Danielle L. Jensen – Past Midnight Book Reviews & More

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Title: The Bridge Kingdom

Author: Danielle L. Jensen

Format: eBook (owned)

Pages: 354

Categories: Fantasy, Adult Fiction, Romance, Enemies to Lovers

What if you fell in love with the one person you’d sworn to destroy?

Lara has only one thought for her husband on their wedding day: I will bring your kingdom to its knees. A princess trained from childhood to be a lethal spy, Lara knows that the Bridge Kingdom represents both legendary evil – and legendary promise. The only route through a storm-ravaged world, the Bridge Kingdom controls all trade and travel between lands, allowing its ruler to enrich himself and deprive his enemies, including Lara’s homeland. So when she is sent as a bride under the guise of fulfilling a treaty of peace, Lara is prepared to do whatever it takes to fracture the defenses of the impenetrable Bridge Kingdom.

But as she infiltrates her new home – a lush paradise surrounded by tempest seas – and comes to know her new husband, Aren, Lara begins to question where the true evil resides. Around her, she sees a kingdom fighting for survival, and in Aren, a man fiercely protective of his people. As her mission drives her to deeper understanding of the fight to possess the bridge, Lara finds the simmering attraction between her and Aren impossible to ignore.

Her goal nearly within reach, Lara will have to decide her own fate: Will she be the destroyer of a king or the savior of her people?

When I saw this book as an Audible on Amazon, it made me look twice. I thought, didn’t Danielle L. Jensen just release a young adult book this year? I love her books, so I was pretty sure I would have known she was releasing another novel. I didn’t even know about The Bridge Kingdom! It was just by coincidence that I saw it released the ebooks and physical copies on Tuesday. I bought the ebook without a second thought because I didn’t have the patience to wait for the hard copy.

It was everything I’ve been craving lately in a book! It’s like this author just knew I was needing this book. And just to reiterate because she writes young adult novels – this one is an adult novel, so yes there is a sex scene and thank goodness because the tension between Lara and Aren was building up so much. I was going to be irritated if they didn’t hook up. 🤷🏻‍♀️😅

At the end of chapter one, I was like this…😳 and I think I gasped and said, “what is this?!” Maybe because it described Lara with eleven half-sisters, I was like oooo, is this a Twelve Dancing Princesses re-telling? 😂 This goes to show I knew NOTHING about what this book would be about, I didn’t even really read the blurb, I saw the author on this and bought it without thought. So NO this is not about dancing princesses at all, unless you count spy and assassin skills as “dancing”.

Lara and her half-sisters are daughters of the Rat King, Silas Veliant, the King of Maridrina. Maridrina is a desert country where the people are starving and the king blames the kingdom of Ithicana for all its woes. Ithicana is the hub of trade but it is called The Bridge Kingdom because they have a bridge that is central to this successful trade business and no one has been able to capture it. A peace treaty between the two kingdoms promises a Maridrina bride to the King of Ithicana. This is how Silas wants to bring down Ithicana, by marrying King Aren to one of his trained daughters.

The world building is fascinating and I wish the eBook had a map of the kingdoms. Maridrina like I said is a dry, desert country. Ithicana is in the middle of the sea with high cliffs, a bridge, and islands all around. Because it is a bunch of islands, the foliage is lush, the air is humid and they deal with venomous snakes that populate the island and also sharks that thrive in the waters. There is mention of other kingdoms and maybe we will learn more about them in the sequels.

This book has political intrigue, a steamy slow burn romance, action, bloody battles, and betrayal! By the time I got to the end, and yes I read this in one day, I was kicking myself for not reading this nearer to it’s sequel release date.

I was begging silently for Lara to open her eyes to her father’s scheming ways – ugh because I knew it would only end in heartbreak! I mean, all of it was kind of predictable after the first chapter but it was still so good. I don’t mind if something is predictable as long as it’s still entertaining.

Lara, has been raised in the most awful way. She has been conditioned and tortured to believe Ithicana is their enemy and nothing else matters but taking them down. She’s not sweet, she’s an assassin, a spy, a liar and she’s so good at what she does. We see her plans unravel slowly as she learns about King Aren and Ithicana. Though she has all these skills to deceive, Lara also finds she has weaknesses, like the fear of the ocean that surrounds Ithicana and caring for her sisters. King Aren, on the other hand was raised with the love of the Ithicana people. He is smart, a fierce fighter and strong leader who loves his people. In the end he has a weakness too, Lara. 😭

And then that ending. 😩 It’s a cliffhanger and the way it ends makes me want the second book in my hands right now. I need Lara to use her badass skills for good. I need to see how she can fix things and I need her and Aren to be together – though I don’t know how that will happen right now. 😢 Lara has a tough road ahead but I believe in her. I will count down the days until the sequel is released!

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Author: Danielle L. Jensen

Format: E-book

Pages: 368

Categories: Adventure Politics, Gods, Magic, Young Adult, Fantasy

Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**

Book Blurb:

In a world divided by meddlesome gods and treacherous oceans, only the Maarin possess the knowledge to cross the Endless Seas. But they have one mandate: East must never meet West.

A PIRATE WITH A WILL OF IRON
Teriana is the second mate of the Quincense and heir to the Maarin Triumvirate. Her people are born of the seas and the keepers of its secrets, but when her closest friend is forced into an unwanted betrothal, Teriana breaks her people’s mandate so her friend might escape―a choice with devastating consequences.

A SOLDIER WITH A SECRET
Marcus is the commander of the Thirty-Seventh, the notorious legion that has led the Celendor Empire to conquer the entire East. The legion is his family, but even they don’t know the truth he’s been hiding since childhood. It’s a secret he’ll do anything to protect, no matter how much it costs him – and the world.

A DANGEROUS QUEST
When an Empire senator discovers the existence of the Dark Shores, he captures Teriana’s crew and threatens to reveal Marcus’s secret unless they sail in pursuit of conquest, forcing the two into an unlikely―and unwilling―alliance. They unite for the sake of their families, but both must decide how far they are willing to go, and how much they are willing to sacrifice.

MY REVIEW

This morning I’m trying to function due to lack of sleep because I was reading Dark Shores last night. And when a book leaves my heart racing, my nerves shaking and I whisper/cry out “No! I need more!” (because everyone is asleep in the house) then to me, it’s a really ah-mazing book. So far, it’s one of my top three favorite reads of 2019.

I was excited to learn this was written by the same author who wrote The Malediction Series, which I loved. The blurb for Dark Shores sounded intriguing: pirates? A soldier ? A quest? I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Don’t go into this book thinking it’s a typical “pirate” book, with adventures on the high-seas. This is not like the Pirate of the Caribbeans movie. It’s not swashbuckling and pirating, there is time spent journeying on a ship (there wasn’t much pirating going on) but this book takes place a lot on land. It has political intrigue, epic action, a sea monster, battle scenes between Gods, battle scenes among men and it’s quite a ride. And when I finished this story I still felt there was so much more to find out about the world of Dark Shores, hence my frustration because it means now I have to wait for the sequel.

Each chapter of this book had me hooked to find out more, I could not stop. Teriana is a sixteen year old girl and part of the crew on her mother’s ship, Quincense. She’s a Maarin, a seafaring people who survives on trade and the only ones in the East who aren’t conquered by the Celendorians. The Celendor Empire is similar to the Roman Empire with a Senate governing body and a large army at their disposal. They are an empire that does not believe in Gods and persecutes those that do.

Teriana and her people hold to a mantra, East must not meet West. Both sides of the world don’t know the other exists, though there are rumors in the East about the Dark Shores. The only way to get to the West is a magical waterway or current that acts as a hidden path between the two sides. But Teriana and her crew know the way between East and West because they have traveled the route countless times. It is a secret her people take to their graves to keep in favor with their Gods. But Teriana tells this secret in a moment of weakness. Teriana’s mistake binds her into a conflict between East and West. Marcus, a commander of the deadly Thirty-Seventh legion is tasked to lead a quest to find this new world, and Teriana has no choice to help him or else the lives of her people are forfeit.

The world building is so well done, and the writing flows beautifully, which is why I was already a fan of this author. There is use of profanity in this story, which I don’t mind at all, but for those who don’t like it, just know it’s there. The scene in the Sea of the Dead gave me goosebumps, I loved how we went from politics and the cerebral world of the empire to Teriana unveiling this new mystical world that is ruled by Gods and the belief in them.

The characters in this story are fantastic. We have Gods, heroes, villains, and side characters that add humor. I cared for Teriana, Marcus and the soldiers. Teriana is a carefree, feisty, worldly but sometimes impulsive girl, somewhat expected from a girl who lived her life in the open seas. Marcus is true to his commander personality: rigid, controlled and loyal to his legion but that doesn’t mean he has no weaknesses. The tension between them is there but the romance doesn’t overtake the book. When Teriana and Marcus finally acknowledge what is happening between them, I was more than ready for it.

The story was like a ship with one destination: forward. Or should I say like a legion of soldiers headed to battle: forward march. The Thirty-Seventh never falls back! 😉 Meaning, this story was relentless and I love it. It made me think about the conquerors and the conquered. Who was more evil, the empire or the corrupted? Who is more to blame? And how can they fix what is happening? This is a book I’m going to be thinking about for awhile and probably rereading a lot before the sequel comes out. This is an outstanding first book in a series and I’m going to be marking my calendar for the release date of the next book.