Review: Bride by Ali Hazelwood

 

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

My Rating: 4 out 5

Review: 

Like any longtime vampire and werewolf romance fan (shoutout to the good old ‘90s Buffy days), I was immediately excited when I learned that Ali Hazelwood was releasing her first paranormal romance novel. I readily admit that I’ve been a fan since her Reylo fanfic days (yes, I’m a terrible person 24/7). I found her first novel, The Love Hypothesis, very refreshing because of my favorite fake relationship trope, the fun grumpy-sunshine moments, and the STEM heroine. As a romance fan, sometimes you have to take the good with the bad… every now and then, you find heroines who are too stupid to live—characters I don’t vicariously want to be. However, Olive from The Love Hypothesis was both smart and sweet. Having relatives with science backgrounds, I knew Hazelwood either personally had a biology background or did great research, allowing me to vicariously explore the path not taken, as I almost committed to being a biology major at one point. It was a fun, romantic adventure. With Bride, I felt I was in for a similar mental exploration and real-life escape.

The synopsis reads:

“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.”


In summary, Misery fits the willing heroine archetype. She agrees to the ultra-strange arranged marriage to werewolf pack leader Lowe Moreland in order to investigate her best friend’s mysterious disappearance. To Hazelwood’s credit, I had a difficult time predicting the ending, and at times, I even assumed Misery’s friend had been murdered, turning the plot into a murder mystery. I liked Lowe as a hero—Hazelwood did a good job developing him as the reliable, trustworthy, and wise big brother to the members of his pack. I didn’t particularly like Misery, though I didn’t hate her either. Sometimes her language was just too much, to the point of annoyance, and a few times it happened in front of a small child. As a mom, I felt like, come on, let a character call her out on this already. I’m pretty sure Hazelwood and the beta readers for this weren’t moms.

Ultimately, Hazelwood created a sweet connection between Misery and Lowe. However, the spicy scenes were a bit weird. Without going into too much detail, there were some unique werewolf anatomy issues, which was a risky choice. I bet it turned some people off from her work.

All in all, I’m actually surprised that Bride is a standalone novel. Not to spoil anything, but there were plenty of interesting supporting characters who could star in sequels titled Groom, Best Man, Maid of Honor, etc.
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