A pirate girl and a commander in an army, both fighting for what they believe in and the people that mean the most to them. But what happens when they mean more to each other, and are fighting for different things?

An action-packed story with a lot of tough decisions for the characters to make. No character truly seemed weak in my opinion, and the story had a good flow that kept you reading chapter after chapter. I'm eager for the next book to come out if there will be one.

First of all - Thank you netgalley for providing me a free copy in exchange for an honest review!
Now- let's get on with the review!
I went into Dark Shores expecting crazy pirates and fun sea battles and exceedingly good treasure chests - You know everything cliched.
However, Dark Shores surprised me. There was a lot of empire, clan conspiracies, theories even kidnappings and roman influences.
Although i enjoyed all that, and I really like Teriana as a character, something still felt amiss. I didn't feel drawn or invested in the book. I would have liked more fictional elements to it - and hence the rating.
However - if you loveee pirates and would like to experience something with a historical element to it - this is a book you might enjoy!

Sea fairing adventure full of secrets but not your typical pirates of the Caribbean type of plot. We have two povs in this story told by Teriana and Marcus two very different people brought up and two different kinds of environments. One full of life of adventures and the other a life of strictness but both full a very much secrets: I honestly enjoyed how this stories pace went it flowed beautifully and diffinately a story I don’t believe I’ve seen written before I love how this characters are and I love the color presentation I’m excited to see how this series fairs

Pirates. Conquering territories. Ridding the world of injustice! Or are they?
I read this book over the course of a few days and I really enjoyed it! I liked the plot and storyline and the twists and turns throughout.
Marcus is a great character. His point of view was explained so well that I felt that he was such a reliable and dependable character.
Teriana, on the other hand, is just a little brat. She infuriated me so much! She's selfish and yet needy... She wants to save her people but she's also mucking up the avenue that will accomplish that. Her moronic and impulsive decisions are risking so many lives and only realizes it at the end of it all and plays the blame game on herself, and is so pitiful. She then goes out and does something else stupid and risks more lives. And on top of it all, she's the love interest! Why? I don't know. The only thing I've seen that she has going for her is her looks.
I am one of those people who docks a book's rating based on enjoyment. An annoying character - with no redeeming qualities and no real attribution to the story but to muck it up - is one of the things I find annoying. Since this is personal preference I am rating this book 4 stars on paper, but in my heart it's 3.5.
It's docked for the character who is so distasteful, the over use of the word "piss" as well as morally conflicting aspects of character relationships (again, this is my rating and my review, so don't come at me). It is a solid 4 star storyline for me because it kept me thinking when I wasn't reading. I wanted to know what would happen and how things would turn out for Marcus. I would have loved more world building descriptors rather than it being so character focused. I felt that sometimes the world was blank except for a few descriptors like trees and ocean.

Danielle Jensen does it again! i absolutely love her other books and was excited to see what this story had in store for me. I was not disappointed.
Taking ancient Rome, pirates, and a slow burn romance this book brings the reader in with a bang and then keeps the thrills coming. There is magic, kissing, and of course battles. The best part was the fact that while I had to learn a whole new world there is enough cross over from real history that you aren't drowning (get it pirates?) in a new world.
I highly recommend this to any fantasy lover. Its a book you can fall into and finish in one sitting. Leaving you happy that you took the time to read it.

Thank you for allowing me the chance to read this book on Netgalley.

4 stars!

Wow, I really enjoyed this one! I haven't read a YA fantasy that I could get "lost" in for a while, and this was what I needed. I can't give it five stars due to the fact that I have way too many questions left even after it ended - I know this is common where there's going to be a second book, but in my opinion there were certain issues that NEEDED to be resolved in book one in order for the plot to feel complete, and they just weren't.

Still, this was an intriguing and exciting read. I loved all aspects of the setting: the ancient Rome-type city, the boat in the middle of a magical ocean, and the small villages of an island-like continent, in that order. I would have liked to see more of the city at the beginning, and I hope the second book takes us back there, but I understand that the plot required us to "move along," as it were.

DARK SHORES follows the dual perspectives of Teriana, a witty and badass pirate girl who's spent most of her life on a boat, and Marcus, a commander of the Thirty-Seventh Legion (which is basically part of the Empire's army). Teriana is from a group called the Maarin, who sail between the East and the West - two continents that are never to meet. To my understanding, the East doesn't know about the existence of the West, and vice versa, and only the Maarin know about them both. But when Teriana's boat docks in the East and she reveals the secret of the West to one of her Eastern friends, trouble starts to brew. Cassius, an evil consul from the Empire, decides he wants to conquer the West. And he blackmails Marcus into using his legion to do just that.

I have to say, I really needed more closure about the issue of Teriana's friend betraying her trust. You never really find out the circumstances under which this happened. You also never find out what exactly happened to the friend in general. This is one of those issues that I think needed to be revolved in book one, and I'm kind of annoyed that it wasn't very well explained. Anyway, when Teriana's ship is captured by the Empire, she becomes the one who will lead Marcus and his legion to the West (aka the Dark Shores). If she doesn't, her mother and the rest of her people will pay the price.

I really liked Teriana and Marcus. They're both just trying to do their best, but are forced to make a lot of sacrifices and difficult choices. To me, their hate-to-love (ish) relationship was perfect. It was realistic, and shifts slowly over the course of the book. There's no quick shift in sentiment or insta-love, and their reasons for hating one another were legitimate. I saw where Teriana was coming from with her rage, and yet I was still rooting for them. I think they were both likeable characters that you could feel for, even when they did some bad things. I also loved the side characters - men from Marcus's legion - who were funny and sweet and became friends with Teriana. Again, I'm kind of annoyed that you don't find out what happens with them in the end of the book. Another thing that shouldn't have been left for the next instalment.

Anyway, this plot involved a lot of politics and colonization-type sentiments that I won't go into, but that I found interesting. The problem was just that I really, really needed MORE BOOK. I had too many questions left. Who did this? What happened to them? What's going on with this? Give me another hundred pages, please, and there still would have been lots left to include in the next book. I also feel like some of the action sequences at the end were too rushed.

Ultimately, although I clearly had a few issues with the book, I did enjoy reading it a lot. I was really sucked in and I loved the characters. I want to be Teriana's friend, and I want to hold poor Marcus. It was one of those books where you don't really think about the "issues" until afterwards when you're reflecting on it, because you enjoyed it so much at the time. I cannot wait for the next book, and now I'm going to go and pout, because this one isn't even released yet. SIGHH.

I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I wasn't sure if I would like this book, but the synopsis made me curious and I am so glad bc this book is amazing! It's not my typical genre, but I liked it a lot!!

For me, Dark Shores is something pretty special. It's been a long time since I have been so utterly and completely pulled into a story within the first few pages.  The story felt alive with excitement and so much promise was poured into the opening chapters. With a Roman influence the created world was given a comfortable familiarity, enough to allow an overall vision which meant that the author only had to sprinkle in the details to bring the world alive. I think it was made even better for me that I really clicked with the authors writing, she writes in the way I would speak so I felt really at home in the pages. The premise is wonderfully simple - East must not meet West, and because of this we have more than one wonderfully built world with the sea's being their own glorious and sometimes gruesome entities, leading the Godless and the God Fearing together in a pretty cataclysmic way.Although not split in this way, the book does have 3 distinct parts to it and I enjoyed how the focus wasn't pulled in a "meanwhile back at..." way, everything was in the now with our protagonists which is why the alternating POV's (my favourite) worked so well. Honestly, I'm still pretty taken aback by the sheer amount of happenings that took place, writing a review whilst trying to avoid spoilers when there were so many amazing set pieces, daring escapades, schemes, and plots is no easy feat.  I think it's safe to say that you will not be bored reading Dark Shores, it really covers all the bases for awesome.Teriana is a fantastic character, from her first secretive nimble steps to her friend to her empowering skills with both blade and ship; she's pretty awesome and her sass and snark made her totally relatable for me (I do enjoy a good cutting comment now and then.) I adored how she was able to hold her own so completely and with a finesse rarely achievable in a world of sweaty soldiers and unknown peril. Marcus could have easily been a pretty one dimensional character but his back story really shapes him, where Teriana was awesome from page one, Marcus had the real development arc for me, the slow burn that got under my skin. Despite there being plenty of side characters they never got lost in the story and they bring a real lightness in the heavier sections and I loved the diversity in them.As it's the first in a series there is obviously much left hanging in the balance and more to explore. The network is something that I'm very much looking forward to hopefully understanding more of as the story continues and I'm pretty hopeful that there will be a character that we'll see again. Dark Shores is wrapped up in a satisfying way and whilst I would obviously like book 2 now, it stopped at a great point that wrapped up what needed to be so I could close the book (or ebook as it happens) with a smile rather than a sigh.I absolutely adored this book and hope you will too!

Thanks so much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!!!

Wow, what a ride! I *loved* this book. I didn't expect to love it, but I did. I expected the romance to be typical YA, which it had hints of, but seemed to be a little more realistic in my opinion. I expected the characters to be all tropy, which for the most part, they weren't (and where they were, the author really tried to flip the tropes upside down). I expected the stakes to be lower in the first book, since we knew already that it was going to be a series. Nope, they were pretty high.

Overall, I was impressed at how this book wowed me, because I just really didn't think I'd love it going in. I loved the main characters, but the secondary ones really won me over. The world was awesome - I loved the magic and the gods and the god-marked... I want more of that in the next books!

One downside to loving this one so much? Now I have to wait forever for book two! *sighs heavily*

Highly recommended.

PS- While the main female character and her nation are labeled pirates, they're really just swashbuckling traders that sometimes trade contraband. They don't rape, pillage, steal, kill, etc. They do drink and gamble though. Just a heads up for those going in with the OMG PIRATE GIRL mindset so they don't get their hopes dashed.

To be honest, I had a hard time getting into this one. There have been so many lady pirate books of late that I think the market is becoming a bit over saturated. This book didn’t have the light humorous feel of say, Daughter of the Pirate King. I liked the characters but didn’t really connect to their romance. I just wanted more from them: more chemistry, more time to truly know and love each other. I think there are probably a lot of pirate fans out there who will LOVE this, but it was just ok for me!

Teriana has lived on the sea her whole life, travelling from port to port and guarding a secret her people have kept for as long as they can remember. When their secret is discovered, she and her crew are captured by a power-hungry ruler. Teriana is given an ultimatum; take Marcus, the Commander of a notorious legion of warriors across the seas or her family dies.

Well what a ride that was! This book was not at all what I expected but holy wow if it wasn’t really blummin’ good. I absolutely loved Teriana, she’s so strong and opinionated. Her love for her family and her people was admirable. She wasn’t afraid to do what she needed to in order to protect those she loved. Marcus was a great second POV and I’m glad we got to see things from his perspective. He has so much inner conflict. I wanted to stroke his hair and tell him everything would be okay!

I do have a real love for books that force two enemies to spend a lot of time together and watch them figure out all the ways in which they are similar. This book did it brilliantly. The super slow burn romance was killer! I’m still swooning from one particular scene *fans self*

The side characters were good too. I thought they were fleshed out well considering we spent a lot less time with them. I will say that the book had a slow start. There was a lot of world building in the beginning but I would urge anyone no to let that put you off. It was so so good and I can't wait for book two!

Rated 4.5 Stars

Dark Shores is my first book by this author and it won't be my last as I have every intention of devouring her backlist and the rest of this series. I loved this book. The world building is superb, rich and intriguing, I so can't wait to explore more of it. The characters are wonderfully flawed. The heroine is fierce but stumbles her way through a lot of it while the hero is an anti-hero with heroic tendencies. I loved his vulnerability and look forward to watching them both develop over the course of this series. I was originally drawn to this book because of the mention of pirates but there's so much more to it than that, there's politics, intrigue, betrayal, Gods, magic, a Roman like empire, romance (yes a romance which I'm so looking forward to watching grow under a less than conducive environment) and so much more. I highly recommend this book.

Ok, so the blurb of this novel gave me images of swashbuckling pirates and Jack Sparrow-esque captains. After starting to read it, i found that I was ridiculously incorrect in my expectations. Yes, Teriana is a pirate (kind of) but she is more like a strong adventurous woman who travels the seas instead of life highways. And to be honest, I wasn't mad once I got into the story.

From the beginning you get a sense that everyone has a secret. Be it Marcus the stoic warrior, Quintus and Miki his faithful best friends, Teriana the strong adventurer or Cassius the evil leader of the Celendrial Empire. Basically its a whole heap of shady characters pretending not to be shady (I loved it to be honest). There's murder and intrigue and basically Jensen wrote characters that grabbed me and wouldn't let go.

As I said earlier, when I went in I expected pirates and swashbuckling. Instead <em>Dark Shores</em> has a very Roman Empire conquering the East feel. From the very beginning, I had a sense of sprawling buildings, Pantheon style government buildings and structured societies. When the story finally took them to Arinoquia, I could almost see the huts of less civilised society, feel the grit and hardship its occupants have endured. I found myself researching subjects I haven't studied in a long time just to give me better context as to the novels surrounds - I'm not a history buff but it ignited a want for knowledge I haven't felt for a long time.

This being a fantasy novel, I expected grand expanses and a lot of action. <em>Dark Shores</em> does not disappoint. Between the Gods fighting in the middle of the ocean to the armada of ships crossing it, I was hooked. The initial invasion felt small and civil but by the time the army marches on a common enemy, the sheer size of Celendrial's forces becomes apparent. By the final pages, I wanted more and was absolutely enthralled with the story.

Here is where I want to mention the fact that Jensen writes amazing villains. And <em>Dark Shores</em> has MORE THAN ONE!!! Cassius is so positively uptight and scheming, I instantly fell in love with his nasty (except with the bit where he killed someone I kinda liked). But there was another one on Arinoquia and I was astounded that it turned out to be someone I didn't expect.

Basically I really loved this novel. It was all things essential in an adventure. Jensen writes the perfect mix of adventure, fantasy and romance and I can't wait for the next instalment to arrive. Its a perfect score for a perfect novel.

First off, what a beautiful cover! Just the artwork alone made me want to pick up the book and read it! When i started reading Dark Shores, I thought it was going to be another swashbuckling pirate story but I was wrong. It was so much more. I loved Teriana because although she was tough, she still had a soft, insecure side to her that we got to see and made her much more likable as a character. Same goes for Legatius Marcus. Great first book to I what I feel is going to be an epic new series and I cant wait to see where it goes.

Overall, I liked Dark Shores. It wasn’t great, but I didn’t hate it.

Dark Shores is written in alternating perspectives between our two leads: Teriana, a Maarin pirate, and Marcus, a high ranking officer of the Celendor army. Personally, I am not a fan of multiple perspectives. I didn’t hate it in Dark Shores, but I still ended up preferring Marcus’ chapters over Teriana. Teriana is a POC protagonist (yay for some diversity!), but her character became annoying quickly and did not really live up to her supposed pirate ways. There was no swagger. Marcus, overall, seemed like a decent guy. And I did like the relationship Marcus and Teriana had with the rest of Marcus' troops. They didn't seem one dimensional. They all had distinct personalities.

The romance also was lacking. I love a good hate to love romance, but I don’t think this book pulled it off all that well. The chemistry was not there. There was no tension.

Overall, the ending was pretty anticlimactic. I have liked Jenson’s work in the past, Stolen Songbird, but I just didn’t connect with Dark Shores as much as that one. If there’s a sequel, I think I’ll skip it.

A gripping fantasy with a cast of characters so compelling they'll have you wondering whose side you're supposed to be on.

I love a sassy pirate which was what made me pick up Dark Shores, and Jensen didn't disappoint. Teriana was strong, fierce, and resilient when forced to betray her faith to protect her people. She's equally matched with Marcus, trained as a soldier since he was a child, but a natural leader with a knack for manipulation. And it wasn't just our MCs who were multifaceted. Even Jensen's side characters had depth and personality, each one adding a unique and intriguing layer to the story.

But perhaps my favorite thing about this book was the setting. Jensen's world building was nothing short of incredible. The lands she created were unique with descriptions of their people, their customs, and their landscapes so vivid I could practically taste the salt in the air or feel the heat of the Arinoquian sun. It's been a while since I've been introduced to a world so real, I swear I could find it if I just opened the right wardrobe.

5/5 stars for a story that will hook you from page one, make you question everything, and have you begging for the sequel

Ive read Danielle Jensen's Malediction series and I adored it. She has such a way with words and world building. I was very excited to see her releasing another magical series, but this time involving pirates! I was not let down at all. The main character is a wonderful badass and I loved her. She is strong but still human. The book was paced perfectly and the characters were amazing. The villains were extremely detestable and the plot was great. I ripped through this one and am excited for more from this author!

4.5 stars.

300 meets Pirate's of the Caribbean. A mash up that you didn't know you needed in your life. Political, dark and full of strategic calculations. This is a story that can appeal to a variety of different people.

I've not read many roman inspired works that I have enjoyed as much as I enjoyed this. I think without the unique aspects of pirates and gods, I may not have been so captivated. But it all blends seamlessly into each other, and creates a wonderful, complex, world.

A fantastic blend of diverse ethnicities, that I am so happy to see more and more of in modern literature. To have characters that you can relate to, not only on a spiritual level, but on a physical one too. To read about empowering women, and women of colour as the main characters in books is something that I am adoring, and Dark Shores delivers on that.

If I had anything negative to say, it would be that I had wanted Teriana's character to be a little more consistent. I like characters with depth and that have multiple sides to them, and she certainly has that. But I found sometimes that her reactions to certain situations weren't always consistent with who she is as a character. The smallest of niggles, it really doesn't detract from the story at all.

I look forward to the next book, and seeing how far Teriana and Marcus can go.

Jenson's writing is fast and fun and will make a good recommendation for reluctant readers! I will absolutely recommend this to my high school students looking for a fast paced and romantically fun fantasy.

Dark Shores is one of my most anticipated releases of 2019 so you know I most definitly threw a party and maybe a handful of glitter when I was approved for this arc..

The story takes you on-board a thrilling , suspenseful and exciting; filled with adventure and you’d never want to abandon ship.

Speaking of the title, Dark Shores is actually a location known in the west where six very prominent Gods resides and those marked by one of the Gods receive special abilities in relation to the God/Goddess that marks them. I found this absolutely fascinating and it created a world that I easily could immerse myself in. It really surprised me with its Epic genre. Talk of war, and high ranking divisions made this feel mature and it didn't allow the characters to fall into the normal YA trope traps. Every single character wormed their way into my heart, and by the end of the book I found myself invested in the outcome of their fates. Every triumph filled me with celebratory cheer while every loss and betrayal made me fume and rage inside. I very much cared about what happened to these characters, which made this one an easy read. Together with the fast pace of the plot, I just flew through this book.

I also liked what the story had to say about defining yourself and your identity. I think it explores some rather important coming-of-age lessons. Sometimes familiar ideas work just fine when you combine them with a story that’s fun to its very core (though you should still brace yourself for some eventual tensions and heartbreak) and characters who have great chemistry and infectious personalities.