a GREAT read

 

A queen now in exile as a traitor, Lara has watched Ithicana be conquered by her own father, helpless to do anything to stop the destruction. But when she learns her husband, Aren, has been captured in battle, Lara knows there is only one reason her father is keeping him alive: as bait for his traitorous daughter.

And it is bait she fully intends to take.

Risking her life to the Tempest Seas, Lara returns to Ithicana with a plan not only to free its king, but for liberating the Bridge Kingdom from her father’s clutches using his own weapons: the sisters whose lives she spared. But not only is the palace inescapable, there are more players in the game than Lara ever realized, enemies and allies switching sides in the fight for crowns, kingdoms, and bridges. But her greatest adversary of all might be the very man she’s trying to free – the husband she betrayed.

With everything she loves in jeopardy, Lara must decide who – and what – she is fighting for: her kingdom, her husband, or herself.

 

I immediately picked up Danielle L. Jensen's The Traitor Queen after I finished with The Bridge Kingdom! What with cliffhangers and a desperate need to see what happened next with Lara being labeled a traitor and Aren being take prisoner, things were pretty much in dire straits!

Aren has been taken prisoner by Lara's father, who plans to use him as bait to lure Lara out to basically kill her for betraying him. Meanwhile Lara is fighting tooth and nail to rescue Aren but none of his people are willing to trust her to work with her to do that. So, Lara will have to find her sisters and they will have to do what they do best. Except, instead of doing it in their father's name, they will use their skills against him.

In this book we are introduced to new characters, ones that will take on the next duology within the larger series here. We meet Keris, who is Lara's brother and Zarrah. We really don't know much about them. Keris is the Silas' heir but Keris, thankfully isn't anything like his father. In fact, he's doing what he can to help Aren with a possible escape, as long as he takes Zarrah with him, who is something of a prisoner of Silas as well. I feel like I lost a few details here when it came to that situation. But basically, I was rooting for any sort of power play against Silas.

Silas has gained control of the bridge that was once apart of Aren's kingdom and Aren will do everything to get it back and protect his people from Silas' tyranny. But what he wasn't expecting was for Lara to pop back into his life and help him.

I feel like we do get a little better insight to Lara in this one. We know she was raised on her father's lies and she's doing everything she can to make up for her betrayals to Aren and his people even at the cost of her own life. She's not afraid to risk her own life time and time again if it means helping them get one step closer to getting their kingdom back.

I feel like this one definitely had a different tone. Things were hectic in this one since Aren was a prisoner for a good chunk of the novel. Then we have Lara fighting to get him free and even once this part gets accomplished, we still have plenty more fighting to do. I did feel like parts of this got rushed towards the end. I guess because I was not seeing what the big picture was going to be with the next pair of books taking over for the storytelling. I guess that won't really be clear until I start that and then however long the wait will be for the final pair of books with the final couple to finish the series out. I did feel like the action was a bit more ramped up but it was largely due to trying to free Aren. The fighting that came afterward was back to war scenes and battles that felt a tad drawn out leading to a bit of an anti-climatic showdown between Lara and her father. I guess I just thought it would've maybe been a bit more drawn out between them but it just felt a bit rushed.

Since Aren and Lara were sort of at odds with one another there wasn't much room for romance. We do see Aren struggling with his conflicting feelings for Lara which I felt like were done with a good bit of accuracy. Then there's Lara who's trying to do everything she can to redeem herself but also feeling like nothing will ever be enough. There was still some romantic moments between the two that were packed with emotion and heat.

The end left us with what felt like tentative resolution. Things were better, but they still weren't great. I don't know what this will mean for these characters since new characters will be taking the spotlight for the next two books. I am definitely curious to see what will happen next within this world since we'll be moving around with different couples every two books. I still can't help but be a little confused even with a map this time around trying to place the different kingdoms along this bridge. But it's kind of minor in the grand scheme of things. It's just hard sometimes to follow along with all the name dropping and trying to place who's friendly and who's more enemies amongst all these kingdoms and what it means for the future of these characters. When it comes to fantasy reads, kingdoms and royals always seem to be scheming with one another.

All in all, I did enjoy this one. It was a little more enjoyable than the last book since there were no more obvious schemes and betrayals hatching. I think I enjoyed the characters more in this one since they were on paths of redemption this time around. I definitely plan to read more of this series and can't wait to see what will become of the final couple since I saw who it would be and the groundwork for them was loosely laid out in these two books. Hopefully we can see a little more of that with the next two as well! I am definitely looking forward to learning more about these new characters as well! So it was a fun read in the end and a series I look forward to continuing!

Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars