Review: Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Series: Bride #1

Publication date: February 6th, 2024

Pages: 410

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

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 #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love, Theoretically and 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 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 shes' 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.

Available at:

Story:

This was my first book written by Ali Hazelwood and despite hearing all the hype about her books from other bookworms, I never dipped my toe in. I am vastly kicking myself for that now. This is not your typical werewolf/vampire love story. This story has teeth and a whole system of intrigue that slowly becomes revealed overtime. It has a way of sneaking up on you and throwing you for a loop despite how sure you are that you have it figured out already. Misery, the princess of the vampires for lack of a better word, marries the Alpha of a werewolf pack and this is meant to foster peace between the races. But if both sides are trained from birth to not trust the other, how smooth can this transition be? Not smooth at all in this story. I liked that it wasn't "where you been, Loca" and more of a real romantasy vibe. The government structure was interesting and I liked that the story wraps up nicely but also has some curiosities hanging out there to be discovered in subsequent books.

Characters:

• Misery - I loved that Misery was not your stereotypical cutesy girl. She had that goth vibe to her that didn't go too far into it that it made her seem inauthentic. In fact, she was very relatable with her monotone expressions and darker humor. She was the opposite of golden boy Lowe and that really did well with the chemistry between the two characters. She had an incredibly hard life and not a lot of people in her corner who would admit to loving her. Her own father barely tolerates her and uses her as a ploy to garner an alliance with the werewolves. As a vampire this was an unusual match but Misery rolled with it regardless. I liked how she slowly started to discover the world of the werewolves and how different it was from what she had been taught. She was a really well-rounded character.

• Lowe - He is the type of werewolf where you are meant to fear him as the Alpha but when you see him you just want to ruffle his hair and give his wolf form belly rubs. He was stoic but never harsh. He had a heart of gold when it came to his little sister and it was marvelous to watch him start to allow Misery into his circle even if he tried desperately to avoid their connection. When he finally broke, it was beautiful to see him let down his walls for Misery and vice versa. I think he is a stellar leading character.

Writing:

Ali Hazelwood writes her stories with a lighthearted manner that keeps the characters from leaning too far into the dark and morose and interjects humor throughout. The characters all have senses of humor which will leave a reader laughing delightedly with them as they are faced with situations they never would have imagined. The banter between the main characters is on another level. It is darling and really helped me to fall in love with the characters overall. I wanted to see more of them so I had to pick up the next book to check in on my Misery and Lowe!

Overall:

The absolute best introduction to Ali Hazelwood's books and the start of a reading binge unlike no other. I will be reading everything I can get my grubby little hands on by Hazelwood and collecting the shelf trophies as well. Absolutely beautiful romantasy book of unconventional love.