Bride by Ali Hazelwood || Book Review

Although I haven't been active on social media for over a year, the hype over Bride has not escaped my notice. I've seen a lot of talk about it on blogs and from people. If the hype has reached me (the hermit), it must be worth reading.

Instead of only reading Bride, I binged all of Hazelwood's books (that are out so far) and ended with Bride. Was it worth it?

about Bride

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

The cover has a blurb that calls this a "paranormal Romeo and Juliet" which gives an entirely different impression. This is similar to Romeo and Juliet only in that the main characters are from warring factions. Otherwise, this story is completely different.

He and Father are the masterminds of this marriage. I am the masterminded.

Firstly, our main lead's name is Misery, which is pretty funny. She is a Vampyre (not Vampire) and the daughter of the Vampyre head in the Southwest. She grew up amongst the humans as "collateral" to keep peace between the two species and still lives among them pretending to be human when her father calls on her.

The humans don't want the collateral system anymore and are allying with the Weres (i.e. werewolves). In order to keep the Vampyre position secure, her father proposes that she get married to the new Were head and be a "collateral" again. She almost walks away before she hears the Were leader's name—Lowe Moreland. With a whole different plan in her mind, she agrees.

And so begins a marriage of convenience between the Were leader and the Vampyre leader's daughter. They agree to a year of marriage to cement the peace between the two factions. Everyone expects it to go horribly because the last time the two species tried this, it ended in bloodshed during the wedding.

"He is very dangerous. Do not cross him.” What every girl wants to hear ten feet from the altar, especially when the hard line of her groom’s shoulders already looks cross.

It is easy to tell that the author had fun writing this book. Yes, she built a world and a plotline to go with the romance but the main point is the romance and all the fanfiction-y things through it. She added a ton of jokes and totally unserious scenes which made the story lighthearted despite the danger aspect in it.

I wouldn't say that this book is a brilliant romance or the pinnacle of writing, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's hard not to enjoy a book when it's clear that the author had fun writing it. You have got to leave your regular expectations and just have fun with this.

There were so many fun fanfiction-y scenes. It's stuff that we want to see in stories between Vamps and Weres—all the cutesy bits about being totally unmatched but being the best couple anyway, the "mate" stuff, the vamp feeding stuff. I especially enjoyed this one scene where Misery got poisoned and almost died and Lowe went full protective werewolf guard on her. It was fun.

“You should punish her.” I snort out a laugh. “Yes, Lowe. Spank me and take away my TV privileges.”

The main reason the book was fun to read is Misery. Our main character is a wholly unserious woman who lowkey does not care about her well-being. She agrees to get married to a Were despite knowing that she might get killed within a month of being in Were territory. She does it anyway and makes jokes all the time.

She refuses to be afraid and doesn't think about the pros and cons for even a second. She goes head-first into things, makes quips along the way, and doesn't even try to appease people who don't like her. She's simply herself the whole time—her funny and sassy self.

Keeping up with the STEM character theme in Hazelwood's books, Misery is a tech girlie, which I liked. She's a white-hat hacker by profession in the human world and has no qualms about hacking into things for the people she loves. Although there's quite a bit of talk about her liking her job, we don't spend much time on it with everything else going on in the story.

Underneath the I-don't-care attitude, there is depth to her character as well. She does not have a great relationship with her family as she grew up away from them. The Vampyres treat her badly because she lived among humans even though she had to do it for the sake of the rest of them, so she doesn't belong within her people or among the humans.

The only person she has a good bond with is Serena, her human foster sister who was assigned as her "companion." Misery would do anything for Serena but doesn't expect that she will have a good bond with anyone else.

It was heartwarming to see her find her place among the Were by Lowe's side despite everyone wanting to kill her in the beginning. She doesn't have the same kind of animosity as she grew up among humans so she behaves pretty normally and the Were soon warm up to her.

I loved how she and Ana, Lowe's 6-year-old sister, grew close. Ana did not care about Misery being a Vamp or having different sleep schedules, she wanted to play with her and Misery had to go along with it. There was one fanfiction-y scene with them interacting like family during dinner which was too cute.

She makes him want to draw again.

Lowe was the stereotypical good guy. He lived away from home as an architect when his pack called for him. He dropped everything, challenged the leader and won, and has been trying his best ever since. All day, he works for the people around him and doesn't take care of himself.

He initially did not care about Misery but soon, she became a part of his inner circle too. Due to her, he remembered who he was other than the pack leader. He was a totally serious person so an unserious Misery was the perfect partner for him.

The entire book is from Misery's POV so we don't get to know his thoughts through it all. However, each chapter starts with a one-liner tagline from his POV. It took me a few chapters to realize it because it didn't match Misery's thoughts and vibe. It was a good touch and gave us a nice glimpse into him simping over her haha.

It is easy to tell that the author had fun with his character as well. Misery is all about technology and Lowe uses his phone like my grandfather used to. Misery makes fun of his technical ineptitude multiple times. Another way they're the perfect pairing.

Also, Hazelwood milked the mate and knotting stuff about Weres. She had all the fun with it throughout the book so I had fun with it too.

The only thing I didn't like was the third-act breakup. It was totally unnecessary and didn't add anything to the plot. It didn't even make sense.

overall

I didn't expect to enjoy this book much because my track record with Hazelwood's books and paranormal romances in general is not good. I went in with zero expectations and really enjoyed it. Check & Mate is still my favourite Ali Hazelwood book but this is a solid second.

If you want a fun and unserious romance with a "danger" plotline that heightens the stakes, go for this. It's also great for days when you don't feel like using your brain. Fair warning: leave all your regular expectations and criticisms behind.

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Have you read any of Ali Hazelwood's books? Have you read Bride or is it on your TBR? What makes a romance book fun for you?