Bride by Ali Hazelwood Review

 

BookLinks 

https://amzn.to/4g9Umau

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/181344829-bride

Blurb 

A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.

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 an historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and 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.

Review 

Bride by Ali Hazelwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 Stars
I decided to pick up Bride because I desperately needed a change of genre, and what an absolute palate cleanser this was! My last few reads have been heavy, dark mafia romances, so this was exactly what I needed to lift my reading mood.
This book is a refreshing spin on the usual vampire tropes—or should I say 'Vampyre', as the author spells it. Oh, and they have pointy ears! 😳

Our main character is Misery Lark. She has a very unfortunate name, but once you learn her backstory, the reasoning makes total sense. She spent her childhood serving as the Vampyre "collateral" to the humans. The only bright spot in her upbringing was her friend Serena, a fantastic secondary character who keeps the book ticking along with some elite, snarky banter.

Then we have Lowe, the typical alpha male. He is hot, cold, grumpy, and incredibly 'Big' 🫣. He's also a fiercely protective brother to Anna (another excellent side character, oh and honorable mention to 'Sparkles').

As for the world-building, the author gives you the exact baseline information you need to understand the uneasy alliance between the Vampyres, Weres, and Humans. Think medieval lords swapping their children as collateral to prevent border skirmishes. It gives you just enough setup to understand the high stakes. Looking back, the main things that stuck with me are the USA setting, the pointy-eared vampires, tall and snarky Misery, and a very big, knotty Lowe 🪢 😶‍🌫️ 🫣... But more on that in a second!

What I loved (80% of the book):
• 🦇 The Vampyre Covens: Uptight, narcissistic, and entirely power-hungry. Even though they struggle with procreation, they don't actually seem to care about family values.
• 🐺 The Weres: Naturally distrusting (and honestly, I don't blame them), but they have a great sense of humor and strong family values. Thankfully, the majority of the story takes place in their territory!
• 🧘🏼‍♀️ The Humans: Individually the weakest, but they have the largest population. They are rapidly gaining power through technology, which makes them a growing threat and prompts the "collateral" peace swaps.

What fell a bit flat for me:
I was completely enamored with the story until the slow burn finally turned up the heat 🔥🌶️. This was my very first book by Ali Hazelwood, and while I appreciate that she wanted to build a unique supernatural world (it gave me massive Twilight vibes, but with vastly superior characters—I would take snarky Misery over boring Bella any day), I realized I definitely prefer ✨ vampires over 🍆🪢 weres. At a certain point, the spice stopped feeling like a romance and felt more like a supernatural documentary on mating season 🥵.

Overall Verdict:
Despite the wolf mechanics not being my personal preference, this book thoroughly entertained me and successfully cured my reading slump. I'm happily giving it a solid 4/5⭐!

View all my reviews