Bride - Ali Hazelwood

 

 “Maybe you're not meant for me the way I'm meant for you, but I'm going to choose you anyway, over and over and over again.” 

Lo and behold, Ali Hazelwood makes another home run in the romance genre! This time with everyone's favorite early 21st century trope, vampires and werewolves! 

⭐⭐⭐⭐🌟

Started: March 14th, 2024

Finished: March 25th, 2024

 Synopsis: Misery Lark is a Vampyre. As a child, she was the Collateral between the humans and the vampyres, a sacrifice so that both species could live in harmony. But now, she is serving as collateral in a different way. This time, with marriage to the Alpha Were, Lowe Moreland. In order to preserve the fragile relationship the Weres and Vampyres have, Misery must marry Lowe and live in Were territory for a year. But Misery has her own reasons for getting married, and it has nothing to do with love. 

My Review (Spoilers): This is Ali Hazelwood's first published foray into romantasy and I think she did a great job. We have that classic Hazelwood humor added to the story, but now we have bloodletting and scent marking. Let's start from the beginning.

I absolutely loved the characters in this one. Misery, Lowe, Anna, Serena (Not sure on the spelling since I listened to this on audio), and all of the other characters involved were great. They each had something to make them a bit different from everyone else. And don't get me started with the enemies turned lovers trope. This is thousands of years of enemies in the making and now they become lovers?? Yes, please. 

The story was engaging, albeit, a little bit confusing towards the end with Serena and the plot twist with Misery's father and brother. Though I am glad that Owen didn't turn into a dick, I'm glad that Misery's father got what was coming to him. Serena being a half-were seemed a bit hurried, only because we got a plethora of information at the very end and it was difficult to keep up with, especially in addition to Anna and her lineage. Speaking of Anna, she is the cutest and if anyone harms her, they will be visited by me with a pandofla, a Greek sandal used in beatings. Don't tempt me. 

Now let's move on to everyone's favorite subject when it comes to Hazelwood books...the spice. The spice was relevant and there was just enough that it didn't seem overdone. Though, I was listening to this on audio and I had a time trying to imagine the knot process. Maybe, I will keep that in the back burner of my brain until otherwise needed. Everything was hot and it had so much meaning behind it that it made it even hotter. For those that don't know, I am demi-sexual so I love a good story with emotional grounding especially when it comes to sex. 

Final Thoughts: I think this book was an imaginative take on romantasy and I hope Ali Hazelwood continues to go through with this in future books. She will be always be an automatic buy for me, so I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!