A Paranormal Romance That Didn’t Sink Its Teeth Into Me

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Published: February 6, 2024

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆

Audience: 17+

Synopsis: Ali Hazelwood takes a leap into paranormal romance with Bride, a story that blends vampires, werewolves, and a marriage-of-convenience trope. We follow Misery Lark, a vampire reluctantly married off to Lowe, an alpha werewolf, to secure peace between their species. It’s a dark, broody setup with Hazelwood’s signature wit and voice.

All in all, I ended up rating Bride 3 stars because of all factors mentioned below as well as Hazelwood’s *animal kingdom* choices made in Misery and Lowe’s relationship…I am NOT the target audience for that, and it really put me off. It’s just not for me.

The plot and characters were very convincing, easy to follow, and a little predictable, which made it an easy and overall enjoyable read! Misery’s voice was fun to be in, especially as she searched for her best friend and tried to make sense of her enemies-turned-family dynamic.

While this paranormal romance seems like a stretch or a drift from Ali Hazelwood’s other works, it really is just a contemporary romance wearing a paranormal jacket. This is not really a knock against her or contemporary romance - Bride is a fun read and I loved being in Misery’s head as she sought after her best friend and learned more about her natural enemies.

The world building is shallow, probably because Misery is an unreliable narrator and did not live long amongst her own people - I wonder if Hazelwood will write more books within this context; the ending definitely leaves room for another book.

A lot of people really loved this book, like obsessed over it, and that’s great! Was just a fun read for me and I don’t think I’ll ever visit it again.

xx

Bride by Ali Hazelwood