I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Bride by Ali Hazelwood Published by Berkley on February 6, 2024
Genres: Adult Paranormal Romance
Pages: 416
Source: the publisher
Format: E-galley
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My Rating:
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.
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.
My Review
Oh my gosh, I loved this book so much! It reminded me of the first book by this author, that when I finally picked it up to read, that one I finished in one day. If I’d been off for snow days or any kind of break, that same thing would have happened with this one! And being alone in the library this week, I was so tempted at times to go ahead and just keep my Kindle on my desk and read while no one was there at times.
The author’s take on vampires and werewolves was quite unique, at least for what I’ve read. I may be out of the know in what other paranormal romances are like. But I liked it! The story had humans, vampires, and weres as they called werewolves, and at least one hybrid between a were and a human. Humans knew about both supernatural creatures in the story, and there were alliances between the different groups. The main character was Misery, and she had been used as collateral between the humans and vampires when she was a child because of the high ranking of her father. She’s since been out of that role and living with her best friend, a human, trying to just get by as a human. Her father decides that they are now doing an alliance with the weres, and has asked her to be in a way a collateral again. Only this time she must marry the Alpha Were.
Lowe is of course very handsome, and seems like a good guy, other than the fact that it seems like she smells terrible to him for how he acts at first. She agrees to the marriage of convenience because she has reason to believe Lowe might be able to help her find her friend Serena who has disappeared. The reasons she believes this are slowly revealed to us as the time goes by and Misery begins to learn more about her husband’s world and the people/weres in it.
One of my favorite characters is Lowe’s little sister, and how Misery isn’t quite sure how to deal with a child, but it is humorous and fun to watch because of course Ana immediately adores Misery. As you’d expect there are betrayals and lots of covert missions to discover some things that are afoot in the werewolves world. Including an attempted kidnapping of Lowe’s sister and the other people who are loyal to the Alpha before Lowe.
I loved this world, all the ways things were handled and the rules and roles of the characters. And it was still a romance as Misery and Lowe fight their attraction to each other as any good marriage of convenience trope should have. Also, when they finally do get together, it was extremely hot! I haven’t read a lot of stories like that, but the way Hazelwood tells it, I might try some others! I agree with other people who commented on my updates on Goodreads as I read this that I would LOVE to have more stories in this world. Be it more of Lowe and Misery and what other fights they might have to go through, or other people finding their own loves, as Hazelwood’s other series/standalone books do different couples in the same world.
Now I just can’t wait for my special edition copy of this to arrive!
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Everyone seems to love this one.
I don’t do a ton of paranormal romance, but definitely am getting more into it, and this one worked for me!
I absolutely loved this one too and share my review later this week. Wonderful review
Thanks! I’ll be on the look out for your review this week!
Nice! Glad to hear you enjoyed this one too! This was my first Hazelwood book but I would definitely pick up another should she return to this world or even genre! It was a fun read for sure! Great review!
Yeah, her others are pretty much just contemporary romance, but I do hope she does more in this world!
I’m so glad you loved this, I wish I had time to read it, but I’ll have to catch up later I think.
If you get around to it, I’ll be interested to see what you think!
I loved this one too! I think I’ll call this one my pick for best read of the year so far.
It might be on my top list already too!
I’m glad you enjoyed this as much as you did. I’m looking forward to reading it myself. 😀
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did when you get a chance to read it!
I have preordered this for my Kindle – hope I can make time for it soon.
I hope you enjoy it just as much as I did!
I’ve read all but one of her contemporaries so I’m curious to see what she does with PNR. Glad you enjoyed it, Lisa.
I’ve loved all her contemporaries, so was definitely interested to see how she would do this! I think some people will maybe like this better, even though I love all her books.
I’ve seen this book around a few times, so was curious to read your thoughts on it. Glad to hear you enjoyed it so much. Too bad you didn’t have the space to actually read it as fast as you wanted. I like the sound of how the humans are aware of both supernaturals in this world. I haven’t read a lot of books with the marriage of convenience trope, but it can be a fun one when well done and it sounds like that was the case here. Hopefully there will be more books in the world as you enjoyed this one so much.
Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down! It was very good, and easy to fit in once I did pick it up.
I haven’t read anything by Ali yet but I do want to check Bride out. It sounds really good.
I think you would really like her books! She has characters that are all over the LGBTQ spectrum, and it’s just normal and not made a big deal out of like some books do at times.
Yes! I loved this one too! I enjoyed her take on the supernatural world and the marriage of convenience! I hope we get more from this world too. I does seem possible with the way it ended. I recommend Love, Theoretically. Her other contemporary romances were good, but that one was the best besides The Love Hypothesis, IMO.
I have read all her other books and loved them all! So I was excited to see how she’d do with the paranormal romance, but it was great just like you thought too!
I haven’t tried Ali Hazelwood yet, but this one might be a good one to start with! Great review!
Definitely recommend her! Her other books are all more contemporary STEM romances, but this was a fun paranormal romance!
Yea! I absolutely loved this one too. I’ve read a lot of PNR over the years, and this is more PNR-light, rom-com. It’s familiar yet unique. I really, really hope she’s writes another one, especially with all of the changes coming and how this one ended!
I might be a fan of the PNR-light/rom-com for now it seems!
I’m glad that you loved this one! Great review Lisa!
Thanks!