Songbird of the Sorrows by Braidee Otto: A Full Recap
If you've been following me for even a minute, you know I don't throw around "favorite read of the year" lightly. But Songbird of the Sorrows by Braidee Otto has been sitting at the top of my 2026 list since the day I closed it, and nothing has knocked it off since.
Haven't read it yet? Consider this your sign to stop scrolling. Grab it on Kindle Unlimited, or treat yourself to the gorgeous hardcover with the sprayed edges, because some books deserve to look as good on your shelf as they read. My full spoiler-free review of Songbird of the Sorrows is linked here if you want my initial thoughts before diving in.
For the rest of us who've already read it and are counting down to book two: I reread Songbird of the Sorrows on purpose, so the world, the characters, and every loose thread would be fresh going into Daughter of the Tempest. I got my hands on the ARC recently, and this time I sat down with an actual notebook, determined to catch everything I know I blew past the first time because I was too busy flipping pages.
So that's exactly what I did. Below is a full, detailed recap to get you ready for book two, which hits shelves on October 20.
Read my full review of Songbird of the Sorrows.
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If You Liked These Books, You'll Love Songbird of the Sorrows
Before we get into the recap, a quick case for anyone still on the fence.
The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen. This is the comp the publisher put right on the jacket, and it's earned. A heroine trained since childhood as a spy, sent into an enemy court under a romantic guise, slowly realizing the mission is more complicated than she was told. If you loved watching Lara's loyalties fracture in Ithicana, Aella's arc in Eretria is going to feel like home.
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. Same DNA, different kingdom: an assassin raised by a secretive order, competing under a false identity, hiding exactly how dangerous she really is while everyone underestimates her. Celaena fans will recognize Aella immediately.
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. Deadly trials, a found family forged under pressure, and a slow burn that runs on stolen looks instead of grand declarations. The competition-arc tension is here, just wearing different armor.
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. Court politics, gods and mythical races, and a heroine everyone underestimates until they really shouldn't. The Empyrieos has that same sense of a world with real teeth underneath the beauty.
Publisher’s Summary
Here's the official synopsis to jog your memory before we head into spoiler territory:
In a magical world of gods and mythical races, an outcast princess turned spy infiltrates a rival kingdom, uncovering secrets that force her to choose between obedience and defiance, in the first book of a propulsive romantic fantasy series for fans of Danielle L. Jensen's The Bridge Kingdom series.
Ask no questions. Obey your orders. Respect your masters. But most of all, love no one.
Spy. Thief. Princess. Songbird.
Banished from the Palace of Sorrows as a child, Princess Aella was taken in by the Aviary, a secret intelligence network embedded throughout the Empyrieos that trains orphans as professional spies. Now twenty-three years old, she has finally earned her place as a Songbird on the most elite team of assassins, led by none other than her former flame, Raven. Everything about him calls to her, he's brave, loyal, and lethal, but their relationship is also the greatest threat to her standing as a Songbird.
Before Aella can untangle her feelings, their team is sent on a dangerous mission to the eastern kingdom, a land that ever since the horrific God War has been the enemy of her homeland. Aella's role is crucial yet troublesome: she must assume her former title of Princess of the Sorrows to compete in a series of bridal trials. But when the trials turn deadly and the mission is threatened, Aella must decide whether to follow orders or defy them.
Songbird of the Sorrows is the first novel in the sweeping, romantic Myths of the Empyrieos series, following Aella through an epic journey of self-discovery, true love, redemption, and ultimately a great war that promises to upend the lives of everyone in the realm.
The first edition hardcover, while supplies last, comes with intricately stenciled edges, an interior black-and-white map, and a gold foil jacket. Worth having on the shelf even if you already read it on Kindle Unlimited like I did.
SPOILER WARNING: Everything below this line is a complete, detailed recap of Songbird of the Sorrows, including the ending. If you haven't finished the book yet and want to go in fresh, this is your stop. Come back once you've read it.
Tropes in Songbird of the Sorrows
This one has a lot going on, and it earns every single trope on the list.
A second-chance romance runs through the whole story, with Aella and Raven picking their relationship back up under about the worst circumstances possible. And the forbidden love angle isn't just flavor. Songbirds are explicitly forbidden from having relationships with each other, so every stolen glance between the two of them is doing double duty. Add a morally grey love interest torn between duty and the woman he never actually stopped loving, and you've got the exact ache this genre lives for.
Beyond that, you're also getting:
hidden royalty and dual identities
political intrigue and court games
espionage and undercover assignments
deadly trials and a competition arc
a heist running underneath the romance
forced proximity
found family
a mysterious prisoner with a bigger secret than anyone expects
a gut-punch cliffhanger ending
If that list has you nodding along, you already know why this book took over BookTok.
The World: The Empyrieos and the Aviary
I won't spend much time on world mechanics here since Otto introduces all of this naturally inside the story, and Daughter of the Tempest brings us right back up to speed just as smoothly. But here's the quick version for anyone who wants a refresher.
The Empyrieos is a realm built on Greek-flavored mythology, gods, and mythical races, still living in the shadow of something called the God War. That war is why the kingdom of the Sorrows, Aella's home, and the kingdom of Eretria, where most of this book takes place, have been enemies for generations. History like that doesn't stay quiet, and it colors every single interaction between the two kingdoms.
At the center of the Sorrows is the Aviary, a hidden intelligence network that takes in orphans and outcasts and reshapes them into spies and assassins known as Songbirds. Aella was handed over to the Aviary by her own father after she was banished as a child, and it's been the only home she's known since. The Eagle runs the Aviary and answers directly to the crown, and outside of Nyssa, the Eagle is one of the only people who knows Aella is actually the Princess of the Sorrows underneath her Songbird identity.
There's a small, sharp irony in the name itself. Songbirds are named for something that flies, and an aviary is also, by definition, a cage. I go deeper on that freedom-versus-control theme in my full review, linked above, but it's the current running underneath everything in this book, and it only gets louder as the story goes on.
Magic here isn't safe or evenly distributed either. What we learn through the events in Eretria is that magic can be taken from someone by force, and whoever sits on Eretria's throne has figured out exactly how to do it.
The Characters in Songbird of the Sorrows
Aella (Songbird name: Starling)
Our heroine, and a genuinely great one. Aella was Princess Aella Sotoria of the Sorrows before she was banished as a child and handed to the Aviary by her own father, the king. She's spent her life since then being shaped into a weapon, and the book opens on her final test before she officially earns her place as a Songbird. Underneath the discipline, she's someone who has never been allowed to choose anything for herself. Watching her start to notice that, and then push against it, is the whole engine of this book.
Raven
The Flight Commander of Alpha Flight, and Aella's former flame. Brave, loyal, lethal, and morally grey in the way this genre does best. Raven is put in the impossible position of leading the mission that could expose the one relationship that would end Aella's career as a Songbird. By the book's end, he proves exactly where his loyalty lives.
Nyssa (Songbird name: Sparrow)
Aella's best friend and bonded "sister," and the only Songbird who knows the truth about who Aella really is. Nyssa poses as one of Aella's maids once they arrive in Eretria, staying close enough to protect her at every turn. She's steady in a way Aella needs, and her loyalty doesn't waver, even when it would be so much safer for her if it did.
The Eagle
The leader of the Aviary and an advisor to the crown of the Sorrows. Along with Nyssa, the Eagle is one of the only people who knows Aella's true identity, and the one who ultimately sent her into Eretria wearing her old title as a disguise.
Myna and Lukas
Rounding out Alpha Flight, Myna is a fellow spy who also poses as one of Aella's maids in Eretria, and Lukas is Nyssa's brother and a Songbird in his own right. Both spend the book searching Eretria for the mysterious weapon while Aella is tied up with the trials.
Kallias
Aella's brother and the current Prince of the Sorrows. He barely appears in this book, but keep his name in your back pocket. His role grows a lot in Daughter of the Tempest.
Prince Keres
The Prince of Eretria, and the reason Aella is competing in the bridal trials at all. On the surface, he's exactly the kind of prize a competition like this is built around. Underneath, something is deeply wrong with him, and it connects straight to why his father, the king, has been growing sicker and weaker by the day.
Titaia
Keres's cousin, assigned to Aella as a liaison to help her adjust to life in Eretria. She starts out as a functional ally and becomes something a lot more real. She's the one who helps Aella reach Sphinx, and by the end of the book, it's clear Titaia is just as trapped inside this palace as anyone else Aella meets there.
Sphinx
Encountered during one of the trials, Sphinx forces Aella to solve a riddle or die for failing. The trial itself is tense enough, but the real gut punch is what Aella notices once the riddle is solved: the chains and collar around Sphinx's neck. Sphinx isn't a monster guarding a challenge. Sphinx is a prisoner, just like everyone else Aella is starting to realize surrounds her in this palace.
Cynna
A fellow competitor in the bridal trials, paired against Aella in the final trial to the death. There's an immediate, unspoken recognition between them, the sense that Cynna, like Aella, isn't entirely what she appears to be. Aella can't bring herself to kill her and knocks her unconscious instead. That choice feels far from finished.
Xan (The Weapon)
We don't meet him until the very end, and he changes everything. He's "the weapon" Alpha Flight has been sent to Eretria to retrieve, kept hidden under a tarp in a cage Aella isn't even supposed to look at. When she sneaks in anyway, she finds a man instead of a monster, one with an unsettling, otherworldly look to him. She helps him escape, and just as she's about to walk away and return to her life at the Aviary, he turns the tables on her instead.
Full Plot Summary of Songbird of the Sorrows
The Beginning: Aella's Final Test
The book opens with Aella completing her final trial within the Aviary, the secret order that has trained her since she was a banished child. We learn early on that her father, the king of the Sorrows, is the one who handed her over, and that almost no one knows she was ever a princess at all. Only Nyssa and the Eagle know the truth. Aella graduates and officially earns her place as a Songbird, a spy for the crown of the Sorrows.
The Mission: Undercover in Eretria
Aella's first real assignment is also her most personal one. She's sent to reclaim her old identity as Princess of the Sorrows so she can compete in the royal bridal trials in Eretria, all in service of infiltrating the enemy court. While she works to win Prince Keres's favor from the inside, the rest of Alpha Flight moves through the shadows, searching Eretria for a mysterious "weapon" the Aviary wants recovered.
The Trials Begin: Sphinx's Riddle
One of the early trials pits Aella against Sphinx, who will kill her if she fails to solve a posed riddle. She solves it and survives, but what stays with her afterward isn't the challenge itself. It's the collar and chains around Sphinx's neck once the danger passes.
Titaia and an Unlikely Ally
Titaia later helps Aella sneak in to see Sphinx again, and Aella vows to free her eventually. Along the way, Aella realizes Titaia is trapped in her own way too, one more person inside this palace who isn't free to leave or speak plainly about what's really happening.
The King's Illness and Prince Keres's Secret
The King of Eretria grows sicker and weaker as the story goes on. At the same time, something is clearly off about Prince Keres. Things he touches seem to wither and die. Through their own digging, Aella and her allies piece together the truth: Keres discovered that killing someone who carries magic lets him steal that magic for himself, and he's been quietly using that method to grow his own power at a devastating cost.
The Heist: Finding the Weapon
Aella eventually finds where the Aviary's mysterious weapon is being kept, behind a door that only opens with royal blood. She recruits Titaia to help her use her own blood to unlock it, then sends word back to Alpha Flight. The plan comes together for one final push, extracting the weapon on the night of the last trial while Aella stays behind in Eretria as the Aviary's embedded spy.
The Final Trial: A Battle to the Death
The last trial is exactly what it sounds like: a fight to the death between the remaining competitors. Aella is paired against Cynna, and something about her makes Aella hesitate. Rather than kill her, she knocks her unconscious instead, a decision that feels far from over.
The Rescue
Prince Keres claims Aella as his bride, but he isn't fully convinced by her. Once he realizes the weapon has gone missing, he suspects her involvement immediately, locks her away, and tortures her for the truth. Just when it looks like Alpha Flight might have left her behind to finish the mission, they come back. Raven couldn't leave her, and the team returns to pull her out, fleeing Eretria together with the weapon in tow.
Raven’s Betrayal
Toward the end of the book, Aella overhears something she was never meant to hear, Raven talking to the Eagle. When she confronts him about it, the truth is worse than anything she braced for. The Eagle assigned him to get close to her long before she ever set foot in the Aviary. The relationship she spent this entire book fighting to protect, the one thing that felt like hers and not the Aviary's, was orchestrated from the start.
It's a gut punch on top of a gut punch, and it lands right as she's reeling from everything else Eretria put her through. This is the crack that sends her into the sequel not trusting anyone, Raven included, and it's a big part of why she runs the way she does once Daughter of the Tempest picks up.
The Reveal: Xan and the Ending
Back with the Aviary, Aella can't stop wondering what the "weapon" actually is. Against every rule she's been given, she sneaks in to look, and finds Xan instead of a monster. Something about him pulls at her immediately, and she vows to set him free. She helps him escape and arranges his passage out, but just as she's about to leave him behind and return to her life at the Aviary, he turns on her and abducts her instead. As she loses consciousness, he delivers the line that ends the book:
"You'll forgive me one day."
What to Expect in Daughter of the Tempest
Here's where things stand as the book closes. Aella has completed her mission, but at the cost of everything she thought she understood. She's alive, and she has just been taken by the very man she risked her life to save.
Daughter of the Tempest picks up almost immediately from there. Aella is branded a traitor after the true purpose of the Aviary's mission in Eretria comes to light, and with no other option, she flees the Empyrieos alongside Xan. She also has magic of her own now, unruly and untrained, and the deal she strikes with Xan is that she'll help him stay ahead of the people hunting him if he teaches her to control it. As they cross cities, forests, and mountains together, she finds herself drawn to him even as she realizes his secrets may run just as deep as her own.
Meanwhile, Nyssa is left to handle the fallout back home. Suspected of helping Aella, she goes into hiding disguised as a palace servant in the Sorrows, and ends up in a reluctant alliance with the one person best positioned to protect her: Aella's own brother, Prince Kallias. Between the looming Empyrieos Games and the constant risk of discovery, Nyssa has no choice but to trust him, even though he's every bit as condescending and petulant as you'd expect a prince forced into this situation to be.
Daughter of the Tempest is told in dual perspective between Aella and Nyssa, and promises two separate slow-burn romances alongside found family and unlikely alliances on both sides of the story. If book one was about Aella slowly waking up to the cage she'd been living in, book two looks like it's about what she does once she's finally out of it, and what it costs Nyssa to hold everything together while she's gone.
Mark your calendars. Daughter of the Tempest releases October 20, 2026.
Click here to read my full review of Daughter of the Tempest.
Quick Reference FAQ
Is Songbird of the Sorrows on Kindle Unlimited? Yes, it's currently available on Kindle Unlimited.
What is the spice level of Songbird of the Sorrows? Moderate, about 3 out of 5 peppers.
Does Songbird of the Sorrows end on a cliffhanger? Yes, definitively. The book ends mid-abduction, with Xan's last line landing as a genuine gut punch.
When does Daughter of the Tempest come out? October 20, 2026.
How many books will be in the Myths of the Empyrieos series? It's planned as a trilogy.
Do I need to reread Songbird of the Sorrows before starting Daughter of the Tempest? If you're anything like me, yes. There's a lot to keep straight, and this recap should cover you either way. But, I’ve created this refresher so you don’t have to if you don’t have time!
What are some of your all-time favorite reads? Let me know in the comments!
Check out some of my other favorite reads:
Songbird of the Sorrows, Songbird of the Sorrows Summary, Braidee Otto, Daughter of the Tempest, Myths of the Empyrieos, Romantasy Book Summary, fantasy romance, new fantasy romance books