The Bridge Kingdom—Review

The Bridge Kingdom

Danielle L. Jensen

The bridge kingdom is an enemies-to-lovers romance following Lara and Eren. Lara is bad*** female character; she’s witty, sarcastic, strong willed, and clever. Her character in the book is the foundation of what every strong main female lead should be. Her relationship with her dad—the king, and her sisters is not the best, the author makes it clear that she was the black sheep of the family, however, we do not get much detail about her mother and when she is mentioned it’s always in a sad instance. Which makes me believe that might have been her first thing in common with Aren, well, apart from the part where they both were forced into this marriage.

Aren on the other hand is considerate, caring, and most of all an amazing king, he puts his people’s well-being above his own. Throughout the development of their romance, Aren has opened Lara’s eyes to so much more than what her dad trained her and her sisters to believe; in the process making her question everything she thought to be true. Throughout the book you can see the development of Aren’s character as he interacts with his family and knights. There isn’t much I can say about Aren without spoiling the book, however, if you are anything like me then he’ll definitely fall on your list of book-hubbys.

The development of supporting characters is a key part of the book and I truly must congratulate the author on how amazing and essential the supporting characters are to the plot and the relationship of our main characters.

The romance in this book is everything! A bit steamy around the ending but can be not enough to be uncomfortable. I started reading this book based on a recommendation from TikTok. I won’t stop recommending this book to anyone into fantasy enemies-to-lovers or want to get into enemies-to-lovers, action, arranged marriage, bad*** female characters (not just main) and much more! One thing I did wish I could have gotten more from the book was the world development of not just Ithicana and Maridrina but also Vencia and all the other places mentioned, basically the world in general.

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This man might be a hunter. But he was mistaken if he believed she was prey

Since the moment I set eyes on you in Southwatch, there's been no one but you. Even if I'm a goddamned fool for it, there will never be anyone but you.

All she had ever known was violence. It was nothing to her. And everything.

The image juxtaposed that of her walking up the road at Southwatch on her father’s arm, silk clad and eyes wide: the portrait of a queen he’d worried Ithicana would never accept. Turned out, he’d been wrong.