. and even when, ~ Caspia, once they, they came to the Capitol, cause her mission changed of initially,~ Caspia had that vision of this silver eyed guy. And we're led to believe through her eyes that she is coming to Callandra to off the guardian. every time you switch to a scene with the guardian, I'm like, my gosh, if they get close, she's going to knife him. ~ But then after spending some time with Andrae, her mission changes. she's like, my mission now is to try to find out what happened to her cousin Zandra. Zandra was the cousin who decided to come with her and say hey You're not gonna go kill that siverite guy by yourself in that new land. I will go with you will sneak off together When they came to Callandra ~ Zandra unfortunately went through right us and in fact they were of excited about it but they didn't realize when you go through Rit- us in Callandra you become a nut and you're you're spoiled by the magic and she became feral and almost killed her cousin. So that said, Caspia's mission then changed when she got together with kind of softened her up that no, I'm going to try to find a cure and help my cousin. And, knowing this, that this guy, you know, he, he influenced her, right? And, and then also we find out later on that he's a richie rich guy and I think I lost whatever packed passage or sentence where he mentioned that, yeah, not only am I rich, I'm kind of like the king son or something. Surprise royalty, you know? ~ and also I have a fiance. That fiance part was so dirty. He that out in the tabloids.~ My God, ~ that was That was bad. It's so dirty. But what I liked about, him as a young man and having some redeeming qualities is that he said, I'm going to find a way to get out of it. You watch and you're, waiting and watching. then he's like, done out of it. She doesn't want to marry me. She wants to be with somebody else anyway. So he had all these redeeming qualities yet. After this tragedy happened with Caspia, with him having to kill her, he just turned into such a jerk to his child. As I was processing that, was, for me, was still like a shock after like these, these can't be the same people. Did you kind of get that sense or you were just like, either way, I hate this dude. just like he had really good moments throughout the book, but I just I can't get over like how he treats Odessa.~ Even in his grief, like he just he was not an unwilling to probably to an extent ~ unwilling to get over all of this grief for the sake of his child, which is what really did it in for me.~ I have to think though thinking back on it. If maybe the orbit is maybe causing some of this influence on him. Okay. because I think that that has a key factor and what the Lissa is doing and everything. if it being closer proximity to him, that's really influencing him, but he still will not be redeemable to me. I don't know. Just. Ha ha ha ha ha. You pick a character, you hate a character, you just kind of stick with it. It becomes your personality as you read the book. Okay, we will put them up on the board under the column villain.~ boy.~ so back to our main couple though, Ransom and Odessa. What did you think of the progression of their relationship? feeling that they're getting further on solid footing. Definitely. They are such a cute couple. I love how as Odessa's character developed more and she became more sure of herself and just kind of came into herself and as future queen~ that we saw more, we saw Ransom opening up more and more throughout the book and they just, their personalities just mesh so well together. And I like that he finally revealed ~ that the Crux that was killed, there was something else that happened that she transformed into a woman and the woman looked like you, like had red hair like you. So. That also I felt was a good progression of their relationship because a lot of times in these books, there's always secret, secret, secrets. And one part of the couple will reveal one little itty bitty piece of the secret. And then maybe by book five, they reveal the full thing. And the fact that there's a secret is the conflict, the driving conflict, and that can get tired and ridiculous. agree with everything that you said about the maturation of their relationship.~ So let's move on then to the Vosters, because this is something, as I mentioned, that you called it, that the Vosters were not up to anything good in~ Shield of Sparrows. That's what you called. ~ Here we get their backstory. this is ~ the part of the world building. I think that does need a little recap that I'll just kind of mention here.~ That essentially,~ their part of the story upends the world's religious system. And in short, we learned that the Vosters were part of the land of Kenn, which is where Caspia is from, but they fled persecution from a warring nation to come to Callandra. And six starving...~ Monks bartered their bodies to demons to receive magic and become immortal. And these six became worshiped as gods in Callandra. And what happened was the Starling, Pythoness, and a Starling is the royal line that Caspia is ~ descended from. A Starling, Pythoness fought and defeated them and their remains were deposited in glass orbits and hidden. But unfortunately, the dark magic from those orbits floated into Callandra, cursing everything it touched. But on the flip side, it granted Vosters their power. Ooh, yay for them, right? ~ And of course they abused it, but they started turning the creatures or who we refer to as the monsters into terrible beings. where Casby is from,~ the monsters are in harmony with her and her people. And in fact, the swifts are what would be equal to the Crux in Callandra. The swifts are these peaceful, avian creatures as we know that the Crux are. And in fact, when Caspia and her royal line are shapeshifters and they can change into these different creatures, when they... change into a swift, it's liberating and fantastic. But unfortunately, ~ once these creatures came to Callandra, they are corrupted by the magic and the swips turned into the Crux. And during this migration, they get crazy, rabid, and start killing people. And unfortunately, any of the Starling line, when they shift into a creature, especially a swift or the Crux when they're in Callandra. Unfortunately, they become trapped in that form and they become uncontrollable and they go around killing everyone. And that's part of the whole migration that happens that they come and I think it's every generation that they come and they start wreaking havoc on everyone. And Andreas and Caspia, once they learned all this information, they start towards the end of the book, they shifted their mission to find the hidden orbits to ultimately destroy them. And Andreas believes that one of them is located in Alasaria. So good grief. page, it was like every time we turned around, there was something new that was revealed. You're like, what, what? ~ so which reveal, about the Vosters because you called, called them out. Well, was there anything about other revelations about them that took you back? Okay, I am gonna be honest. I was surprised that there were good foster I think all of the foster in in like Have some good intentions even the high priest who I think is like the most evil and in the villain ranks But I think they're all just being like influenced by this regardless I I was surprised that there was like a rebellion rank within the foster because I had I had this picture in my mind that they were all kind of part of a hive mind, because randomly throughout the book, they'll be talking and you have to ask the right questions by the way, which answers the question that many people have when they read Shield of Sparrows to begin with, is why does, ~ why does Adessa ask so many freaking questions? It's a plot point. She actually needs to ask all these questions.~ you would be talking to the foster and then all of a sudden they would just be I've got to go now and just turn around, walk out. I always had this opinion in my head that, they're just hive minded and the high priest is just controlling them all. So I now don't think that, but I still think there's something strange going on with that. in addition to them being the villains of the story, if you will, do you think that the false religion is also a villain in the story and the fact that people knowing it's false will upend the whole culture? their whole, their political system, culture, everything is built on this devotion to the six gods or the eight, if you will, and six gods and six kids of the gods and then the mother Amma and I think the other one was Oda. Yeah. I think the false religion is a villain in a sense, but it was definitely aided in ~ part by, you know, the high priest of Voster. of high ranking that wanted to seek power, they have definitely kept this false religion going. And I wouldn't be surprised if we, in book three, if we saw more ~ of the kingdom rulers in in and Callandra, Callandra. I'm not sure how it's pronounced.~ Callandra. That's cool. Okay. Because there's five kingdoms in it, but we've only seen two rulers. So I wouldn't be surprised if the other three and plus Andreas because he's also evil and you know, Ransom's father is also evil. If all of them just like kind of new. that this was a fake religion and all this was going on and they didn't care because it just gave them power. I think ~ once all of that is fully explained~ and we have the rightful rulers of Odessa and Ransom in place, that everything will just be peachy king, whole culture will be upended and they'll finally come out of this bubble of we're the only continent on this planet. Because they don't seem to know about Kenn. They don't know about the starlings at all. Yeah, that part of it was a little strange that how is it that the people of Kenn knew about the people of Callandra, but you know, vice versa not. the other interesting thing that maybe this will be something that would be, ~ revealed in the third book is the history that when Caspia she went to the library a lot. to try to get to the bottom of why Zandra became rabid after she went through the Ritus and then learning more about the history of Callandra.~ And of course then that the Vosters came from where she came from. But what was interesting was that she noted for us that Kalandra's history stopped at a certain point. And it honestly didn't really begin until, hey, Vosters, we're here and we're here to help you rule-ish. Not really. We're just going to give you a religion and kind of take over in a sneaky way. But it was interesting that it stopped and she couldn't find any more information. The librarians couldn't find more information. So ~ it'll be interesting to find out, well, what is the true history then? of Callandra, do they have a closer relationship with the land of Kenn that we just didn't know about and had maybe there was a fracture at some point and they stopped communicating and that's why one side stopped understanding that there was a, there's a world beyond them. Meanwhile, the other side, Kenn was like, just don't go to that land because it's It's cursed, but we won't tell you that. It's just that it's like,~ you know, when a relative tells you don't go across the street to play with the neighbors' kids, because they're bad kids. So ~ don't go there ever. It's bad. The neighbors are bad. Kids are bad. yeah, it definitely gives that vibe. I also have to wonder, ~ because the foster when they lived back over in Kenn before they a lot of them migrated over, they were a persecuted group against this group called the Beesons. Correct. I believe is what it was.~ So I'm wondering if the Beesons have a part to play in what is going on in all of this. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And maybe even because they also, they mentioned that this group that persecuted the Vosters, the Beesons, that when they were at war,~ they drove out the Vosters, but they said that the Beesons disappeared or were annihilated or something to that point. But it'd be interesting to your point to find out that no, actually, maybe some of their relatives came to Callandra and founded it or something. Maybe, because the, so the Starling are from this part of Kenn that's called Nelfinix, which I keep thinking in my mind is Netflix.~ Yeah. yeah, could be Netflix, Nelfinix, ~ how cast, an audio book pronunciation was Nelfinix. Those of us who like DC comics might even go that it's Mixo-Plex, the trickster character who fought against Superman. But I digress. But yes. Yes, go on. So, Caspia is described as someone that's like an honorable student basically that she's very studious. ~ And she knows all of this history about her continent of So I have to wonder if the people like her people in Nelphinex are ~ just don't intermingle with the goings on of the Voster and the Beesons.~ What is all going on in their regard in regards to them? Well, ~ we hope that that's something that will be ~ addressed in the next book. So let's talk about what we think are our hopes and dreams for the next book and also just intermingle our MVP side characters. Let's maybe just start with that. there, if you could give out the ~ most valuable~ player side character trophy. Who would you give them out to? Well, ~ obviously, MVP of the whole book for side characters is Freya, RIP, you were such a good horse. I was distraught when she died. I don't like it when, when animal deaths happen. Other than, other than Freya, ~ Zandra, I love Zandra. I love a sex positive character.~ Caspy and her on the ship, Caspy discovers she smuggled her way on and they're like, you got to pay for passage. And she's like, I got something I could pay for. I'm like, okay, you go girl. And not only that, she got the captain of the ship wrapped around her little finger. Definitely. I can see her in book three if she ever comes back to her human form, if she's like, and now I'm going to go find that captain. Adios, everyone. It's gotta be somewhere. I know, it's alive. I also really liked Brother Dime and Brother Skore. I think we're going to see more of them. Also, Evie. Evie was great. She suffered a lot. She did good to hang in there. Poor girl's are to need years of therapy after this. Very true. I'm also the last two, Mae and Thora. I'm very excited to see them in book three. Same, same. My MVP character was definitely Thora, the leader of the Mavens, as it's the mercenary group that,~ Brother Skore, I believe it was, kind of, ~ pushed, Odessa to find during their travels, and he had to abandon her. she's this warrior woman, badass type character. And yeah, I liked her a lot too. hopes and dreams. So spoiler alert for the very, very, very end ~ that ~ Brother Skore tells Odessa that she's the warrior. that she was meant to find. And in fact, earlier in the book, Brother Skore was telling her, you know, I have a vision, there's a, you know, I'm leaving you now, you must find this warrior woman. And initially again, Devney Perry leads us down a certain path and we're thinking the warrior woman is Thora, the leader of the Mavens who they end up hooking up with during their journey and the Mavens do protect them. But now Brother Skore says, nah, actually. Actually, the real story is that you are the warrior. And the other part of ~ the ending is that Odessa starts to feel a thrum, which may mean that the Ritus is calling her and that's the rite of passage to transform that the different starlings feel that transforms them into a monster or and ~ turns them into who they truly are. And now, final reveal here is that there's a vision that alludes to a transformed Odessa attacking Ransom who is acquiescing to it, which is, ~ my gosh, are you serious?~ Paige, man, what did you make of all that? was quite a bit to drop at the end there. I think that the vision is going to come true, first of all, that we're going to have that fight, but that's going to be how we figure out that that's where the cure lies in, is because Odessa will bite ransom and there will be some sort of like big magic explosion jerk and he'll be cured. And then they'll start off with that process. I also, I've not seen a lot of people talk about this. the necklace that Odessa keeps on her all the time,~ was from her mom. think when Caspia was,~ knew that she had to go change into the Crux form,~ to help save Andreas, ~ she took the necklace off and hit it. I think that there's going to be something more to that necklace. I think maybe it's got. It's got some sort of power to it.~ kind of like there was like a part where there was like a, a black dagger or something like that, that one of the fathers told their son to always keep on him. think there's going be something to that effect and it's going to help keep Odessa from transforming until that's either cut off of her or, she takes it off for some reason. Hmm. Interesting. I had not thought of that. And we didn't really talk about Lysa so much, so I'm glad you brought that all up. That one of the things, the theories that seem to be revealed is that~ it's the combination of Ransom taking that super soldier healing serum created by his mom and then being bitten by a bear wolf who you think... is Zandra, the one-eyed bari wolf,~ cursed that bite that caused Lysa to come into being. So now you're thinking that the cure for all that is then an Odessa bite is basically what you're saying. Yeah, because she is the mixture of Callandra and Kenn, basically. And I think that her bite mixed with~ like, her saliva mixed with ransom saliva is gonna cure him. But I think there's also gonna be something to that that's gonna fix all of this ~ issue with the animals and stuff. But getting those orbits out is definitely gonna help,~ first of all. Mm, yeah, yeah, yeah. Gotta get those, gotta clean that house up and yeah, smash it up. If we're only one room, let's just clean all of the rooms while we're here. Yes, they got to find them all. And I look forward to that journey of them finding it all and learning more about these characters that they introduced and just getting a better sense of the world and the history, the mysterious history of Callandra ~ itself. Is there anything else you want to add before we get to our rating?~ I don't think so. I think we covered everything that I'm looking forward to in book three, with the exception of like, if I had to choose, ~ I think May X Thora would be really cute together. We'll the ruthless ones together. So you're like, you're kind of shipping May and Thora, yeah, definitely. Either that or I would be happy if May, because May, lot of things about May is that she was mad, it's not because she likes ransom. It's because she also really craved freedom. Just like me, everyone is ready to get rid of Andreas. His daughters are just wanting to leave. Never be around them again. ~ So either she gets with Thor and they live a little happy life or maybe... She goes and joins the Mavens. Like not as like someone that's beholden to someone for money. Just, know, I want to travel with y'all and go kick butt. That's a good note to end on ~ as we then move to give it our final ~ rating using the Must Love Romanticie rating system. So that system is ~ one star, which means, nope, do not finish.~ Two stars, we shall never speak again of this is what that means. Three stars is, meh, didn't really like it much. Four stars is I really, really liked it, and five stars, I'm rereading, listening again and again. What do you say? am giving this book a four out of five. I really enjoyed the book overall, especially all of the world building that we got,~ but I did have to reread the book to get into it. That's fair. A four seems pretty fair that you really, really liked it given that it took you a minute to warm up a little bit. You had to read it, read it again to get into the groove. Makes a whole lot of sense. For me, I'm giving it a solid five, rereading, listening again and again. For me, the listening again and again part will come. when the graphic audio version of the book comes out. So we can't wait to get the sequel, which will be coming out pretty fast next year, because Devonni Perry had planned this all out. So we're pretty happy with her for doing that for us. And I am happy that Paige, that you came back to review this with me. So. Paige Green, thanks for reviewing and processing this book with me and all of Thank you for having me again. Book Besties, did this help you recover? And what rating did you give this book? Leave a comment, send a text, or fan mail. We're happy to take them all. As mentioned, Devney Perry has this series mapped out. The third book is scheduled to come out March 9th, 2027. Meantime, enjoy the dramatized version of Rites of the Starling through Graphic Audio. Part 1 dropped July 7th, and Part 2 comes out August 25th. Shout out to award-winning voice artist Devney Neemath Parker, who plays Odessa and sent me a voice message on Insta. Thank you so much for that. Please follow her. In June, we're recommending and reviewing Our Vicious Oaths by N.E. Davenport. Book Club Bestie Asiah Muhammad is coming back to help review that. By the way, Must Luv Romantasy is an in-real life book club. We sometimes host virtual meetings. And Saturday, May 30th at 1 PM, that is one of them. Join us for a laid-back what's on your TBR virtual book get together. And Saturday, June 27th at 1 PM, we're meeting in person at Souper Jenny on North Decatur Road in Decatur, Georgia. That's in the Atlanta area to talk King's Cage by Victoria Aveyard, which is the third book in the Red Queen series. Hope to see you at either one of those. Details are in the show notes on how to join. Until next time, happy reading. Thanks for listening to Must Luv Romantasy If you enjoyed today's show, be sure to follow the podcast and then share it with your fellow Romantasy fans. Until next time, keep your swords sharp, your coffee strong, and your heart ready for the next epic love story.