Dark Skies by Danielle L. Jensen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed reading Dark Shores last year and consider it to be an extremely underrated YA Fantasy novel.
Going into this second installment, I was completely prepared to enjoy it, but Dark Skies takes it to a whole new level.
One very interesting point of note on the format of this series, which I was unaware of going into this, is that this book’s storyline runs parallel to the storyline of Dark Shores.
I expected this to be a linear continuation of the series, picking up directly after the events of the first book.
However, that is not this case. This book follows two completely different perspectives during the course of the same period of time as the first book.
It was so interesting to see the story unfold this way. Lydia, one of the protagonists in this book, is a side character in Dark Shores. The other protagonist, Killian, is new, I believe.
Lydia lives within the Celandor Empire and she was actually the impetus for a great many of the events in Dark Shores, but as the reader, you don’t know the whole story.
Dark Skies fills it in. Not only does this book fill in some missing pieces, it continues to grow the world at an impressive rate.
Lydia meets Killian when she is forced to flee her home due to a botched assassination plot. She ends up in the West, on the far side of the endless sea.
Killian is a solider, marked by the God of War for great things. He is sworn to protect the Princess of Mudamore, a principality on the brink of war.
There are too many incredible elements of this story, but some of my favorites include: Lydia’s character arc, the brutal world that seems inspired by ancient Rome, the political intrigue, the dangerous, dragon-like creatures terrorizing the city by night, the blight infecting the citizens and yes, the extremely slow-burn romance.
This book is close to 500-pages and there is always something going on. These characters have to constantly be on guard and it certainly made me tense.
I had no idea where this was going to go. There is so much left to this story and I was shocked and delighted to learn, this is slated to be a 4-book series!
If you have not picked this series up yet, I highly recommend giving it a shot.
Personally, I did enjoy this more than Dark Shores and that’s saying a lot. I think the main reason is because of Lydia and Killian. Not their relationship, well yes, that helps, but just because I loved each of them both as characters.
Lydia is the legit best. A bookworm who gets in over her head and then learns to be a certifiable badass. Talk about coming out of your shell!
I cannot wait for the next book in the series, which if I understand correctly, will follow the events of the first two books and will have all four main character perspectives: Teriana and Marcus, from Dark Shores, and Lydia and Killian, from Dark Skies.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Tor Teen, for providing me with a copy of this to read and review.
I am really looking forward to continuing with this series!