Dark Shores

Jensen, Danielle. Dark Shores. Book 1 of the Dark Shores series. 2019. 368p. ISBN 9781250317728. Available as an audiobook from Overdrive.

The Maarin people are seafarers who travel up and down the coast of the Celendor Empire, a continent-wide conquering power. Backed by its powerful legions, the Senate leads with an iron fist. Only the Maarins, who transport valuable goods between distant locations, are exempted from the harsh rules that apply to all Cel citizens, such as taxes and the giving up of the second boy of every family to the legions.

Teriana lives on the Quincense, her mother’s ship. As second in command of the ship, she is also heir to one of the three leaders of the Maarins. When their ship arrives in the capital in time for the election of the next Consul, she realizes that all is not well in Celendor. Two full legions have gathered on the outskirts as one of the candidates plans a power play.

Marcus commands one of the two legions, the 37th. This is the Empire’s blood-thirstiest legion and is known to have massacred a whole island, enslaving over 160,000 people and glutting the slave markets. Cassius, one of the senators running for the post of Consul, blackmails him into voting for him with his entire legion otherwise he will reveal Marcus’ secret of being an ill first son who was swapped in favor of his  younger brother. Not wanting to bring ruin to his family, Marcus agrees.

Cassius then proposes to send Marcus, his legion and the 41st to the other side of the world on Maarin ships. The Maarins, much like Marcus, have secrets they wish to hide, and one of them is that their trade routes take them to another vast continent across the ocean. They protect this secret with their lives, but a mistake on Teriana’s part has revealed this information to Cassius, who now wishes to direct imperial forces to seize these new lands.

A pariah to her own people, Teriana is forced to act as a guide to Marcus and take his forces across a watery magical way to a continent where people still believe in gods and where these very gods play an active role in the lives of their people. With secrets upon secrets, Teriana and Marcus become involved in a deadly dance where they both need each other to survive the journey and free the Maarins, but only at the cost of enslaving a whole continent....