Ali Hazelwood, you had me at this being a paranormal romance between a vampire bride and an alpha wolf⁣. Taking me back to my Twilight loving days - 𝐁𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞 is the Vampyre/Werewolf romance you need in your life! I loved it. Filled with interspecies politics, enemies to lovers/forbidden love, fated mates, action, betrayal, mystery, tension, chemistry and steam (hello knot - iykyk).
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Did my werewolf/vampire loving self absolutely adore this? Yes, yes I did! Do I need more of this world and these characters in my life - also yes!

Screaming, crying, throwing up. This book had me in an absolute CHOKEHOLD. Ali has never failed me, but this book was on another level. I loved every single second of it and am crossing my fingers for a sequel!!!!

This book was so good! I loved the world building for vampires and werewolves. I also thought this had a really good plot and I liked that it focused on not just the couple, but some issues they were facing because they were from different groups. I also really liked the main female and male main characters. On their own they were both great, but together I absolutely loved them. Also shoutout to their amazing siblings as well who were such an enjoyable part of the book. Overall I really enjoyed this one! Also the spice was well placed to create tension and was well done in general.

This was a quick, enjoyable read! As usual, I love everything Ali Hazelwood puts out. The world building was pretty unique and a big selling point for me.

Misery is used to being a pawn as the daughter of a Vampyre councilman but she has tried to carve out her own life and work among humans. However, she ends up agreeing to a marriage alliance with the Weres in order to find out more about her missing human roommate, Serena. While Were Lowe tries to keep his distance from Misery, it's clear they're both attracted to each other and Misery winds up helping them foil a plot among the Weres and the Vampyres. Overall, a solid romance with paranormal elements. One thing Hazelwood does well is making her characters capable and skilled and not relying on others, even if miscommunication always seems to inevitably happen along with assuming what the other characters think. Readers who like Twilight, Teen Wolf, or fanfiction will enjoy this one.

Romance author Ali Hazelwood is primarily known for megapopular STEMinist romances like Love on the Brain and Love, Theoretically, contemporary love stories which feature delightfully nerdy heroines set in traditionally male-dominated professional fields like science, technology, and math. But recently, Hazelwood has been expanding her horizons a bit as a writer, releasing the charming YA novel Check & Mate in late 2023. Though it’s set in a male-dominated world (competitive chess), it’s as much a coming-of-age tale as it is a romance, featuring complex family dynamics and realistic middle-class problems alongside its rivals-to-lovers story. Now Hazelwood is dipping her proverbial pen into the world of paranormal romance with Bride, a delightful and unexpected swerve that more than proves this author is no one trick pony.

A genuine swerve from the recognizable formula that’s made her famous, Bride allows Hazelwood to indulge in an entirely new kind of story, embracing new tropes while building out a fictional world with its own rules and politics (both interspecies and otherwise). If you read any supernatural or paranormal romance, many of the story beats will be familiar to you—-well-known tropes are well-known for a reason after all—but interlaced with Hazelwood’s trademark humor and character banter, this is a delightful escape from start to finish.

I tried, but this book was definitely not for me. I DNF’d it at about 36%, although I skimmed a bunch of the rest of the book to see how it would end (and yes, I found the “knot” sections). I was bored, honestly, and could not get into the story or its main characters at all. The world-building was vague and odd. This was my first book by Ali Hazelwood and, while I know this is her first paranormal romance, it does make me hesitant to try another of her books.

Thank you to Berkley for the gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

It was so refreshing to read something new from Ali Hazelwood! I thoroughly enjoyed every single chapter and I'm looking forward to her other books if it means that she'll write more of this <3

I am honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed this. I've only read one other book by Ali Hazelwood (The Love Hypothesis), and I am not well-versed in the paranormal genre. In recent years, there have only been a handful of books I've read that could be classified as paranormal – I might average 1-2 paranormal-esque books a year.

So, I wasn't quite sure what to expect going into this one. I recently read another paranormal shifter romance (The Fake Mate by Lana Ferguson), which I enjoyed just fine, and since I had overall lukewarm feelings about Ali Hazelwood's The Love Hypothesis, I wasn't really expecting to be blown out of the water with Bride.

And while my mind wasn't blown, I thoroughly enjoyed this read! The political plot between the Vampyres, Werewolves, and Humans got a little dense and murky a few times, but I liked the dynamics and intrigue it added to the romance plot between Misery and Lowe.

I listened to it via audiobook, and the changing points of view and timelines were extremely confusing at first – particularly at the beginning since many sections are so short and it jumps around several times: Misery in the present, Lowe in the past, Misery in the past, Lowe in the present, Misery in the present. So I did reference my physical copy to see just what the heck was going on, and that helped a ton. But once it got past that first section of jumping around, it was easy to follow.

I do have a beef that there are two characters with extremely similar-sounding names: Owen and Koen. I got confused a bit when I thought the narrator said one name when it was really the other and vice-versa. Obviously, if you are reading the book, that won't be a problem for you.

It was sweet how Misery and Lowe tried not to like each other because their species historically were basically enemies, but they just couldn't help themselves. I appreciated how forthcoming Misery was in her thoughts and feelings, and didn't really hide much from Lowe. Lowe on the other hand, yes he was open but there was that ONE BIG THING that he kept hidden from her and even lied about at one point. Which I still don't quite understand why he outright lied that one time, but hey, that's romance novels for you I guess. Gotta have that third-act conflict/break-up.

Overall, a fun read! It ends in a way that leads one to believe this will become a stand-alone series, so I'm intrigued and excited to see what comes next.

What do you get when you take a fanfic author who also happens to be a neuroscience professor and add vampires and werewolves? You get the epically fun, laugh out loud, genius twist to the whole preternatural genre book Bride!

I cannot stop saying how much I adore this book of Ali's, and not just because I'm a lifelong lover of the spooky and spoopier side of things. Bride, in my opinion, is Ali's best novel yet. Her switch of genres didn't seem to slow her down at all; in fact, I think the switch was a fantastic choice and chance she took.

Misery has got to be my favorite female character so far. Her inner monologue had me cracking up at the desk at work - which is awkward because I work with the public. (sorry, not sorry) Did I also find that Misery had a tendency to be the most oblivious person in the world sometimes? Yes, but you know what, same girl, same.

As a person who has been active in the fanfic world for entirely too long to say, I was (k)not one of the bajillions who were blindsided or bamboozled by that addition to Lowe's anatomy. That being said, oh boy howdy did Ali bring some good spice to Bride. <3 Is it the spiciest thing I've ever read? Nope; but it is very, very well written and once you accept the (k)notty bits into your life, you'll find that everything will be just fine.

This world is now my obsession, and I NEED to know more about it! Please, please, please make this a series!!

Thank you NetGalley and Berkley for the eARC, even though I was a bit slow to get it read.

Something different from an author I really enjoy. Hazelwood's take on vampire and werewolf mythology feels unique, or at the least fresh. The societal conflict between the two groups, layered behind a marriage-of-convenience/allyship romance, makes for a good level of sexual tension.

Review 4.75 ⭐️
YES, YES, YES. Ali Hazelwood has won me back with this monster romance. After reading Love on the Brain, I was a little less than impressed because I felt that it was basically The Love Hypothesis all over again. However, I feel Hazelwood has found her stride and this is what she needs to be writing from now on (I mean, can we get a sequel with Serena and Koen). This was such a fun read and I enjoyed almost every minute of it. I loved the marriage of convenience aspect between a vampyre and werewolf. It’s no surprise that vampyres and werewolves are supposed to be enemies, so this had some elements of “enemies to lovers.” Learning about this paranormal world was fun but I do wish it had a little bit more world building, we really only got that the humans, vampyres, and werewolves stay in their designated regions and are “okay” with one another but mostly keep to themselves. This was definitely a slow burn, which you would expect in a marriage of convenience. *SLIGHT SPOILER* When the mention of werewolves having mates, I pretty much guessed which way it was going to go, but it didn’t ruin it for me. It made me want to keep reading and find out what happened. This is what Ali Hazelwood needs to write and I want more monster romance from her in the future!

The Facts: Paranormal Romance, Werewolves & Vampires, Fated Mates, Enemies to Lovers, Protective MMC

Misery is a constant pawn of Vampyre Clan. Her latest order is to marry Lowe, a werewolf who is also their enemy because vamps and weres hate each other.

Right off the bat, the narration was addicting. Ali has such a great sound for her main characters that makes the story fly by. The characters in this were great. I really feel like Misery and Lowe had good chemistry and there really were some to die for moments in there. Lowe was protective af and that always causes my heart to scream.

The storyline had me on the edge of my seat, trying to figure out what’s going on with Misery’s bff and the other issues throughout the story. The world building was cool and interesting.

I really hope she writes more in this world (especially with Misery’s bff!!!! Iykyk)

I received a free audiobook of Bride by Ali Hazelwood from Penguin Random House, Audio. Thank you, Penguin Random House Audio for the free audiobook.

As someone who has a complicated relationship with Ali Hazelwood and her work (I have not finished two of her books in the past) I was pleasantly surprised with the content of bride

This was a much more up my alley approach from Ali Hazelwood. I enjoyed the dynamics between our main female and male characters, and I really enjoyed the court politics as well as the mysteries surrounding the entire plot line. I do feel like Ali Hazelwood leaned a little too heavily on the miscommunication, trope there at the end of the book. I feel like it was very unnecessary to allow miscommunication to go on on such a simple topic for as long as it did. But otherwise, I really enjoyed the majority of this novel.

It definitely gives me the draw and hope to pick up more from Hazelwood if it's written in this type of format in the future.

For a vampire/were love story, this book was surprisingly very original and I am so glad. I loved every minute of it and Ali Hazelwood Is fast becoming one of my favorite one click authors.

Bride was such a fun ride from start to finish. It brought heat and heart and I couldn't put it down.

I was provided an ARC of this book via the Berkley Besties program and Netgalley, however I did end up borrowing the final production version of the audiobook from my library. As always all opinions are my own.

I thought the narrators did a great job, however this is mainly narrated by Thérèse Plummer, with Will Damron voicing small snippets at the beginning of each chapter. It was a creative way of giving the MMC a voice without writing in alternating POVs. I really would have liked to see some full chapters from Lowe's POV, but I really enjoyed that we did get some of his thoughts and that the audiobook did voice them with a male narrator.

I thought this was a really fun take on urban fantasy. I haven't read a good vampire romance in a while. Misery is the daughter of a powerful Vampyre councilman. Her father has used her as a bargaining chip for most of her life, so she hasn't spent much time among her own kind. She grew up with humans, and now she is being used once again to keep the peace. Instead of a peace agreement between the Vampyres and Humans, she is being used as a pawn between the Vampyres and Werewolves. Her father has arranged for her to marry the alpha of the Were pack in exchange for peace, and she agrees because she has an ulterior motive. She suspects her best friend has been kidnapped by her new husband and she is determined to find her. What she didn't expect to find was a kind man behind the powerful Were and someone who just might care about her.

Initially I thought this was YA, but let me tell you it is not YA at all. This has some significant spice and once things heat up the dirty talk is off the charts. I'm not a fan of the dirty talk personally, but if you are this delivers. The scene on the plane was more my speed, but that is the beauty of books, everyone gets to have their own preferences. Again we see some repetition with the terms and phrases used, you will never look at a knot the same again. I think this is something that really happens with dogs and wolves so it makes sense that it would happen with werewolves. Apparently knotting is also popular in fan fiction, especially in erotica and paranormal romance, so it makes sense that the author would include it here. I thought it was mentioned a bit too often. Those scenes are NSFW, so plan accordingly or if you are like me skim past them if they aren't your cup of tea.

This relies heavily on tropes we've seen before in shifter books, but honestly that's kind of why I love shifter books. This leads to parts of the plot being a bit predictable, but I didn't mind that. Some of the plot points were repetitious especially when it came to Misery and Lowe's relationship and the concept of mates. You know from the second they meet they are fated mates, but the topic throughout the book as it is discussed often but instead of accepting that they are mates it is avoided and dismissed. Hardware and software is also mentioned alot as an analogy for compatibility. I've only read 1 other book by the author so I'm not sure if that is her typical style or not. There is a bit of a mystery plot as Misery tries to find her friend and figure out what happened to her. I love that Misery had her own career and figured out how to survive on her own. She is her own kind of vampire and she's OK with being different. She also finds her own place among the her new pack despite them being terrified of her.

Overall this was a really enjoyable read. It has a bit of everything you would want from an urban, paranormal fantasy. It had an engaging plot with a bit of mystery and lots of politics, a good romance, and fun characters. I'm not sure if this is a standalone or intended to be a series. It ends with closure, but it has the makings of a series. If there are more books I'm here for it.

“𝒀𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒃𝒍𝒆𝒎, 𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒚. 𝒀𝒐𝒖’𝒓𝒆 𝒂 𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒈𝒆.”

She is a vampire who has her own reasons to agree with this marriage of convenience with an alpha werewolf and will do whatever is necessary, even if that means spending a life alone with the wolf.

It's really an addictive book, and I had time that I didn't read this author, so reading this book was like going back to the times before. I hadn't felt these emotions in a book for a long time, and I really enjoyed reading this story.

The author offers us a very interesting story, so I can assure you that you will probably enjoy this plot along with the characters.

I liked the characters, even though I don't connect so much with them, but I found them charming.

I'm sorry to say that I finished this novel out of spite and hope that it could get better.....unfortunately this was not for me. I did not find the "banter" to be witty, or the chemistry to be spicy. This fell flat in so many ways and only played on tropes that Hazelwood has written before. I think, more than anything, it tried to do too many things at once - fantasy, romance, omega-verse, fated mates, and it truly did not do any of them well.

As a side note, I hate that this book used "vampyre"

I just know so many people are going to hate this book but I’m not one of them 😭😭

Ali Hazelwood simply wrote this for the girlies who read werewolf/vampire fan fics when they were younger…aka wattpad AND I ATE THIS UP! The vibes were there and I was just enjoying the ride. This is what I needed at 4am

Thank you Penguin random House Canada for sending me an e-arc! 🫶🏻