By Ali Hazelwood
Star 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 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 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.
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Read if you Like:
🐺 Marriage of convenience
🐺 Vampire and werewolf couple
🐺 Steamy romance
🐺 Paranormal politics
🐺 Slow burn
My Thoughts:
Thanks to PRH audio for providing me with an ALC of this book. All opinions are my own.
Bride has been one of my most anticipated titles of the year so I was incredibly excited to get to listen to it! I enjoy Ali Hazelwood, paranormal romance, marriages of convenience and werewolf and vampire politics so this one sounded right up my alley!
First of all, I really enjoyed this book! I listened to it in one day and it is probably Ali Hazelwood's spiciest book. It also has all the things I want in a paranormal romance. That being said it wasn't quite what I was expecting. I thought it would be closer to a contemporary romance given that is what Ali usually writes, but it is set in a totally fictional and somewhat dystopian world. It is also the first book in what seems like it will be a longer series which I wasn't expecting.
Just based on this book I think there are better paranormal series out there but I do think the first in this type of series is usually my least favorite. You have to do a lot of world-building and rule establishing which leaves less time for romance.
I will say fans of the typical Ali Hazelwood hero won't be disappointed by Lowe. I was dying for his POV, which I seem to say each time I read one of her books. I did think in this case it would have particularly improved the story. Misery (yes that is the heroine's name, and no I didn't get used to it) is also smart though her intellect is less a part of her personality and identity than past Ali heroines.
I think Bride is unusual in that it will likely be read by many people who haven't read a lot of paranormal stuff before. I think some readers will be like wow I want to read more and others will be like no one told me the spicy scenes were going to have this much biting. I will say if you rad that last sentence and were horrified this one isn't for you. Additionally, if you were a reader who loved the "steminist" aspect of Ali's previous books, that is a much smaller aspect of this story.
🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧- I listened to the audiobook version of Bride and thought Thérèse Plumme, who has done Ali's previous books, as well as other popular romance author's like Robyn Carr's books, did a wonderful job! Will Damron also read small parts of this book but it wasn't a true dual narration as this book is almost entirely Misery's POV.
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️- Bride has a handful of open-door scenes that are all fairly descriptive. The spice rating gets pushed up because this book includes knotting, blood-drinking, and biting during steamy scenes that might not be for some readers.
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