The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom, #1)

Written by New York Times best-selling author Danielle L. Jensen, The Bridge Kingdom is the first installment in the series of the same name, which currently includes five published titles and an unnamed sixth title in progress. Originally published in 2018 on Audible, then self-published in 2019, the novel is set in the new adult fantasy genre and follows the journey of Lara, a Maridrinian princess who marries Aren, the king of Ithicana, as part of a covert mission to topple his reign and allow her realm to gain control of the mysterious bridge that binds two continents together.

To date, Jensen has published three additional series that have received critical acclaim: the Saga of the Unfated series (which starts with A Fate Inked in Blood [2024]), the Dark Shores series, and the Malediction novels.

This study guide refers to the Del Rey e-book edition of The Bridge Kingdom.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide contain descriptions of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, violence, and torture.

Plot Summary

Lara Veliant knows that she and 10 of her 11 sisters are about to die. For 15 years, the sisters have been trained in an isolated compound in the Red Desert in order to become the perfect weapon, marry the young king of Ithicana, and topple his “bridge kingdom” from within. However, only one of them can become queen, and their father, King Silas of Maridrina, will kill the rest to avoid loose ends. Lara cleverly deceives her father by drugging her sisters—including the favored candidate, Marylyn, so that they appear to be dead. She then takes on the mission in their place, knowing that when her sisters awaken, they will have the freedom they deserve. As the only remaining candidate, Lara is brought to Ithicana and charged with finding the flaws in the bridge kingdom’s impenetrable defenses so that she can provide her father with an invasion plan.

She marries her masked husband, King Aren of Ithicana, and feels an instant attraction for this man whom she is sworn to betray. At Aren’s home on Midwatch Island, Lara begins to search for Ithicanian secrets but finds only a mention of something called “Eranahl.” As time passes, Lara boldly explores her new home and tries unsuccessfully to draw information from Aren’s guards and household servants. Lara finally finds her first clue to infiltrating Ithicana when raiders from Amarid attack. When she learns that raiders are left at sea to be eaten by sharks, she believes that Aren is every bit the monster that her father made him out to be.

Many Ithicanians suspect that Lara is a spy, and Silas sends Lara letters describing the rising famine in Maridrina and telling her to blame Ithicana and its ally, the Valcottan Empire. She redoubles her efforts to spy on Aren and unveil his secrets. When another raider attack hits the island of Serrith, however, Lara works with the healers, and her efforts to help the wounded Ithicanian soldiers win her the respect and admiration of Aren’s people. Though her loyalty lies with Maridrina’s impoverished people, Ithicana is slowly making its own claim on her heart, as is its king.

However, she still feels loyalty to her father, so she creates an invasion plan and uses invisible ink to write a copy on every official missive sent out from Ithicana. Although she knows her actions will cause Ithicana’s destruction, she wrongly believes that this is the only way to save Maridrina. She attempts to escape Ithicana, but Aren forces her to attend to her queenly duties. As their marital spat disrupts others, Jor, Aren’s guard captain, forces them to have an honest conversation with each other. Lara accuses Aren of deliberately impoverishing Maridrina. Furious, Aren reveals that Lara’s father is intentionally keeping his people poor and hungry. He proves the truth of his words by taking Lara to Vencia, Maridrina’s capital, so that she can hear the locals denouncing Silas’s high taxes and deceit. Lara finally realizes that her father, not Aren, is the true oppressor.

That night, she tries to go to Silas’s palace to kill him, but she realizes that she must first return to Ithicana and prevent all of her secret missives from reaching Maridrina. Unbeknownst to her, Aren has followed her and stands poised to kill her. He is greatly relieved when she turns back; had she gone to Silas, Aren would have been duty-bound to end her life. Back at their inn, Lara struggles to accept that much of her life was a lie. She plots to kill her father after destroying the missives in Ithicana. Aren, however, is discovered by Silas’s master of spies, Serin, who demands that Aren force the Valcottan empire to cease their blockade. Lara and Aren safely escape to Ithicana.

Aren writes an official missive to Silas, denying his demands. However, he has used one of Lara’s secret missives to do so, and he unknowingly provides Silas with the information he needs to invade the bridge kingdom. Later, Lara destroys the other missives but miscounts them and mistakenly believes that they are all accounted for, so she never mentions her aborted attempt at treachery. She and Aren decide to trust one another, and he later brings her to Ithicana’s greatest secret and only city: Eranahl, which is hidden beneath a volcano.

They spend months together, and Lara grows to love Ithicana just as much as she does Maridrina. She also takes part in Aren’s War Tides council to prepare for coming invaders. When new reports reveal that civil unrest against Ithicana reaches far across Maridrina, Lara knows that Silas is actively kindling his people’s animosity against Ithicana. She and Aren try to provide the Maridrinians with supplies, and Aren orders the Valcottans to disband their blockade. However, when they return to their private residence at Midwatch Island, Lara’s sister Marylyn is there to kill them, and Silas is invading with his forces. In the struggle, Lara kills Marylyn, but not before Marylyn reveals that Lara provided Silas with invasion plans. Betrayed, Aren exiles Lara as he faces a war that he cannot win.

Lara later learns that Aren has been captured by her father and is now detained in Vencia. Determined to free Aren, Lara returns to Ithicana, shouldering her responsibility as their queen and promising to bring about her father’s demise and Aren’s return.