Spies and Secrets in Braidee Otto’s Debut, Songbird of the Sorrows

When a disinherited princess-turned-spy gets her first assignment, she doesn’t expect it to be playing herself. That’s the hook for Braidee Otto’s new Songbird of the Sorrows, which has just hit bookstore shelves (February 3, 2026). Billed as a romantic fantasy, Songbird of the Sorrows has more in common recent epic fantasy series, like Jennifer Estep’s “Crown of Shards” or Sherwood Smith’s “Inda” novels, than books in the current romantasy wave. Some elements would feel right at home among the works of Feist and Jordan.

 

Otto, an Australian writer, invites readers to a Greek-inspired fantasy world, where four nations were divided in a great war between the gods of the winds. Each nation stays perpetually in a single season, and summer’s nation, the Sorrows, has a very Mediterranean island vibe—Santorini and Naxos, if they weren’t filled with tourists.

But while summer might conjure vacations for American readers, the Sorrows isn’t a place that revels in its climate. It’s a struggling nation, one that may be on the brink of a new war—a conflict it’s not sure it could survive, especially not after the way the last war fractured its lands into tiny fragments.

Aella doesn’t dwell on all of this, although her first-person narration gives readers bits and pieces, enough so that the world builds itself around her. After she was banished from the palace (because, she believes, she looks too much like her dead mother), she was given to the nation’s spymaster, the Eagle, to train as a future Songbird, an elite group of spies that does the nation’s wishes. To succeed among as a Fledgling, Aella has to hide who she truly is. No one can know what has truly become of the princess. It’s safer for the nation to believe she’s been sent off to train with monks than that she remains in their nation of islands, learning to pick locks and fight from the shadows.

It’s also better if no one knows Aella’s other terrible secret. While it’s common knowledge that Aella never received the magical bloodline of the royal family, Aella and the narrative both hint early on that there are other powers bristling just under her surface. Discerning readers may pick up clues from the very first pages about what makes Aella’s magic different, but the reveal much later in the book has a big payoff, even if it’s not entirely a surprise.

After years of hiding who she is, Aella wants to be shocked that her first assignment is to take back her identity as a competitor in trials to win the hand of the prince of the autumn kingdom, Eretria. Not only would a win there give the Sorrows an insider in the Eretrian court, but her competition is to serve as a distraction so that other Songbirds (and Nightwings—the group’s assassins) can infiltrate the palace and find a dangerous weapon. There are just a few problems with this. One: As much as Aella wants to feel like she belongs, she has always felt like an outsider in the order, and she doesn’t really believe in the cause. She certainly doesn’t trust the Eagle—nor he, her. He motivates her to perform well by threatening to kill her best friend in the order if Aella fails. Two: The leader of Aella’s Flight—her squad of spies—is her ex, Raven. The two had a great romance, until he called it quits, citing the rules of their order against loving anyone more than duty, and left her behind. Now he’s back, and Aella’s traitorous heart wants to pick up the shattered pieces and try again, even as she’s being commanded to marry someone else. Three: The prince of Eretria is more dangerous (and unhinged) than anyone warned the team. (It’s refreshing to have a villain who is truly a villain, and not aimed toward a path for redemption—even as some of the darker scenes in the novel lean into the grim horror that is his villainy.) And four: The weapon is far different from what Aella could ever imagine.

Songbird of the Sorrows was originally self-published in 2024, but it found a new home (and a much revised and expanded edition) that will help it reach the broader audience it deserves as it launches Otto’s series. It has plenty of elements to appeal across subgenres—while it’s not a romantasy, it’s got enough spice to please that audience, and there are grim enough scenes that it borders on dark fantasy as well. At its core, though, Songbird of the Sorrows is the story of a young woman who just wants to belong. Aella suffers many betrayals, but Otto also populates the novel with caring, well-drawn secondary characters who have the potential to be Aella’s safety net, if only she can let herself trust them. And if only she can make it past the cliffhanger ending and into the second series installment, the pubdate of which has not yet been announced.

Readers who enjoy courtly intrigue, spies, found family, and watching characters have to choose between the rules and doing what is right (and who don’t mind a little torture), will sink into Aella’s world.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Buy Songbird of the Sorrows at Bookshop.org.

For more about books that were self-published and found a new audience, check out “New Life for Old(er) Books” at Paste.

For more about Jennifer Estep’s “Crown of Shards” series, read an interview with the author at Den of Geek.

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First Look: The Muppet Show 2026

From the opening, nostalgic-sounding music to the final saxophone note, the newest episode of The Muppet Show feels like a return to the original. Between 1976 to 1981, audiences watching the original run of The Muppet Show learned to love Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie, Gonzo, and the gang as much for their on-stage performances as the chaos backstage. And now, that magic is back in what may not be the finest episode of the variety show, but in something that will absolutely make fans (and newcomers) realize why the original was so special.

Disney’s The Muppet Show stars Sabrina Carpenter and the original Muppet cast. (Disney/Mitch Haaseth)

In the special, the Muppets have returned to the Muppet Theater to put on the first episode (and possibly only episode given that this is being presented as a Disney+ special) of their show. Of course, everyone wants to be involved, and with only a half-hour runtime, Kermit has some tough decisions to make. Luckily, Sabrina Carpenter is there as the special guest, keeping the momentum going with her own musical talents and gushing about her lifetime love for the Muppets. (Carpenter is clearly playing a caricatured version of herself here, but she’s also clearly having a great time.) In true Muppet fashion, there are additional cameos, including Maya Rudolph and Seth Rogen (also an executive director).

The structure of the special mirrors the old episodes of The Muppet Show, where the on-stage acts are interspersed with backstage and dressing room shenanigans (including familiar Kermit and Piggy drama and banter). Unlike the short-lived the muppets., which leaned too far into edgier adult jokes, there’s only one borderline joke in The Muppet Show—and it’s the type that would make a teen viewer scandalized but would fly right over the heads of younger watchers. That’s the balance the old Muppet Show always struck; it was family friendly not because it catered to the youngest audience members, but because it played equally well across age groups. There’s a nice hint of that here, and Muppet-loving families are going to be happy to watch it together.

The new special could easily consider the film The Muppets (2011) canon, since it’s a film all about saving the Muppet Theater, but it could also simply be a continuum of the original show, with the films and programs between all being fiction. (Rogen makes a comment about “canon” Muppets at one point, and it almost begs audiences to ask the question about what is canon in an IP that has always pressed the boundaries of the fourth wall.) While it would have been nice to have a throwaway line about the Electric Mayhem finally releasing an album (the plot of the excellent Muppets Mayhem, a one season show that felt complete rather than canceled), it’s also laudable that the special doesn’t need to lean into the other Muppet properties. It’s The Muppet Show!

The Muppet performers are all excellent, and while it’s easy to miss Steve Whitmeyer and Frank Oz, Dave Goelz still gives as gonzo a performance as ever, and Matt Vogel (Kermit and others), Eric Jacobson (Piggy, Fozzie, and more), and Bradley Freeman Jr. (Bean the Bunny and Rizzo) do their characters justice. It’s especially nice to see Rizzo back in the spotlight in one of the variety show numbers. Bill Barretta’s Pepe the King Prawn also steals a scene in a comedy sketch that fills a spot where Pigs in Space once would have run, and it’s one of Pepe’s most likeable performances. (Barretta also reprises Rowlf, whom he’s been performing since 1996, so well that it’s hard to distinguish his performance from Henson’s).

While I don’t think all the jokes here are on the Muppets A-game (even Kermit admits they’re a little rusty), the experience of just getting a new episode of The Muppet Show after so many years of nostalgia is a delight, The biggest disappointment here is that it’s not the first of many more episodes to come.

The Muppet Show airs on Disney+ beginning February 4.

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