The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen the first book in The Bridge Kingdom series.

 

Good but I’m not sure if its for me.

 

“The last thing she heard before she faded from consciousness was the king’s resigned voice: “What have I gotten myself into with you?””

 

Lara is a princess trained from the age of five along with 20 of her sisters to be an assassin and her main goal would be to kill the king of Ithicana, the mortal enemy of her father Silas Veliant king of Maridrina.

Unbeknownst to her sisters Laura Knows that the king intents to kill everyone in the compound, they were raised in, except the chosen princess. Her trainers and keepers taught her of the ruthlessness of king of Ithicana and his people, she has been taught that the people of Ithicana is directly responsible for the suffering and starvation of the people of Maridrina. The chosen princess must therefore fulfill a 15-year-old treaty and marry the crown prince, now king, of Ithicana, she must find and figure out the navel secrets of Ithicana and deliver them back to her father. By any means necessary. If she fails, she will be killed.

 

““Ready the caravan. We ride for Ithicana tonight.” Then he smiled at her as though she were the most precious of things. “It’s time for my daughter to meet her future husband.””

I’m not exactly sure if I think I fits into the fantasy romance section, sure the story is set in a different universe, but there’s no magic, technically I know it fits, but personally I think it’s missing something for it to be a fantasy. The world that Danielle L. Jensen build, felt very confused to me, I had so many questions, why is the bridge even necessary? Why has the bridge never been conquered? how as Ithicana even survived that long.

“It was the bridge stretching above and between those islands—the only safe way to travel between the continents ten months out of the year. And Ithicana used its asset to keep the kingdoms who depended on trade hungry. Desperate. And most of all, willing to pay any price the Bridge Kingdom demanded for its services.”

First of all, it sounds impossible that there would be storms ravaging the sea between the continent 10 months out of the year, and that it would only take an hour to get from a continent to the first island on either end of the bridge, it seems unlikely that it would take very long to sail from one coast to another when it only takes days to walk from one end of the bridge to another. It also feels very unlikely to be a place where people would want to settle, if its not the sea that kills you, it’s the snakes or the spiders.

“Lara knew as much as—probably more than—most Maridrinians did about Ithicana. It was a kingdom as shrouded in mystery as it was in mist: a series of islands stretching between two continents, the land masses guarded by violent seas made more treacherous by defenses the Ithicanians had placed in the waters to ward off infiltrators.”

No matter how defendable something is that doesn’t mean that there is no way to conquer it. I’m sorry but the fact that the bridge is the only way across would just make people try harder. Its impossible that it would stand forever and never be taken.

Like I said more questions than answers, and that’s the kind of thing that keeps me up at night, and if not that then at least it can ruin a good book for me.

Lara was likeable enough, but I feel like she was too Naïve and a little too full of daddy issues to be able to succeed in her task. Aren is maybe even worse, he is a king trying to defend a nation, and he marries the daughter of a “former” enemy, and he starts to tell her secrets almost form the first day. I feel like that is way too naïve and if the island nation are ruled by a council as well as a king I believe they would at least intervene when they noticed him telling their secrets. And if he’s not naïve then he’s at least extremely gullible.

The plot was actually very good if you could overlook some of the questions I have already raised, and I really like the way the story was going. And I didn’t at the same time. I’m not a fan of books where the main protagonist becomes the bad guy I hate it gives me a stomach ache, but at the same time the book was well written and I just couldn’t put it down.

I liked the book, and I didn’t like the book, I’m very torn about this.  The book is good I recommend it to others but I’m not sure if it’s for me.

3 out of 4 stars from me

I will finish the series because I have to know what happens.