Review: The Traitor Queen by Danielle L. Jensen

Title: The Traitor Queen
Author: Danielle L. Jensen 
Series: The Bridge Kingdom #2
Genre: Fantasy Romance
Publisher: Del Rey
Publication Date: September 1, 2020
Edition: Digital
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Bookshop | Kobo | Powell's | 

 

 

Synopsis:

   Lara has only one thought when her husband is taken prisoner: I will do whatever it takes to set you free.
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 as Lara and her companions formulate a plan to free Aren from her father's palace, they soon discover that while it is easy to get in, it will be quite another thing to get Aren, and themselves, back out. 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 for herself. 

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I actually finished this on the 8th of July, but I totally spaced on writing a review, oops. Thankfully I remember enough to still write this review, I actually thought I already had.

 

There was a lot more action in this book which made it feel faster paced. The characters goals felt more substantial in this book than they did in the first. And the political machinations were more front stage than the romance, which I did like. I also liked meeting Lara other sisters, and it was nice to see that they weren't all terrible and were willing to help her despite everything. It helped that they also wanted revenge against their father for what he did to them as they grew up.

Aren had a really good arc in this book, and to be honest I liked him far more in this book than I did in the first, in the first book he was a little boring. In this book it actually felt like he had character growth, in part because his goals didn't feel passive. I also really liked that he had a real inner struggle when it came to how he felt about Lara. He wanted to hate her for what she did, he knew she deserved to be hated for what she did, but because he had fallen in love with her he couldn't completely block his heart to her. 

I also really liked that Lara didn't expect him to forgive her, almost didn't want him to. And how she tried to keep a distance between them because she had also fallen in love with him but didn't believe she deserve his love anymore, and how she was willing to die so he could get his land back and keep his people safe. 

This book also ends with a little ambiguity, the King was defeated, and they got the Bridge back, but things aren't completely over. Things did end a little abruptly, and there is part of me that feels that this book and the first book could've just been one book with some extra editing and streamlining parts of the story.

 

 Lara and Aren aren't the focus of the next book so I am very curious if they are going to appear and to what extent since it didn't really feel like their story was over.