Danielle L. Jensen Books in Order: 5 Series, 18 Books

Here are Danielle L. Jensen books in order, all five series on her site: The Bridge Kingdom (six books, finished), Saga of the Unfated (two, finished), the new Sundering Duet, Dark Shores and the Malediction Trilogy. That's 18 books, not counting a short story and bonus chapters. Read each series on its own, in publication order, and start adult readers on The Bridge Kingdom. Defy the Dusk, book 1 of the Sundering Duet, is due November 3, 2026.

In The Bridge Kingdom, book 3 starts before book 1 ends, and the author posts a 54-step timeline guide for anyone who wants the story in the order it happened. We'll show you where it jumps, and why we'd still save it for a second pass.

Danielle L. Jensen books in order, series by series

Dates are first-publication dates from Goodreads, with Defy the Dusk from Penguin Random House. The labels in quotes come from each book's page at danielleljensen.com, so they're hers. She splits the shelf in two: Adult Books and YA Books.

Image: FaeShelf chart, from Goodreads first-published dates and Penguin Random House, checked October 20, 2026

The Bridge Kingdom (adult, six books, finished)

1. The Bridge Kingdom (2018)
2. The Traitor Queen (2020)
3. The Inadequate Heir (2022)
4. The Endless War (2023)
5. The Twisted Throne (2024)
6. The Tempest Blade (2025; Del Rey print edition April 14, 2026)

Start here. It's her most-rated book on Goodreads (4.04 from 256,132 ratings on October 20), and Penguin Random House's Defy the Dusk description still sells the new book as "From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Bridge Kingdom". Each duology follows a different couple: Lara and Aren, then Zarrah and Keris, then Ahnna and James. Her page files book 1 as "Adult romantic fantasy" with "No magic or supernatural elements, i.e. realistic fantasy", so don't come in expecting fae. The finale has "Six points of view" across all three couples. Del Rey publishes the current editions; the Bridge Kingdom series page has all six.

Saga of the Unfated (adult, two books, finished)

1. A Fate Inked in Blood (2024)
2. A Curse Carved in Bone (2025)

The Norse one, told by one narrator ("Single point of view (Freya)") in a world her page calls "Norse inspired". It's a finished duology, and when a reader asked in her May 2026 r/Fantasyromance AMA whether she'd go back to that world, Jensen answered, "I have no current plans to return to that world." Goodreads has book 1 at 3.89 from 209,156 ratings. Our Saga of the Unfated page has both.

The Sundering Duet (adult, book 1 due November 3, 2026)

1. Defy the Dusk (November 3, 2026)

Her page calls it "the first book of a gritty post-apocalyptic fantasy duology". More on it in the countdown below.

Dark Shores (YA, four books plus a prequel, finished)

• Book 1: Dark Shores (2019)
• Book 2: Dark Skies (2020)
• Prequel: Tarnished Empire, "THE PREQUEL" (January 2021)
• Book 3: Gilded Serpent (April 2021)
• Book 4: Scorched Earth (2025)

Books 1 and 2 follow different couples, and Macmillan's page says "Readers may read either Dark Shores or Dark Skies first!" The author goes one better with a tandem guide: "Dark Shores and Dark Skies can be read together to create a multiple POV experience." She wrote them as one book, she says, but publishers worried readers would be put off by "a thousand page YA novel", so the four points of view meet again in Gilded Serpent. Goodreads files Tarnished Empire as book 0.5, ahead of Dark Shores; we'd read it where it came out, between books 2 and 3, like the rest of this list. In her AMA she called this one "my favorite of my series". The Dark Shores series page tracks all five.

The Malediction Trilogy (YA, three books plus a prequel)

1. Stolen Songbird (2014)
2. Hidden Huntress (2015)
3. Warrior Witch (2016)

Plus The Broken Ones (2017), a "PREQUEL" her page says "Readers may read this novel as a standalone or in conjunction with the Malediction Trilogy", and The Songbird's Overture, a short story "that takes place prior to Stolen Songbird", free with her newsletter. This is her first series, out in 2014: a singer "kidnapped and bonded to the cursed prince of Trollus", in a world her page calls "inspired by the French Revolution". Stolen Songbird sits at 3.88 from 32,071 ratings.

The big trap in Danielle L. Jensen books in order: book 3 starts early

The Inadequate Heir overlaps the first two books. The author's own Timeline Reading Guide opens with "Each duology of the Bridge Kingdom series follows a different couple, and there is some timeline overlap," and the overlap is big. Her guide puts chapters 1 to 3 of The Inadequate Heir between chapters 38 and 39 of The Bridge Kingdom, then runs books 2 and 3 side by side, a few chapters at a time, up to chapter 66 of The Traitor Queen and chapter 88 of The Inadequate Heir. There's a smaller overlap later, too: the guide slots chapters 1 to 25 of The Twisted Throne in before chapter 72 of The Endless War.

Image: FaeShelf chart, from the Timeline Reading Guide on danielleljensen.com, checked October 20, 2026

We count 54 steps in the guide, six of them bonus chapters. The Tempest Blade is a single step, "C. 1 - 107", so the finale reads straight through. The bonus chapters are "included in the backs of the ebook and paperback editions published by Del Rey and Del Rey UK (Penguin)", and the series page also links them free. One set has a Goodreads entry of its own: The Calm Before the Storm, listed there as book 3.5 when we checked on October 20, is "six chapters of extra content" now "included in the back of the U.S. & Canada ebook & paperback editions of The Inadequate Heir", so there's no need to buy it on its own if you have that edition.

Read the six books in publication order on a first pass. We'd argue the overlap works best that way: you see book 2's events again from Zarrah and Keris's side after you've already lived them with Lara and Aren. Use the timeline guide on a reread. That order is our advice; her guide doesn't say which one to use first.

Readers in one 41-comment r/Fantasyromance thread split on that overlap, though only three of them spoke to it. One, nearly done with book 3, wrote in August (1 point) that they "really don't love how it's just a repeat of the same events from book 2 from different POVs." Two liked it, both back in June. u/jenjenjene (3 points) wrote that earlier events "are shown from the perspective of other characters, which I found really satisfying", and u/snailfighter (4 points) went further:

"Very rarely do sequels reframe first books in a way that make me appreciate and respect the way the author crafted POVs and lead me to like the earlier books better." If the first reader sounds like you, skim the parts of book 3 that retell book 2, which run all the way to its chapter 88, or switch to the timeline guide there. If you're with the other two, publication order it is.

How spicy are Danielle L. Jensen's books?

Her adult series are the spicy ones, and she says so herself. Her FAQ answer: "The Bridge Kingdom and Saga of the Unfated books are the spiciest, with mild sexual content that gradually gets spicier with each book. Intimate acts are fully described on the page, though there are typically only two-three scenes per book." Her YA series run lighter, from fade-to-black scenes up to "one-two scenes of on-page intimacy" in the later Dark Shores books.

Two or three fully described scenes a book is more than one explicit scene, which makes it a 4 on our spice scale, and that's the number our pages give Bridge Kingdom books 1 to 4. For the rest of her shelf we quote her pages instead of numbering every series, because they don't always say the same thing. Here's how they put it:

Her pages disagree in one place. The FAQ gives Tarnished Empire "one-two scenes of on-page intimacy", while the Tarnished Empire page lists "Fade to black sexual content". Gilded Serpent's page also calls it "Fantasy romance (adult or new adult)", but that block looks copied from The Bridge Kingdom's page: it lists "Dual point of view (Lara & Aren)" and "No magic or supernatural elements", while her Dark Shores pages follow Teriana and Marcus, then Lydia and Killian. Everything else says YA. The FAQ files Dark Shores as "a Young Adult series", Macmillan lists Gilded Serpent's genre as "Young Adult", and her Tarnished Empire and Scorched Earth pages say "Young adult fantasy". For lighter picks, we keep a low-spice romantasy list.

Countdown: Defy the Dusk, due November 3, 2026

Defy the Dusk is 13 days out from this post. Penguin Random House lists the Del Rey hardcover at $36.00 and 672 pages, "Available on Nov 03, 2026", with the ebook the same day and a 25-hour audiobook read by Jay Myers and Emily Shaffer. Penguin's UK page has the Del Rey hardback out there the same day, 03/11/2026, at £20.00.

Her page files it as "Adult Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy" with "Main characters are 29 & 38", a "Dual point of view" and "an alternate world with magic", while all six Bridge Kingdom pages say "No magic or supernatural elements". The pitch: twenty years ago, Lirien's magic "fractured the world", and she's abducted by Vox, "the king of the feralists", who gives her two choices: "Fight the creatures that hunt the night or be fed to them." In the AMA, Jensen said it's "very much inspired by my life long love of Mad Max" and "very high speed, high intensity, with few quiet moments". The Library Journal blurb on her page still promises "a satisfying slow-burn romance", and her content warnings list "Explicit (consensual) sexual content". On our scale that's a 3 (Open door), from Danielle L. Jensen's note. It's one step below Bridge Kingdom because her FAQ's scene count names only The Bridge Kingdom and Saga of the Unfated, so it doesn't cover this book.

Goodreads has early readers at 4.49 from 399 ratings on October 20, which is a small sample. It's book one of two, and her Upcoming page lists no date for book 2 yet. The Defy the Dusk book page has the details, and it's on our November 2026 release list.

Our take

Pick by what you came for. If it's the enemies-to-lovers political saga, start The Bridge Kingdom at book 1 and read all six in publication order. It's finished, so nothing's left hanging. If you want a shorter commitment, Saga of the Unfated is two books and finished. If you'd rather start with Defy the Dusk, go ahead: it opens a new duology in what the blurb calls "the Sundered world".

We'd put Dark Shores higher than its ratings counts suggest, because of the tandem guide. Two books that read as one four-POV story, by the author's design, is reason enough to try it. It's YA all the way through, but the heat climbs: book 1 fades to black, and the FAQ puts on-page intimacy in Gilded Serpent and Scorched Earth, so check those two before you hand them to a younger teen. For more finished series to binge, see our list of completed romantasy series. Readers who came from Throne of Glass can check where The Bridge Kingdom sits in our books like Throne of Glass picks.

Related Reading

• Romantasy series reading order guide: reading orders for the big series in one place.
• Katee Robert books in order: another author with several series, sorted the same way.
• Books like Fourth Wing: where A Fate Inked in Blood shows up among the picks.
• Books like From Blood and Ash: The Bridge Kingdom next to other enemies-to-lovers series.

References

• Danielle L. Jensen: homepage (series menu, Defy the Dusk)
• Danielle L. Jensen: Adult Books
• Danielle L. Jensen: YA Books
• Danielle L. Jensen: Contact & FAQ (heat and reading order)
• Danielle L. Jensen: The Bridge Kingdom series (timeline guide, bonus chapters)
• Danielle L. Jensen: The Bridge Kingdom
• Danielle L. Jensen: The Tempest Blade
• Danielle L. Jensen: A Fate Inked in Blood
• Danielle L. Jensen: Defy the Dusk
• Danielle L. Jensen: Upcoming
• Danielle L. Jensen: The Dark Shores series (tandem guide)
• Danielle L. Jensen: Gilded Serpent
• Danielle L. Jensen: Tarnished Empire
• Danielle L. Jensen: Dark Skies
• Danielle L. Jensen: Scorched Earth
• Danielle L. Jensen: The Broken Ones
• Danielle L. Jensen: Stolen Songbird
• Penguin Random House: Defy the Dusk
• Penguin UK: Defy the Dusk
• Penguin Random House: The Tempest Blade
• Penguin Random House: A Curse Carved in Bone
• Macmillan: Dark Shores
• Macmillan: Gilded Serpent
• Macmillan: Scorched Earth
• Goodreads: The Bridge Kingdom series
• Goodreads: The Calm Before the Storm
• Goodreads: The Malediction Trilogy
• Goodreads: Dark Shores series
• r/Fantasyromance: Danielle L. Jensen AMA
• r/Fantasyromance: How do we feel about Bridge Kingdom?