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A review by fulltimefiction
The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen
2.0
On the surface, this is a story many of us dig. Enemies to lovers. She’s trained her whole life to be the downfall of her future husband’s kingdom. Betrothed because of a treaty, Lara is sent to marry the evil king of the bridge kingdom. She needs to discover the secrets of the important bridge connecting the continents, its weaknesses, and of course, any flaws that might help take it over. Several kingdoms tried from the outside and failed constantly. Her people are starving because Ithicana is monopolizing trade.
Having been trade all her life as an assassin, a spy, and in a way, a queen, Lara didn’t expect to actually like the people of her new kingdom, they were supposed to be evil, you know?
While I wouldn’t say it’s the most innovative plotline, if done well, I enjoy it immensely. I was looking for a book similar to [b:From Blood and Ash|52831200|From Blood and Ash (Blood and Ash, #1)|Jennifer L. Armentrout|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585598504l/52831200._SX50_.jpg|78982151] but sadly, this one wasn’t nearly as good. I was willing to ignore the boring cover because I’ve learned a long time ago to not judge books by their covers but in this case, the book is actually as dull as its cover.
While I was considering rating this 3 stars, I was looking for any element in this book that might help. I found none. The most interesting thing happened on the last page and made me think of reading the sequel but of course, I won’t.
Why didn’t I like this book you might be wondering?
Well, the characters are so meh. Especially Aren. While Lara was ok at first, Aren didn’t impress me. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dislike them but didn’t care for them either. I couldn’t feel the sexual tension nor the burning chemistry. You’d think that almost nothing happening between the characters until 80% might help. It didn’t. They were bland. And of course, I wasn’t reading this book for the world-building. I was reading it for the romance (NA style in a fantasy world). Oh well.
I also found the world-building lacking. Yes, we got lots of info about Icathana but I wish we knew more about the other kingdoms, their cultures, and how developed they were. This didn’t affect my rating because maybe even we did, I wouldn’t have been interested. Maybe.
Furthermore, I found the behavior of the main characters questionable.
For example, Aren, defending her and choosing her over people who back him up. Like dude, you know her for one month tops, she is the child of your former enemy, while those people would die for you… He trusted her too easily.
I won’t talk about Lara because I’d be spoiling it but I’m not sure if it counts as such because the PLOT WAS SO OBVIOUS. I predicted what’s going to happen from the start and I was thinking if doesn’t, I’ll give it 3 stars. Sadly, I’ve read too many books to not guess but it doesn’t take a genius to guess.I hate that she wasn’t truthful with him. why didn’t Lara at least tell him about her sisters? Why didn’t she frankly explain what she tried to do? This was painfully obvious that it’s going to be sent even if she didn’t want it to.
Another thing is Lara trusting her father too much. When I heard Aren saying “they’ll starve before they see any benefit from this treaty” (or something along these lines), I knew it’s the father who’s the bad guy. While she couldn’t investigate a bit for her own when everything told her otherwise? Her father who treated her horribly suddenly cares about his people?
I’ll keep this short and sum it up by this:
You might enjoy it. Many enjoyed this book. I really wanted to like but it ended up boring and painfully predictable with one-dimensional characters. The secondary ones were actually decent and I would’ve liked to know moresister but I don’t think it’ll make reading Traitor Queen much better. I wish we had more dynamics between the main characters and well, more depth to the story. It had potential but it wasn’t for me.
Having been trade all her life as an assassin, a spy, and in a way, a queen, Lara didn’t expect to actually like the people of her new kingdom, they were supposed to be evil, you know?
While I wouldn’t say it’s the most innovative plotline, if done well, I enjoy it immensely. I was looking for a book similar to [b:From Blood and Ash|52831200|From Blood and Ash (Blood and Ash, #1)|Jennifer L. Armentrout|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1585598504l/52831200._SX50_.jpg|78982151] but sadly, this one wasn’t nearly as good. I was willing to ignore the boring cover because I’ve learned a long time ago to not judge books by their covers but in this case, the book is actually as dull as its cover.
While I was considering rating this 3 stars, I was looking for any element in this book that might help. I found none. The most interesting thing happened on the last page and made me think of reading the sequel but of course, I won’t.
Why didn’t I like this book you might be wondering?
Well, the characters are so meh. Especially Aren. While Lara was ok at first, Aren didn’t impress me. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dislike them but didn’t care for them either. I couldn’t feel the sexual tension nor the burning chemistry. You’d think that almost nothing happening between the characters until 80% might help. It didn’t. They were bland. And of course, I wasn’t reading this book for the world-building. I was reading it for the romance (NA style in a fantasy world). Oh well.
I also found the world-building lacking. Yes, we got lots of info about Icathana but I wish we knew more about the other kingdoms, their cultures, and how developed they were. This didn’t affect my rating because maybe even we did, I wouldn’t have been interested. Maybe.
Furthermore, I found the behavior of the main characters questionable.
For example, Aren, defending her and choosing her over people who back him up. Like dude, you know her for one month tops, she is the child of your former enemy, while those people would die for you… He trusted her too easily.
I won’t talk about Lara because I’d be spoiling it but I’m not sure if it counts as such because the PLOT WAS SO OBVIOUS. I predicted what’s going to happen from the start and I was thinking if doesn’t, I’ll give it 3 stars. Sadly, I’ve read too many books to not guess but it doesn’t take a genius to guess.
Another thing is Lara trusting her father too much. When I heard Aren saying “they’ll starve before they see any benefit from this treaty” (or something along these lines), I knew it’s the father who’s the bad guy. While she couldn’t investigate a bit for her own when everything told her otherwise? Her father who treated her horribly suddenly cares about his people?
I’ll keep this short and sum it up by this:
You might enjoy it. Many enjoyed this book. I really wanted to like but it ended up boring and painfully predictable with one-dimensional characters. The secondary ones were actually decent and I would’ve liked to know more