By Danielle L. Jensen

“A warrior princess trained in isolation, Lara is driven by two certainties. The first is that King Aren of the Bridge Kingdom is her enemy. And the second is that she’ll be the one to bring him to his knees. The only route through a storm-ravaged world, the Bridge Kingdom enriches itself and deprives its rivals, including Lara’s homeland. So when she’s sent as a bride under the guise of peace, Lara is prepared to do whatever it takes to fracture its impenetrable defenses. And the defenses of its king. Yet as she infiltrates her new home and gains a deeper understanding of the war to possess the bridge, Lara begins to question whether she’s the hero or the villain. And as her feelings for Aren transform from frosty hostility to fierce passion, Lara must choose which kingdom she’ll save… and which kingdom she’ll destroy.” (Goodreads).

This is one of those books that’s great for entertainment if you don’t think about it too hard. It was definitely very focused on the romance rather than political intrigue or character development, and not a lot of plot points made sense. I read all the way to the end, but I probably won’t be picking up the next book in the series.

Unfortunately, the plot was very poor. I saw some people complaining in other reviews about how it got slow on the romance in the last two acts and heavier on politics, but my exact problem with the book was that all there was was romance. Every plot point simply served to advance the main characters’ relationship or show their character traits.

Some parts didn’t even make sense – it was like a Hallmark movie with the amount of unnecessary misunderstandings and overblown reactions. Not to mention that the romance wasn’t slow-burn at all – the two main characters immediately fell for each other (or at least were nice to each other) way too early for people who are supposed to be enemies.

This was another dual POV, which was fun but I think way too obviously showed the MMC’s thoughts and feelings. It kind of defeated the fun of an (almost) slow burn romance to always know what he thought about her. The dramatic irony it created just became annoying with how many things they could’ve just told each other.

The pacing was fine, though I didn’t feel that there was ever a climax or peak event. The beginning was pretty slow, with the FMC just learning about her new home, and then suddenly there were three important events right in a row with little actual action occurring. And then the book was over.

I didn’t like the description of Lara, either. All they could talk about was how muscular she was an also her perfect chest. I literally don’t know anything about her other than that.

I feel bad because this review is not turning out great, but I guess I’ll keep going…

None of the characters felt very real to me. They were all cookie-cutter versions of the Tough (but super hot and feminine) Female Character and the Rough Warrior King with a Soft Heart. Their only personality traits involved blind loyalty to their countries and very quick love for each other.

The side characters were honestly more interesting, and I wish we would’ve seen more of them or heard more of their backstories. They all had complicated relationships with the main characters, and I would’ve liked to have seen that explored more.

I would give The Bridge Kingdom three stars, rounded up. While it could pass as entertaining, I’m not a fan of fantasy that behaves like a simplistic beach read. Fantasy in its essence involves imagination and magical things the real world doesn’t have, making it necessarily more complex (if you want to convey the fantasy vibe). This was another one of those newer BookTok algorithm snacks that only exists for grown-up fantasy readers to indulge in imagining themselves with a tortured past and a hot warrior king boyfriend. Although, if you like that, I don’t mean to offend and I would recommend!

Definitely skip if you’re a Christian girly looking for a healthy future relationship. One of the biggest problems I see in current BookTok books is not all the word-corn or morally questionable men, but that it makes girls think men are supposed to act a certain way, say certain things, and exist completely as a perfect complement to the woman. Even great godly men make mistakes and are sinners – and they also don’t put up with whatever you do or say just because they love you. A relationship is not always full of fiery passion or constant lust, not is it always happy happy joy joy. We can’t always expect men to follow the script that the women authors like to put out – there are literally trillions of ways a man could respond to something, and I’m going to tell you right now that it is very rarely exactly what you have in your head. I like this analogy: husbands should love their wives as Christ loves the church. This is the expectation we should have, not that our husbands will be 7 feet tall, absolutely jacked, and obsessed with us.

With that rant over (Bridge Kingdom is not the only culprit here, don’t get me wrong), it’s about to be spring break at my school so let’s see how much reading I get in as I head south 😉