The first thing I thought when I finished reading BRIDE by Ali Hazelwood was that there better be another book- really, a series would be GREAT! 😂 This is by far one of my favorite paranormal romcoms. It’s funny, has a great plot and twist when it comes to the central problem facing our characters, and some super spicy scenes that made me blush. I could have lived without “the knot” but everything else about this book is perfect!

In Bride readers will meet Misery (a vampire), and Lowe (a werewolf) who are arranged to marry to bring peace amongst the two communities (including a third community, humans). Unfortunately, this arranged marriage isn’t just to bring peace among all kind. There’s trouble brewing on a more political side of things and someone’s holding secrets. These characters must all work together to find out WHY kidnapping and poisonings are happening before it's too late.

If you’re a fan of full fleshed characters, fun plots with a tiny bit of trouble (to make things interesting of course) and paranormal romances then you don’t want to miss this one. I can already tell its going to be one of my favorite books of 2024!

𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗙𝗘𝗖𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗙𝗔𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙
❥ Paranormal Romances
❥ A little suspense and mystery
❥ LOL romcoms with some spice

𝗠𝗬 𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗚: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I had very high hopes for this book, especially after hearing that paranormal was what the author had been wanting to write originally. However, it ended up being a 'mid' book for me overall and while it was entertaining enough to finish I'm not sure I would re-read it.

The scenes with Ana were particularly brutal for me because it read very much like someone who had never been around children trying to write a child character and it being overly cliched. Like it got to the point where those scenes almost made me DNF the book.

The love story was just okay but it was my favorite pairing by her since I felt that the animosity of the different species played too heavy of a hand if that makes sense. Like yeah there was going to be some opposition but at some point it felt a bit much.

It was also very long and I would argue roughly 30 pages too much so. There was a lot of scenes that could have been trimmed down or removed entirely and the book still would have been fine. Of course there was a cliffhanger for a sequel which will thrill a lot of people I'm sure.

Again entertaining enough to finish but was not as stellar as I was lead to believe it would be or how I wanted it to be.

Ali Hazelwood you have done it again! I was very intrigued about this book when it was announced. I’ve never read anything like it before and I’m so surprised by it. No one writes a hero and heroine like Ali Hazelwood. It’s a fun story with the perfect amount of slight suspense and true romance.

Unlike anything I’ve read from Ali Hazlewood. Bride still had her signature humor and quirks throughout but I just loved this sexy, primitive fantasy world she threw us into.

I absolutely love Lowe Moreland. He is alpha everything. He’s tall, strong, kind, caring, and literally just the whole package wrapped up in one. In my mind, Ali literally made him the PERFECT book husband. On the other side we have Misery (our Vampyre). Misery was very quirky. However, as a vampyre who is supposed to show no emotion, then forced to grow up with humans and then ends up in Ware territory… so, I suppose it’s justified. I did love watching Misery grow into a person she can be proud of and finally find somewhere she belongs.

This story has such a great storyline with awesome twists and heart-bending moments. The world Ali created here is so futuristically animalistic and I ate it up. Overall, this is a stunner from Ali Hazlewood and with the way it ended, I can only hope she gives us more in this world.

Before I start this review, I have to admit I do not read a lot of fantasy/paranormal books. It is not my thing, but when Ali Hazelwood wrote a book about a world where vampires and werewolves coexist, and a marriage pact was formed to maintain an alliance, I had to grab it! Ali Hazelwood usually writes rom cons with women from STEM, so I was pleasantly surprised that she hid her phenomenal writing skills for paranormal fantasy books for so long. I was also surprised by how much I loved this book.

Misery and Lowe’s romance was a slow burn, but their intense chemistry helped move the story along. I absolutely loved Misery and her personality. I immediately fell In love with how witty, intense, and emotionally intelligent she was from the start. Hazelwood did a great job building the worlds between the werewolves and the vampires. Due to Misery and Lowe's romance being a slow burn, I felt that the subplots were slightly more interesting than Misery and Lowe‘s romance, but I loved it all. Hazelwood also added her fun banter and made me believe that maybe I can like more fantasy and paranormal romances thanks to some blood-sucking romance!

Thank you to NetGallery and to Berkley Publishing for giving me a copy of the book.

I absolutely loved this book.
I am such a sucker for Hazelwood's writing style.
It is always written in a way that has me kicking my feet, because it's just so damn cute. But also sexy at the same time.
This wasn't like her usual stories, but it was still so similar. I just ugh! I'm know what to expect when I pick up a Hazelwood book. And have yet to be disappointed.

"Bride" by Ali Hazelwood is a departure from her previous STEM-center romances, venturing into the supernatural with star-crossed vampire & werewolf couple Misery and Lowe. The book is consistent with Ali Hazelwood's style and a page-turner, but I found some of the spice-related plot points awkward and jarring and the major conflict between the two main characters towards the last quarter of the book doesn't make any logical sense. The book ends in a way that sets up at least one sequel.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

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.

📍 Read if you like:
• Fated Mates
• Arranged Marriage
• Forced Proximity
• Forbidden Love
• Found Family
• Urban Fantasy

This book was super out of my comfort zone and I should’ve known beforehand this wasn’t going to be my kind of book. I’ve had mixed feelings with Ali Hazelwood’s books in the past, but this one was different so I decided to give it a try.

This book follows Missy, a vampyre bride, and Lowe, an alpha werewolf. I honestly wanted to love this book so much, I think it was so unique and different from anything I’ve read before. I struggled so much with the pacing and it felt too long.

I think the concept was amazing and I can see other readers absolutely loving this. The forced proximity was perfect, but I wasn’t a fan of the marriage of convenience. It made it difficult to care for the romance between the two, it just felt too insta.

I will say, I loved the urban fantasy vibes. I’m not a big fantasy reader so it was nice getting a low fantasy story. The book also gave off Twilight vibes, which I thought was fun. The spicy scenes were also great in this, although the “knot” scene could’ve used more explanation.

Unfortunately, I found the world-building not for me. I felt so disconnected from the story and struggled to get through it. There was also too much info dumping with the inner dialogue. While I didn’t mind the slow burn, I would’ve preferred if there was another interesting plotline like the mystery.

I’ve come to terms that omegaverse might not be my thing, but I still will consider checking more out from this genre. I’ve seen such good reviews so far for this book, so this is 100% more of a me thing.

I respect the uniqueness and different approach away from the STEM stories, I think this author is an amazing writer. I just struggled so much with Bride, I would still recommend though - I know I wasn’t the intended reader.

Thank you so much NetGalley and Berkley for the review copy in exchange for my honest review!

•𝗧𝗪/𝗖𝗪: Sexual Content, Blood, Violence, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Emotional Abuse

Ahhh I loved this! My very first paranormal romance and it was so much fun. I absolutely LOVED Misery and Lowe. She was quick, witty, and so dang funny. I loved how much she owned who she was and pushed Lowe. And Lowe. UGH. What a sweet dude. Such a good boy. 🥰

I will say I was not prepared for the, um, thing that happened during the seggs scenes towards the end. But that's a me thing and I'm sure I'll be introduced to more of that as I dive into paranormal romance more.

Overall, a really fun, unique story and I'll definitely be recommending it to my audience. Thanks so much for the ARC!

I think that Bride might be Ali Hazelwood’s best book yet. I truly enjoyed the plot and the romance. The plot was a bit of a mystery and kept me interested. The romance was a slow burn and felt like it had time to develop and be believable.

3.75 stars
Wow, well that was certainly a story. I want to start by saying this is definitely not a typical Ali Hazelwood read by any means however, based on the reviews I’ve seen I was expecting this to be a lot more risky than it was if that makes any sense. I feel like for an Omegaverse story this one was honestly pretty tame.
I was really excited, but a little anxious to see how Ali Hazelwood would write a fantasy world and I really feel like this was a perfect first step. In this world it’s essentially the exact same as ours is today with modern technology, etc. The only slight difference Vampyres and Werewolves exist. I honestly love how the world was introduced, and how casual it felt to learn about these new species. Misery Lark our main female character, daughter of the Vampyre leader- and yes that is her actual name- is forced into a marriage of convenience with the leader of the Werewolves Lowe, in order to keep peace between the two species and show that they can work together.
I will say I felt like the beginning of this was a little slow. I really did like the multi species aspect. As well as the little secret mystery, Misery had going on, once that element picked up, I feel like the book definitely picked up in general.
Misery was a fun character while I didn’t completely love her I also didn’t dislike her. She was driven, determined and vocal- definitely an easy character to relate to at times. she’s one of those characters that comes off as super rough and tough but actually has a heart of gold for the people she loves, and I feel like you really saw that when she interacted with Ana (some of my personal favorite scenes).
I felt kinda meh about Lowe, while I did enjoy his character, especially towards the end, I feel like he didn’t really have much depth to him. Maybe that was because we only really saw inside Misery’s head, which I do think it would’ve been really cool if this was dual POV. I feel like the lovers and enemies to lovers happened almost overnight. It literally felt like one scene happened and then Misery and Lowe’s entire relationship and demeanor towards each other kind of shifted. Which in a way felt kind of insta love ish, I think I just wanted a little more angst or tension lol.
I will say the typical banter you usually see in an Ali Hazelwood book is definitely still there. The inner monologue and quick reactions that the characters gave had me giggling. You can absolutely tell this was written by her and I’m honestly really glad that she branched out into the genre. I have heard she has more paranormal romance coming, and I’m really excited for them. I think she’s off to a great start and this was a really fun read!
Overall, definitely don’t think this is the book for everyone but I do think it’s a super fun read. If you’re new to this genre/tropes and want to give it a try. I honestly honestly think this would be a really good one to start on!

*Thank you Berkley Romance and team for an eARC in exchange, for an honest review. All opinions above are 100% my own!*

Ahhh I loved this one so much! I honestly wasn’t sure what to expect with such a major genre change from Ali but this was adorable, steamy once the steam finally hits, and full of supe drama and I’m here for it.

It starts off almost ya in tone, or maybe it was just giving me twilight meets underworld vibes, but around the halfway mark it gets much more adult if you get my drift lol.

I adored Misery. A misfit vampire who’s never really belonged anywhere on the hunt for the only person who’s ever truly cared for her, her foster sister Serena. And if that hunt includes her marrying the local alpha wolf as a part of a vampire/were alliance, so be it. She is feisty, totally not your average vampire who you can’t help but love.

Lowe is the big bad alpha who is such a cinnamon roll. I adored his relationship with his sister and the tiny snippets of his thoughts at the beginning of each chapter kept leaving me wanting more!

The plot was fun. I’d classify it as an urban fantasy romantic suspense. I wasn’t sure how Ali was going to tie all the loose ends up by the end but she did and did it well. And omg the ending! I sure hope we get another story set in this world based on how it ended. (No plot cliffhangers for my friends that are not cliffhanger fans but a delightfully wonderful tease at a future potential couple.)

Say hello to my first 5 star read of the year!

This is definitely my favorite Ali Hazelwood read BY FAR!

This is quite different from all of her other books and I can’t say enough good things about it!

It is a paranormal romance with the perfect blend of character development and slow burn.
It will make you giggle and blush and want to binge read because you can't get enough of the characters or the story.

I really will miss Lowe and Misery and I cannot WAIT for you to meet them

This one is out February 6th and if you are living your best life in your fantasy era and also love romance like me, you really need to read it!

5 stars

Thank you so much @berkleypub and @netgalley for the early copy!

@alihazelwood you are amazing!

Are you a romance or fantasy fan? Any books you would recommend? How are you doing today?

WOW. JUST WOW. This was the perfect book to end 2023 on. Was a Vampyre + Werewolf marriage of convenience on my bingo card this year? No. Did I absolutely devour it? 100%, yes. This book just confirms that if Ali Hazelwood writes it, I'm going to read it.

I immediately fell in love with Misery and was pulling for her to find herself and love. Lowe was the Alpha Werewolf I didn't know I needed in my life. He is the perfect MMC and shot to the top of my book boyfriend list. I really really hope there are plans for more stories in this world Hazelwood has built. I need more.

*A review will be posted on social at the end of January and again on pub day.*

I truly cannot say enough good things about this book. I was unsure of what to expect going into this but was incredibly intrigued by the premise as a huge fan of paranormal romance.

In this book we have Misery, who is a vampyre that feels like she doesn't belong anywhere. There is an agreement between the humans and the vampyres that requires each species to deliver a collateral to their respective territories to ensure peace between them. Misery is that collateral for 18 years. Not having grown up around her kind, she can't relate to them but that leaves her almost completely alone. After hiding in the human territory for a few years, Misery is called back to her home and told that she will enter into a marriage of convenience with a werewolf to create peace between these two species as well. Meaning, Misery is essentially being used as collateral once more.

Now, to get into the story.

The slow burn was everything I needed and more! The tension between the characters was so well done, the banter was literal perfect and the found family we got with Misery and the wolves was beautifully done. Lowe was the perfect obsessed man that could barely hide his feelings and he just made me so giddy the entire story. Not to mention the relationship between him and his younger sister and the way he took care of her made my heart absolutely melt.

This is one of my new favorite romances and I'm so happy I received an arc from #Netgalley and #berkleypub in exchange for my honest reivew!

This was quite the departure from Ali Hazelwood's normal romances, but many of the things readers love about her books are also present in Bride. Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised by her spin on the paranormal/shifter romance genre. This would be a good gateway book to the genre for readers who haven't read paranormal/shifter romance before, since it reads very contemporary with paranormal elements most of the time.

Tropes you'll find in Bride:
- marriage of convenience
- found family
- enemies-ish to friends to lovers
- touch her and die
- mine/my wife *bites fist*
- single parent-ish
- caretaker
- fated mates
- knotting

I wasn't expecting the romance between Lowe and Misery to be such a slow burn, but it really worked. It gave them time to truly get to know each other and look beyond the Were and Vampyre surface. It also helped crank up the anticipation, making the payoff so much more satisfying. Yes, some parts of the book were predictable and I didn't totally love the final conflict/resolution (it felt very rushed), but overall this was a fun and sexy read.

I mainly listened to the audiobook of Bride and it was so good! I especially loved the narration by Thérèse Plummer. She used a variety of voices to bring all of the characters to life so convincingly, regardless of gender or age. Truly a fantastic performance! I also enjoyed Will Damron's narration, but his voice didn't totally match growly alpha Lowe in my mind. It should also be noted that the book is not truly dual POV. Will Damron only narrates a sentence or two at the start of each chapter and one full chapter in the novel.

Audiobook Review
Overall 4 stars
Performance 4.5 stars
Story 4 stars

CW: death of loved ones, kidnapping, missing loved one, murder and attempted murder, violence, strained and toxic relationship with parent, blood play

*I voluntarily read and listened to a review copy of this book*

Bride follows Misery and Lowe in an arranged political alliance marriage between Vampyre and Werewolves. Given the premise and being a fan of Ali’s previous work, I was really excited for this debut into Paranormal Romance! This book had some elements I really enjoyed! I enjoyed Misery’s character a lot, I appreciated seeing her journey to find a place for herself and the way she opened herself up to love and friendship despite tradition over the course of the book and I loved that she was a taller girl (something small I always love to see in romance novels). I really enjoyed Lowe as at the male lead as well and found the tiny snippets we got his POV to be the highlight of the book for me! Also the spice was top tier.

I had two main issues with this book:
I do really wish it was dual POV! Like I said the snippets we got in Lowe’s POV were SUCH highlights for me that I wish I could have gotten know him more and the way he talked about Misery was everything!
I wish the first 30% was paced differently, I definitely appreciated how this book felt more slow-burn compared to Ali’s other work, but the “world building” felt a smidge too info-dumpy in combination to the slow start of their romantic connection, I feel like I never really fully got into the momentum of the book following the slower start for me personally.

I still would recommend this book as I think it had a lot of positive qualities and I appreciated the chemistry between Lowe and Misery so much! Thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for the arc.

This book had me engaged from the first chapter! I haven’t read a book like this before, so I was a little nervous going into it. However, in complete Ali Hazelwood fashion, I LOVED it! It was funny, hot, and had the best banter EVER!

Rating: 4.5/5

Thank you to Berkley Romance, PRH Audio and NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I don't think I fully know how to say how good this book was. As a non-paranormal/fantasy girlie, no one is more surprised than me that I ate this shit up and I'm ready for the next book.

Maybe this was the perfect intro into this world because I devourer just about any marriage of convenience romance, throw in lots of "my wife" moments and I swoon hard. I loved Misery and Lowe together, there was a tenderness while also having all the sass.

Did I love Lowe as a big brother/guardian? So much. He makes her peanut butter sandwiches when she has nightmares.

The ending? Saw some of it coming, but Ali threw in some unexpected twists that earned major points.

Do I love the knotting? nah not my thing, but it worked well in this book and you could FEEL just how into each other they were.

Overall give me more. And thank you sweet lord that there wasn't a pop culture reference every page.

4.75 stars

Thank you NetGalley (and Penguin Random House audio) for the advanced copy!

I enjoyed this one way more than I expected. This was such a delightful paranormal romance, perfect for fans of the marriage of convenience trope and forbidden romance. Misery (a vampyre) and Lowe (a werewolf) enter a marriage of convenience to keep the piece between their respective groups but Misery has motives of her own for agreeing to the arrangement. This book was funny, had a fun mystery that I didn't see coming, and was the perfect tension-building slow burn that I didn't know I needed. What a great paranormal debut for Ali!