Bride

There are hundreds of authors in this genre, but I've enjoyed only a very few of the ones I've tried - Anne Bishop's The Others series; Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series; Kim Harrison's The Hollows series; and the early books (1-8) of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series. Except for those four series, I've read first books of many series, sometimes the second, but then ignored subsequent sequels as not worth continuing.

It will be interesting to see where Ms. Hazelwood takes this series going forward. It's an interesting AU, one in which the vampyres are NOT the dominant species that they are in so many other stories. Except for those vampyres who have a strong "thrall", i.e. mesmerizing, ability, they are otherwise physically inferior to Weres, and numerically much fewer than either Humans or Weres.

The setting for the story is an uneasy detente between the three species, with both overt and covert political maneuvering as each species has to deal with their own internal political conflicts as well as trying to keep a semblance of peace between one another.

It's hard to maintain when there's a long history of bloodshed and hatred driving individuals to seek vengeance!

Misery, a vampyre who has always been a misfit within their society, agrees to be the bride of the strongest pack's Alpha, Lowe. Many of the werewolves are unhappy with what they consider an abomination - as are many of the vampyres. Her father, de factor leader of the vampyres, has his own reasons for agreeing to this idea.

But Misery has a plan of her own. And her arrival is going to begin a series of events that no one, not even her Macchiavellian father, will foretell.

The slow romantic build-up between Misery and Lowe is very well written. I could do without the sex scenes, as I found them on the crude side, but they can be easily skimmed over by the reader. Misery herself is a great character: smart, competent, vulnerable without being cliched about it, loyal and brave; along with a nice touch of sassiness that adds needed humor to the plot.

The dialogue is well-crafted and believable. The side characters had good detail and depth to their portrayal.

As with most first books in a series, building the AU takes a big chunk of time. Be patient; there are a lot of small scenes that set the stage for the fast and furious action that starts the denouement.

This was my first Ali Hazelwood book and I love her style of writing. It’s easy to read, was funny and had a good plot! I enjoyed Misery’s character a lot, and I love that her name is Misery. Her and Lowe’s relationship made me laugh, because she’s so sassy with him and she just doesn’t care. <spoiler> Their love story also developed nicely! </Spoiler>

I also enjoyed the mystery component of the book! But I do agree with other readers that the end did feel a little rushed. But It doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book, I still highly recommend this book! I’ve been loving vampire books lately and this is no exception, especially with the werewolf addition.

I just loved reading Bride! I’ve read 3 other Ali Hazelwood books, and am always uniquely challenged intellectually by her writing. This is something I grapple with and love throughout reading Hazelwood’s book.

I was excited to read a new adventure of hers that is unlike her other books, bordering on the genre of Omegaverse and monster-romance. I love the idea of “fated mates,” but I was never a huge fan of arranged marriage tropes, so I was interested to see if I would like it.

The main FMC, Misery, is witty with dry humor, and a bold personality that makes her overtly honest. We get the entire book from her perspective, so Misery’s character grows on you, as Hazelwood reveals her backstory. The MMC, Lowe, is not only a sexy, Alpha werewolf, but he also is a strong, intelligent man who is a duty-bound pack leader. The author builds and develops many other side characters in a way that makes them memorable, and important to drive the plot rather than a support for the main characters. This is something I really appreciate about all of her books, is the side characters always play a significant role in different plot points.

Their relationship is a “he-falls-first” but the fmc doesn’t know it yet, similar to the plots of her other books. However, I find the relationship between Misery and Lowe develops uniquely in different circumstances due to the Vampire/Werewolf/Human dynamic and politics that drive the plot of the book. Lowe and Misery get to know each other, share playful and teasing banter, plus the tension build-up is oh, so satisfying.

It is always an absolute pleasure to read Ali Hazelwood’s books, and there is a slight tease at the end for a sequel to this book, so I’ll be interested to see if there’s another…I really hope so! I would absolutely recommend this to others, and give it 5 stars for the reading experience, amazing characters, and stunning storytelling.

Bride was recommended to me by a friend. I had just finished the Emily Wilde series, which I loved, and was searching for romantic books with older FMCs and good guy love interests.

Bride did not disappoint. The world building was wonderful and very creative. I really enjoyed reading about the different territories and the history of interactions between humans, vampires, and werewolves.

I adored the FMC. She is older, smart, and complicated. I completely related to her struggle of not feeling "at home" in the vampire territory and wanting to live among humans. Also related to her hiding her vampire appearance to blend in with humans. Who hasn't felt out of place and masked themselves in order to fit in?

The love interest was a loveable, caring, good guy. It was super refreshing after reading several stories of enemies to lovers with bad boy love interests, which are also great, but I was pleasantly suprised to fall in love with Lowe because of his sensitive heart ❤️

I loved this book so much that I immediately bought more of Ali's books. I think I found a new favorite author of cozy, romantic books that feature older (not 19), intelligent FMCs. Thank you Ali for sharing these wonderful stories.

📚BOOK REVIEW📚

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 Spice level: 🌶️🌶️.5/3 Genre: Paranormal Romance Tropes: arranged marriage, found family, fated mates, grumpy vs. sunshine, sassy FMC, werewolves & vampyres, slow burn romance

Misery is the daughter of the most powerful Vampyre in the region, and she has been used as a bargaining chip for peace with other species her entire life. Most recently, that involved living among the Humans. Now, she is to become the wife of the Were leader to secure a historic (and previously unheard of) alliance between the Weres and the Vampyres.

As far as the Vampyres know, the Weres are ruthless and unpredictable; and their Alpha (Misery’s new husband) is no exception. As soon as she steps into Were territory, she is tracked and watched in a way that shows just how little they trust her.

Misery has her own reason for accepting this alliance/marriage: she is looking for her missing friend. And her instinct (as well as information she has found via hacking into government databases) tells her she is in the Were territory.

Throughout the story, Misery tries to find her friend and piece together what happened, as well as come to terms with the fact that everything she has been told about Weres (and even her own species, Vampyres) has been a lie.

I really enjoyed this one. It was definitely a strong debut by the author into the fantasy/paranormal. If you like her other books (and the style of her writing/humor), then you’ll definitely enjoy this one.

All of the characters had a lot of depth, and you get to see a lot of growth and development of their personalities as the story goes on. The way the romance between Lowe and Misery was woven in between the larger plot and motivation of the story was pretty seamless and kept the book from feeling boring or slow.

Misery is also absolutely hilarious as a character, and her humor/wit is incredibly entertaining (very true to how the author writes the FMC personalities).

Overall, great read. If you enjoyed vampires & werewolves growing up (and possibly the Twilight saga), this is a great “adult” version of that 😂

All of Ali Hazelwood’s books follow pretty much the same formula. A smart, sassy, accomplished woman with some much-deserved baggage is forced to spend time with an equally smart, slightly grumpy, golden retriever of a man with baggage of his own. They are both, naturally, very easy on the eyes. Mix a hefty helping of witty banter, some complicated feelings, a dash of angsty longing, and lots of sexual tension until you get a couple that finally realizes they are in love. Sexy time ensues. Introduce a small conflict or misunderstanding, have a brief yet terrible third-act breakup, and then finish it off with a glorious happily ever after. What can I say? Her formula works EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

Misery Lark is a Vampyre - A super smart, slightly nerdy, tech-savvy, drop-dead gorgeous Vampyre. Let’s face it, she’s a blood bag-drinking, sun-avoiding, cold-blooded STEMinist. She knows her way around a computer and can code like no other - a hacker of sorts. She’s funny, strong, sarcastic, self-deprecating, and exactly the type of Vampyre I could be friends with. If Vampyres were a thing.

Lowe Moreland is a Werewolf - a very powerful, dangerous, ruggedly sexy, Alpha Werewolf. He is fiercely dedicated to his pack, loves his little sister more than anything, and can draw up the plans for your dream home in no time. He’d 100% be my kind of empathetic, artsy, strong, wolfy dude. Again, if Werewolves were a thing.

Unfortunately, Vampyres and Werewolves are mortal enemies. Misery’s father, head of the Vampyre Council, and Lowe, Alpha of the Southwest Pack, agree to an age-old tradition of inter-species marriage in hopes of forming a peaceful alliance between the Weres and the Vampyres. If you think this sounds like the perfect setup for a delicious marriage of convenience turned forbidden love, with some witty banter and tension you could cut with a knife, you’d be correct! If you think this might be a little fishy, a tad too easy, and that there is probably something nefarious going on, you'd also be correct.

But Misery has her own reasons for agreeing to this arranged marriage and moving into enemy territory. Her Human best friend, Serena, has gone missing, and Misery is the only one who cares enough to find her. Misery finds a page, torn from Serena’s planner, with what seems to be Lowe’s name written on it. It happens to be in their special sister-from-another-mister language, so now she's convinced the Weres have kidnapped Serena, and she’s got to get into Were territory to rescue her.

After an eventful wedding where several fights break out, Misery is almost killed, and the word mate is thrown around quite a bit, Misery and Lowe come to an understanding. 1) They will not kill each other; 2) Lowe will protect Misery while they are married; and 3) Misery will stay out of trouble and out of Lowe’s way.

We can all agree that #3 was never going to happen.

Ali’s books have always been an insta-buy for me, but when I saw that Bride was going to be a paranormal romance, I seriously thought about skipping it. Monster love isn’t usually my thing. I thought about it for approximately 2 minutes (give or take 53 seconds) and decided to give it a shot. I’m delighted I did. Ali had me wanting to be BFFs with Misery by the end of chapter 1, and absolutely smitten with Lowe by the end of chapter 2. There’s a cat named Sparkles, some loveable side characters, an adorable little sister who mixes up words, and a found family anyone would be lucky to have. After another assassination attempt, some major betrayals, and lots of twisty turns, I can safely say I’m a fan of Mrs. Hazelwood's foray into paranormal romance. I could KNOT put this book down (see what I did there? IYKYK).

First off let me say I am absolutely thrilled to see Ali branching out into other genres! This book is absolutely fascinating in its construction and development. I really enjoyed the political and society dynamics of the world she has built especially because it differs from many of the vampyre/Were stories I've read before.

Her characters are interesting and unique. The characters of Ana, Alex and Owen stand out because they are frequently front and center and typically challenge and a support Misery and Lowe in a variety of ways. Hazelwood touches on how external forces like proximity and environment can warp and twist relationships and social behavior and how those experiencing such things can find healing.

I found Misery's vocabulary sometimes startling, making me question my own knowledge of the English language and Lowe's intensity was right on target for someone with a powerful wolf inside. Misery's dedication to Serena reminds me very much of the similar friendship dynamic of Crescent City: House of Earth and Blood but in a unique way due to the limitations of political alliances.

My only qualm and reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because I would have enjoyed Lowe's POV throughout the book and not just at the end. Hazelwood makes a point to continually mention the difference between Vampyre and Were society and Misery's inexperience in any culture so having Lowe's POV would have helped the audience navigate the complexities and nuances instead of being just as confused as Misery for most of the book; I had to reread a few sentences to make sure I understood all that way happening. Additionally I'm used to reading fantasy or dark fantasy with a bit more building of characters, development of society and a slower pace to allow for you to really immerse yourself in the world. Bride does not have that; Bride is fast paced, with little world building beyond what Misery has experienced and the cast of characters is minimal compared to other books of this length and genre. This is a good jumping off point if this will develop into a series.

Definitely excited to see if we get a book about Serena as she is a vibrate character, who though not physically present until toward the end, her spirit and essence moves Misery and the entire plot! Within moments of coming onto the proverbial page, Serena lights Misery up in a way that captures found family and sisterhood.

Overall a fun, quick read for anyone looking to start a move toward dark romance/dark fantasy/fantasy from modern Rom-Coms.

It honestly really surprised me with how much I enjoyed this book. I really liked it. I know I shouldn’t be surprised that I liked a book I read voluntarily, but while vampires are very firmly my thing, werewolves are really not (or should I say 🪢 lol) and I wasn’t sure I’d be into the story at all.

I started off thinking that there wasn’t really a good enough reason for the main characters to be a Were and a Vampyre and that the book would have been just as good as a Mafia romance or something similar, but I came to really enjoy the dynamics between Misery and Lowe and their people.

It was a somewhat unique take on Vampires. I’ve read and watched a lot of Vampire media, and this took everything that we ‘know’ about vampires and kinda threw it out the window. They are basically just humans who drink blood and can’t be in the sun, but I found it worked really well for the book, even though I usually enjoy the more ‘traditional’ version. The Werewolves were exactly what I expected, but the story was surprisingly touching and explored ideas of belonging and what it means to have community and family. I read a lot of fantasy and darker romances and I realized it had been a while since I read something where the story was simple and yet genuinely compelling and where the characters were both so wholesome and awkward and relatably…human, even though they aren’t.

And yes….there is knotting, but if you were ever on tumblr or AO3 back in the day, there’s no way you wouldn’t have stumbled upon all the fics that included it. While I personally don’t find it super hot, I still really enjoyed those scenes. They were very sweet.

There is only one thing I can say I thought was odd and it’s minor:

Sometimes Misery would say or think something and it just didn’t hit me as something most people would think or say in normal situations. For example: she would sometimes use the anatomically correct name for body parts…like the author wants you to know she knows them? And when talking about someone having Pneumonia, Misery thought something along the lines of the fact that “she’s no pulmonologist so she wouldn’t know.” I guess I noticed it more because I work in a Lab at a hospital and nobody talks like that in real life even if they work in the medical field. But I did look the author up and based on her background as a neuroscientist, it makes a little more sense.

🩸Spoilers kinda:🩸 I am an absolute sucker for secret fated mates and I absolutely LOVED how long it took Misery to figure it out even though Lowe slipped up constantly and did a horrible job keeping it a secret.

As someone who has been reading exclusively romantasy for the past year, I bought this book on a whim, knowing that I don’t particularly care for contemporary settings, but with the hype this book was getting on Instagram, I thought “a good book is a good book”. Coming from reading all of Sarah J Maas’ ACOTAR books, and Jennifer Armentrout, both writers who tend to be very descriptive even overly so, both in describing the environment and the characters’ internal monologue/thought process, the more “lean” style of writing in this book was different for me. The first third of the book was a bit boring for me, because I found the world building to be not enough, and that the writer chose to speed through or “skip forward” interactions that I would have liked to read through instead of being left to my own imagination. I would describe the beginning half as low stakes, chick lit. I am someone who likes to read a detailed interaction between the main characters in a romance novel because I feel like that helps the emotions and tensions culminate to that sweet moment when they express their feelings for each other. In this book, I found myself having to “fill in the blanks” or use my own imagination a lot on how emotions were displayed. The writer says things like “I know he was happy”, and I found myself asking “how does she just know that? How exactly is he “radiating happiness” ? However, the last third to fourth of the book did come with lots of twists and high emotions which pleasantly surprised me and kept me hooked so that I ended up binge reading to finish it. And at the end, I could say I wanted more, and would buy a sequel if Ali Hazelwood decided to write one! I did appreciate how the main character was more even keeled than some other female main characters in romance novels who tend to come off as impulsive, stubborn to the point of being defiant just for the sake of being so and almost inconsiderate (immediately saying no when they are told or asked to do something by the love interest simply because “nobody tells me what to do” without thinking about why the person might be asking that of them). I found Misery to be mature in her emotional reactions and not impulsive or insecure. She can be quite flippant and casual in her dialogue even during serious moments, but this generally works in the book as part of her character as someone who isn’t afraid and doesn’t sweat the small or medium stuff. She does come off a bit as a “know it all” but her intelligence is supposed to be one of her strengths and she actually shows it with her dialogue, rather than us simply being told that the main character is intelligent even though she doesn’t exactly seem clever by any of her words or actions in the book.

Overall, this was a pleasant quick read, and though the beginning required some dedication to plow through, the ending left me wishing for more! I thought the plot itself was fantastic and the conflicts were generally mature and not cliche and frustrating where two people could simply actually have a purposeful conversation and avoid a whole lot of drama (one of my major pet peeves but tends to be like a land mine in romance novel land). This book would have been a 5 for me if the world building was a bit more descriptive and emotions and perceptions were also described more thoroughly.

LOWE!! Might be the first time I am fully team werewolf, because our Alpha Lowe has been added to the best book-boyfriend list. This book will have you feeling all sorts of emotions! This story pulled at all my heart strings. Who doesn't love a good story with 'fated mates'?! Misery was hilarious and had me cracking up multiple times. Ana, was hysterical and their relationship was so cute.

While this was only a 2 out of 5 for spice, the spice was well earned and yummy when we finally got it. Lowe marking Misery in the plane - oooo girl.

This was my first Ali Hazelwood book and I am not sure if it is her or specifically this book but the writing style was difficult to read for me. Especially at the beginning. I was struggling to get through the first 20% of the book.

I missed the dual POV chapters, however using the chapter to insert his thoughts was a really cute way of giving us a glimpse into Lowe's thoughts. I do have to say that we finally did get his POV, on the final chapter, but it was told in the 3rd person which circles me back to Ali's writing style in this book was not the easiest/most fun to read.

"I'm really good at braids" "There you go." "Can I braid your hair?" "Absolutely f**king no"

"Is it better?" "Better?" "My smell. Do I smell like...?" "Mine. You smell like you're mine, Misery."

"You think, but you don't know. You don't know anything about what it's like to find your other half. I would take anything she chose to give me - the tiniest fraction or her entire world. I would take her for a single night knowing that I'll lose her by morning, and I would hold on to her and never let go. I would take her healthy, or sick, or tired, or angry, or strong, and it would be my f-ing privilege. I would take her problems, her gifts, her moods, her passions, her jokes, her body - I would take every last thing, if she chose to give it to me."

'She told him Vampyres do not dream. And yet, once her midday rest is over and the evening approaches, her sleep becomes fitful, agitated. His touch seems to comfort her, and the thought fills him with pride and purpose.'