Review – Bride by Ali Hazelwood (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Length: 410 pages
Publisher: Berkley
Release Date: February 6, 2024
ASIN: B0C9GQV1TT
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed on ebook from library
Rating: 4/5 stars
“Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange—again…
Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was….
Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she’s ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory…alone with the wolf.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this on ebook from the library.
Thoughts: I really enjoyed the beginning of this book a lot. The last part of the book was a bit off; the story starts really focusing on the physical sexual differences of the two main characters and the shift in focus is odd. Mostly, this is a cute and quirky paranormal enemies to lovers romance.
Misery has repeatedly been used by the Vampyre’s to keep the peace. First as a hostage to the humans and now she is being married off to the Weres to keep the peace with them. She really does not know as much about her own race ( as a vampyre) as she should. Misery has an ulterior motive in going along with the marriage, her best friend (who is human) has gone missing and the only clue Misery has to her disappearance points to Lowe Moreland. Moreland is the were alpha agreeing to marry Misery; he just wants all of the fighting between humans, weres, and vamps to stop. Lowe is used to setting aside his own needs for the good of the pack. Unfortunately for him the minute he meets Misery he realizes that she is his mate with a capital M. However Misery isn’t a were and she can’t have a Mate. To say things are rough between them is an understatement, but Lowe’s adorable little sister starts to pull the two together. When Lowe’s sister is almost kidnapped, Misery and Lowe join forces to figure out who tried to pull off the kidnapping. The plot they unravel is much different than they expected.
This starts out as a very cute enemy to lovers type of paranormal romance but gets a bit more complicated as plots to ove throw Lowe as alpha and put a wrench in peace negotiations are uncovered. I loved the characters in here and how they interact with each other. This is very much a story about forming your own family when your birth family fails you. It is also a story about how similar different people can be despite major differences.
Things do start to get a bit weird towards the end. After the mystery and plot are unraveled, the story turns to the physical differences that may prevent Lowe and Misery from having sex. I felt like too much time and detail was put into this and it was uncomfortably odd feeling and out of sync with the rest of the story. I kind of understand that Hazelwood was trying to emphasis that you can make things work even across different species, but it was just very awkwardly done. If not for this rather odd focus at the end I may have given this 4.5 to 5 stars because up to that point it was an incredibly well done and heart-warming read.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I liked this and would have loved it if not for the strange change in focus right at the end. There are a ton of fun characters in here, a sweet romance, and an intriguing plot to unravel that keeps you guessing. This is the first Hazelwood book I have read. I do have “The Love Hypothesis” on my list to read as well but just haven’t gotten to it. I plan on reading more Hazelwood books in the future and would recommend if you enjoy cute enemies to lovers romance with heavy paranormal themes.
