The Inadequate Heir

Bridge Kingdom, Book 3

By: Danielle L. Jensen

Narrated by: Summer Morton, Michael Pauley

Return to the world of The Bridge Kingdom in this sensuous fantasy full of romance and intrigue that is perfect for fans of From Blood and Ash and A Court of Silver Flames.

A soldier raised as heir to an empire, Zarrah is motivated by two truths. The first is that the Veliant family murdered her mother. And the second is that her pursuit of vengeance will put every last one of them in their graves.

The Endless War between Maridrina and Valcotta has raged for generations, leaving thousands of Zarrah’s people dead and countless more orphaned. So when she’s given command of the contested city of Nerastis, Zarrah is prepared to do whatever it takes to destroy the Maridrinian forces who oppose her. And to kill the Veliant prince who leads them.

Yet a chance encounter with an anonymous, and handsome, Maridrinian causes Zarrah to question whether the violence she’s perpetrated is justice or a crime. And as she continues to meet the nameless man each night, she finds common ground - and fiery passion - in his arms.

But when identities are revealed, Zarrah must decide whether to embrace a chance at peace...or march to the drums of war.

©2021 Danielle L. Jensen (P)2021 Audible Originals, LLC.

I didn’t think anything could top the first two books in this series, boy was I wrong!

Everything about this book was a masterpiece. The narrators who brought these characters to life. The writing that transported me to another world for 18+ hours. And the characters who stole my heart.

If you think Lara and Aren’s story was unmatched, I challenge you to listen to this book and try to convince me that Keris and Zarrah’s story hasn’t topped it tenfold!

Jensen weaves the most believable tale of true enemies to lovers. Pitted against each other at every turn, these characters have not only their personal revenge and desire for vengeance stacked against them but the hate of their kingdoms for generations to navigate.

Impossible situations, political maneuvering live you’ve never seen, and betrayals you cannot post with even the best fantasy goggles on.

This book is so much more than the romance that most are coming to it to find. Jensen can have all my money, because I’m going to buy this book in every possible format I can!

Series started strong, but is fizzling out.

This series started out strong, but by the end of the third book, it just began to fizzle out. Not much was happening and the action became repetitive. I haven’t decided whether or not I’ll continue the series after this one. The narrators were okay. Summer Morton is a pleasant enough narrator, as is Michael Pauley, but he tends to speak in an overly emphatic chant-like cadence that makes me cringe. Danielle L. Jensen does a good job of weaving together political plots and creating believable and interesting situations with alliances as well as situations of political unrest. It’s not really all that steamy compared to many of the books in the genre. And I don’t mind cliffhangers as many others seem to do, so I don’t usually detract stars for those in a series (the only exception being when an author publishes what should be one short-medium length book in 2-4 hour individual releases to increase costs, which is not the case with this series). One issue I had was my confusion about the dinner that ran concurrent with the dinner in the previous book, as events didn’t seem to line up properly. Maybe I just need to pay more attention and revisits those scenes in the previous book again, but I felt like the scenes were not accurate according to the previous account. Overall, it’s a pretty good story thus far, but I’m losing interest. I haven’t decided. It’s possible that the events in the end of this book may spark enough of my interest to come back to this series after a little break from it.

occasional sound effects added a nice touch

it took me longer to appreciate the characters and theirbplight in this book compared to books 1 and 2 in this series.

I just can’t get enough

WHAT WAS THAT CLIFF HANGER GAAAAHHHH. I really enjoyed this story and seeing the behind the scenes of Keris and Zarrah. My love for these characters is honestly more than Aren and Laura, dare I say.

Believable enemies and character development

Amazing story, world building, political machinations, and pace. The audio editing had three instances where the editing cut off their words during important moments, that’s the only reason I gave the performance a lower rating, otherwise it was very good.