Depths Books in Order

The Depths duology takes a different route from Barsetti's other series. Instead of starting with open war between kingdoms, it starts with a young heir who is supposed to take the throne of Barclay when she turns twenty two. Because no woman has ever ruled there, the pressure is already high. Then a trusted older ally betrays her and sends her over the edge into the Depths, a place most people treat like a death sentence.

The series keeps asking what leadership looks like when a crown no longer protects anyone.

What she finds below is not empty darkness but a whole surviving world. In The Depths, the underground realm is home to the obsidians, led by Morco, and life revolves around the apricum, a glowing source of light that should mean safety but usually means violence. People kill for it, chase it, and move because of it. That makes the setting feel closed in, unstable, and dangerous in a very physical way.

Light is never simple here.

Because the world is so tight, the series leans hard into survival. Food, shelter, trust, leadership, and belonging all have to be earned. The romance grows out of that pressure. Morco is not a polished court hero, and the heroine is not dealing with ballroom politics anymore. They are trying to keep people alive, make sense of betrayal, and decide what kind of future their community can still claim.

The Shadows pushes that survival angle even further. The tribe has to flee toward Stoneworth while carrying the elderly, protecting women close to childbirth, and staying ahead of enemies who want the light for themselves. The danger is not abstract. It sits in the route, the bodies, and the fact that every delay can turn deadly.

That is what makes Depths feel distinct inside Barsetti's catalog. It is still romantic, still dark, and still full of tension between strong willed leads, but it trades royal spectacle for a more intimate kind of pressure. If you like subterranean fantasy, harsh survival settings, protective leaders, and stories where community matters as much as the couple at the center, this is the series to pick up.