Book Review: The Twisted Throne

I’m a big fan of Danielle L. Jensen’s The Bridge Kingdom series so I was eagerly anticipating The Twisted Throne – the 2nd to last book in the series – to be released. It just came out last month and I spent last week eating up the story.

These last two books of the series follow Ahna Kertell and James Ashford. Ahna is the twin sister of Aren, the King of Ithicana, and mmc from the original The Bridge Kingdom duology. Years ago, Ahna and Aren’s parents signed a treaty with Harendell, another kingdom. When Ithicana needed Harendell’s help in their war, Ithicana calls in their treaty and favor. In exchange for their support in the war, Ahna will go to Ithicana to fulfill their marriage pact and marry the prince of Harendell.

Ahna is used to combat and battle strategy, not court politics and intrigue. But, she is determined to do her part and save her kingdom by trying to increase trade with Harendell as Ithicana, who controls the bridge, has been hurting to recover financially after the war. However, Harendell has their own secret agenda which may not align with Ahna’s. Not knowing who she can trust, the one person she keeps getting drawn to isn’t even her betrothed, but his older half brother, James, and she doesn’t know if he’s trustworthy either.

Like Ahna, James wants what’s best for his kingdom, but his loyalties are complicated as he is the bastard son of the king of Harendell and his late mother was from the enemy kingdom of Cardiff. The Harendellians are notoriously cruel to the Cardiffians, believing that they are not god-fearing and that they practice witchcraft etc. James wants better treatment of Cardiff and that starts with trading with them, which would hurt Ithicana. With his growing feelings for Ahna, can he betray her kingdom? And should he have feelings for his brother’s fiancée?

I loved this book and I loved getting to know Ahna better and following her story. The last 1/4 of the book or so was so action packed and full of twists and turns that I didn’t see coming. I loved James for almost the entire book, but that last bit of the book really had me wanting to hate him so Jensen did a really good job with writing him. All I know is I can’t wait for the next book and I need James to do some serious groveling. And since the next book is going to be the last book of the series, I hope we get a really good epilogue. We saw a bit of Aren and Lara in this book and mentions of Keris and Zarrah, but I hope we see a little more of them all too to end the series.

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