30 Followers
"Dark Shores" is set in Reath, a world split in two, kept apart by the "Endless Sea" and the Maarin - the only people who can cross the Endless Sea - keeping the existence of the other half from the populations of each half. Teriana is one of the Maarin, the daughter of her ship's captain, and heir to her mother's place on the Maarin Triumvirate. When her best friend, a girl living in the half of Reath ruled by the Celendrial empire, but who Teriana has long believed comes from the other half of Reath, is in danger, Teriana tells her of the other half of Reath, in the hopes of being able to help her flee there. In the end, Teriana can't help her, and not only does her friend turn up dead, the empire has got a hand on her information on the other half or Reath, planning on finding out how the Maarin traverse the Endless Sea, so they can conquer the other half as they have already conquered the whole of their own half. Teriana makes a deal to save her own people - those on her ship, but also all the Maarin - leaving her in a precarious position of needing to make decisions that have the possibility of either damning the Maarin or the whole second half of Reath. As a second POV, we have Marcus, a legionnaire of the empire, tasked with conquering the other side of Reath, partly because the current consul is blackmailing him, partly to get away from the empire's thumb and be able to make his own decisions. As every family has to send their second son to the legion, he didn't have much choice in that matter or in most other matters in his life, except in choosing the strategy he's using for his conquests. His legion is most known for his biggest failure, the bloodbath in Chersome, where all of his strategies failed, but his passion lies in manipulating the people to be conquered to cooperate peacefully of their own volition to keep the casualties low. It's the only thing he can do to survive, his only choices being trying to keep the casualties low while being a legionnaire, or being hanged as a deserter. As such, they are stuck on this journey together, always having to make choices between their own survival, the survival of their loved ones, and the survival of innocent bystanders being caught in the crossfire of their task. When reading this, I felt it obvious that this is an earlier book of Danielle L. Jensen than the ones I have read so far. While there is a lot to be recognised from her later writing, like the struggle between power and impotence of our two main characters, and the hard decisions that come with this for both of them, the general writing style as well as the way the romance is handled, a lot of it felt slightly less "sophisticated" than in her other writing I have read so far. When I saw then, that this book had been published around the same time as "The Bridge Kingdom", I was very surprised, but the acknowledgments confirmed that this was actually her very first book, and even if she said that the first draft had not much to do with the final draft I read now, I feel like you can still tell throughout the story that this is an earlier work. While the difference is noticeable, it is not so great as to have tempered my engagement of the book while reading it. As I mentioned above, this book still includes a lot of the things I loved about her later works, so while the beginning of the romance and some of the plot trajectory felt a bit weaker, the rest hit just as much as in her other works. Especially the overall writing style is the same, and the above-mentioned struggle between power and impotence for Teriana and Marcus each was very interesting to follow along and see which choices they would make in a sea of difficult choices, sometimes a sea of only wrong choices. All in all, I can still recommend this, but I find it slightly weaker than the Bridge Kingdom Series and the Saga of the Unfated. I am looking forward to reading the sequel, even if the fact that it focuses on two different characters makes me a bit afraid that Teriana's and Marcus' story might not be finished up in the way I liked, as this book just felt like the beginning of their journey. I am curious to find out how the author deals with that.
Jun 18, 2026
"Dark Shores" is set in Reath, a world split in two, kept apart by the "Endless Sea" and the Maarin - the only people who can cross the Endless Sea - keeping the existence of the other half from the populations of each half. Teriana is one of the Maarin, the daughter of her ship's captain, and heir to her mother's place on the Maarin Triumvirate. When her best friend, a girl living in the half of Reath ruled by the Celendrial empire, but who Teriana has long believed comes from the other half of Reath, is in danger, Teriana tells her of the other half of Reath, in the hopes of being able to help her flee there. In the end, Teriana can't help her, and not only does her friend turn up dead, the empire has got a hand on her information on the other half or Reath, planning on finding out how the Maarin traverse the Endless Sea, so they can conquer the other half as they have already conquered the whole of their own half. Teriana makes a deal to save her own people - those on her ship, but also all the Maarin - leaving her in a precarious position of needing to make decisions that have the possibility of either damning the Maarin or the whole second half of Reath. As a second POV, we have Marcus, a legionnaire of the empire, tasked with conquering the other side of Reath, partly because the current consul is blackmailing him, partly to get away from the empire's thumb and be able to make his own decisions. As every family has to send their second son to the legion, he didn't have much choice in that matter or in most other matters in his life, except in choosing the strategy he's using for his conquests. His legion is most known for his biggest failure, the bloodbath in Chersome, where all of his strategies failed, but his passion lies in manipulating the people to be conquered to cooperate peacefully of their own volition to keep the casualties low. It's the only thing he can do to survive, his only choices being trying to keep the casualties low while being a legionnaire, or being hanged as a deserter. As such, they are stuck on this journey together, always having to make choices between their own survival, the survival of their loved ones, and the survival of innocent bystanders being caught in the crossfire of their task. When reading this, I felt it obvious that this is an earlier book of Danielle L. Jensen than the ones I have read so far. While there is a lot to be recognised from her later writing, like the struggle between power and impotence of our two main characters, and the hard decisions that come with this for both of them, the general writing style as well as the way the romance is handled, a lot of it felt slightly less "sophisticated" than in her other writing I have read so far. When I saw then, that this book had been published around the same time as "The Bridge Kingdom", I was very surprised, but the acknowledgments confirmed that this was actually her very first book, and even if she said that the first draft had not much to do with the final draft I read now, I feel like you can still tell throughout the story that this is an earlier work. While the difference is noticeable, it is not so great as to have tempered my engagement of the book while reading it. As I mentioned above, this book still includes a lot of the things I loved about her later works, so while the beginning of the romance and some of the plot trajectory felt a bit weaker, the rest hit just as much as in her other works. Especially the overall writing style is the same, and the above-mentioned struggle between power and impotence for Teriana and Marcus each was very interesting to follow along and see which choices they would make in a sea of difficult choices, sometimes a sea of only wrong choices. All in all, I can still recommend this, but I find it slightly weaker than the Bridge Kingdom Series and the Saga of the Unfated. I am looking forward to reading the sequel, even if the fact that it focuses on two different characters makes me a bit afraid that Teriana's and Marcus' story might not be finished up in the way I liked, as this book just felt like the beginning of their journey. I am curious to find out how the author deals with that.
Jun 18, 2026
