'The Bridge Kingdom' by Danielle L. Jensen

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bridge-Kingdom-Danielle-L-Jensen-ebook/dp/B07SB6FRDN

Series: A fantasy duology (The Traitor Queen is its sequel)

About the author: Raised in Canada with a degrees in finance and English literature, Jensen predominantly writes young adult fantasy fiction.

Author link: https://danielleljensen.com/

Publisher: Audible Originals

Publish date: 16/10/18

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 defences 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?

Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53921926-the-bridge-kingdom

FTC disclaimer: I was not sent this product. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 6 out of 10

*SPOILER ALERT*

Main review:

Although my numerical rating may seem... well... not all that generous, I did really enjoy certain aspects of this book. I loved the original naval concept of setting with the bridge, its piers, and the various kingdoms. They all felt very real, and were something that I just hadn’t seen before. Jensen’s downfall here was that the locations were not delved into with enough detail at the beginning, and so when it came to the various naval battles, I struggled to remind myself of which side was which. Additionally, the actual architectural ideas could have been described in more detail such as how Eranhal worked, or how the piers connected to the bridge. My ancient history brain noticed and appreciated the nominal parallels between Ithicana and Ithaca, and Vencia and Venice. I also really liked the idea of having a storm season, and how when it wasn’t stormy it was called the ‘War Tides’.

In terms of plot, I think that the ‘assassin that is sent to kill someone but ends up falling in love with him‘ idea is relatively predictable, and can be seen in other fantasy series’ such as the ‘Throne of Glass’ series. Pacing in the book was varied; the opening was a total showstopper. No getting around that. Having a protagonist poison all of her sisters is just an incredibly ballsy move from Jensen, as it made the reader actually have to think ‘is Lara a good person? Am I scared to be taken on a journey with her?’. Sadly, this opening meant that the following chapters felt quite dreary in comparison. There was a lull in action after that, and I was not gripped again until Aren took Lara to Vencia, and they were found out. After this, the tension didn't drop at all - I LOVED the shark passage! The twist at the climatic end was really well crafted. However, I did think the ending was only happening because of a really triggering mistake that we knew was going to blow up in our faces for half the book. But it was still a good ending. So the opening and the ending were fantastic; the chunk in the middle -not so much. It wasn't even filled with character development which would have been a good idea.

One thing that could have been more developed was the actual romance. In a story where a lot of the drama is a consequence of one romantic relationship, I think that the readers deserved a deeper insight in this. I just didn’t find myself rooting for pair, and I felt that the transition from ‘we barely know anything about each other’ to ‘I love you’ just felt abrupt. Lara stopped trying to assassinate Aren, partially because she loved his people and discovered her father’s lies, but partly because she supposedly LOVED HIM. Don’t mistake this book for a slow burn, there just isn't a burn at all until the end when all of the characters were lit on a romantic pyre of doom. I think that the third person descriptions hindered the progression of the romance, as although the chapters were biased (either being labelled Lara or Aren, depending on whose actions you were following) we did not get a strong understanding into how they felt, and why. Of how their mind worked. This book had romantic elements, but I would not call it a romance book.

This leads me nicely onto characterisation. This was perhaps this novel’s fatal flaw. We just didn’t receive all that much. We learnt about political ideals and the odd childhood memory, but I didn’t feel that I knew and understood the characters. And that’s just in terms of the two main ones. The others got such minimal attention that it became obvious that they were just there to move the plot forward instead of enriching the settings and relationships. The only totally likeable characters were Lara and Jor, and the latter was only a minor one! Aren was just dull. Very very dull. His main personality traits were that he was handsome and wanted good things for his people. Oh and his parents had died (lets add in a bit of reader sympathy). And that’s it for Aren. Nonetheless, one thing I can appreciate about a certain characters is that Lara was relatively original. Jensen did not channel her to either be the ‘I’m brave and strong and foolish’ (lets shove a feminist in) or the ‘I’m loyal and shy’ girl, which so often happens in these fantasy or paranormal books. A prime example is the contrast between Bella from ’Twilight’ and the protagonist in Wolff’s ‘Crave’. Lara, on the other hand, had her fears and her flaws, but was still strong. She sacrificed her freedom in the place of her sisters’, providing that empathetic emotional side, but she remained manipulative and captivating. She couldn’t swim, giving her a weakness, but she was powerful in every other sense of the word.

In summary, I’m not sure I would readily recommend this book, but I enjoyed parts of it.

I’m actually surprising myself when I admit that I will definitely read the sequel, as the ending was just too tense to leave alone. However I’m not sure that I‘ll read Jensen again.