The Bridge Kingdom

"The Bridge Kingdom is one of those books where after the first chapter – after the first scene – I was so invested. With a lot of fantasy books, it takes me a while to feel, “Okay, I really want to know what happens next…” – but the way that Danielle wrote that first intro to the story was so epic, you’re immediately thinking, “This is the most badass female main character, and I want to see her burn the world down.” She’s a princess called Lara, and she’s been trained to be a spy her whole life. She is married off to a king, of the Bridge Kingdom. It’s an important kingdom geographically for Lara’s kingdom; it controls all of the trade and all of the routes everywhere. So there’s a lot of political intrigue. They’re the enemies, who have left Lara’s kingdom starving without resources for so long – or so she believes… And then she gets sent off to this guy who is not quite as evil as he’s been made out to be her whole life. He was actually very loyal to his people. I think one of the most desirable qualities in our romantasy character is that kind of loyalty – the heroism, the will to drop everything and do the right thing and be there for you. She sees that kind of loyalty in him towards his people. So then she starts to think, “Well, is he really that evil? Maybe I haven’t looked at this impartially either.” I love that kind of theme, because it really shines a light on our own prejudices about the world, about other people and what we’ve been raised to believe. It’s about questioning all of that – starting to say, maybe I need to think for myself, and look at this more holistically and dispassionately. And of course, then she starts to fall for him. “Every single book in this top five has powerful, badass female main characters” I feel like every single book in this top five has powerful, badass female main characters who can really go toe-to-toe with their powerful love interests, and there’s something incredibly endearing about that – that they’re so brave and competent and capable, but they’re still kind of fumbling their way through it. There are no damsels in distress. If you look at this kind of fantasy versus more non-romantic epic fantasy, more predominantly written by men, there it’s quite often a male hero lead, and the female characters – not always, but sometimes – are written in support of the male main character’s plot and story. So it’s great to have these female main characters who have complete agency and control, and even when they make mistakes and are fumbling, they still can wield the sword and kick ass. Both halves of the romance have to be worthy of each other. They both need to be bringing something to the table. It’s not like one is just attractive and the other has all the skills, you know? And often they end up getting thrust together in some sort of external mission that they have to complete together, where they both require their skills, and they’re showing off how powerful they are combined against some enemy. It’s not, “You sit on the sidelines while I go handle this.” It’s, “We’re both going into battle together.”"