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𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗲𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆:
- Forbidden Romance
- Werewolves
- Vampires
- Marriage of Convenience

Berkley, please let Ali Hazelwood keep writing paranormal romances because Bride had me in a chokehold and I need more.

We all love Ali for her STEMinist stories and while Bride is far from that, it still delivers everything that you have come to love Ali for - all the wit and banter with the slow burn pay off at the end.

IMO, Ali’s books have progressively gotten spicer and I gave this one three preppers because of the added paranormal elements - blood sucking and knotting - that make it super hot.

There is some worldbuilding that really sets the mood for this marriage of convenience story and the more you learn about Misery and Lowe’s worlds, the more you crave.

Bride also gives off major Crescent City vibes with Misery’s journey to finding her best friend.

This book is a must-read for any fantasy/paranormal lover!

Thanks Berkley Romance for the ARC!

I received an advance copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Ali Hazelwood, that magnificent woman, has brought knotting to a major publisher.

Set in contemporary times, Misery is the daughter of a vampiric council head, used as the Collateral to keep the peace with humans. Raised among them, never quite comfortable with vampires or humans, Misery's closest friend, her person, was an orphan named Serena. Even after their contracted time together, they were BFFs... until Serena disappeared. And then Misery is informed she's still collateral, this time in a wedding to Lowe, the Alpha of the local werewolf pack.

Living in enemy territory, married to a man she barely knows, Misery is determined to find Serena. But in the process, she'll find secrets everyone wants to keep, including Lowe.

These two dummies are butt-crazy for each other and Misery's the only one smart enough to admit it.

Bride is by no means a perfect paranormal romance book. BUT. I loved how Ali Hazelwood approached this one. I think with a few more books under her belt and a little more polish, I feel like she will nail this genre. In my opinion, I saw that with her contemporary romance STEM novels, and I feel that this can be the same as well. It is sorta hinted at the end that there are more paranormal romances coming our way.

I really love that our Vampyre is our FMC. Lately, the vampires in the books I have picked up are always the MMC. I guess it makes them more foreboding and desirable I guess? Also, the FMC is as tall as the MMC. Thank goodness.

Our Vampyre lady Misery is well you guess our grumpy MC. I love it. She has a reason to be, her species, yes, you got that right, always handed her off like she never meant anything. So she created a tough exterior to not let anyone in. Then one day, her father, head of the Vampyres, decided that they needed an alliance with the werewolves. So an arranged marriage was created. But Misery didn’t totally not volunteer without a reason, her best friend had gone missing. Lowe, head of the werewolf clan and the one she is going to marry for the alliance had something to do with it. There is danger, a mystery, and of course steamy romance.

Now, I really loved this book for its creativity and approach that was taken in this genre. But, I will say there are flaws.

There is one part of the plot that is not super important but I wanted to point out. Misery is super techy and couldn't get into the werewolves computers because of their amazing firewall. When Misery brought it up to Lowe, he said that he was the one who did it. He was head of security after all. Then down the line, he is suddenly taping at the keyboard like a caveman and learning to code unsuccessfully? Mmmm...like I said, not super important but not consistent.

Let's talk about the smut in this:
I had never seen a werewolf and vampyre mate before so that was nice. The last smut scene towards the end was a little weird. Kind of reminded me of Ice Planet Barbarians when I was reading it. I wish there was a little more explanation why we are having a particular smut scene like this one.

A little more time world-building:
I know this isn't a fantasy, but this world is slightly made up. There is a lot of beauty going into learning this world. I do wish there was a little more time to polish the world-building aspect of this. But you eventually get the gist of how it works as you go.

The Third Act Break Up:
I would be honest, I didn’t like it. I couldn’t understand Lowe’s behavior towards the end nor was it explained. It was like an unexplained third-act break up that felt weird.

All in all, this has the potential to be better. I am looking forward to Ali Hazelwood’s future books in this genre.

I never thought I'd be the person who was out here reading every release from the good Dr. Professor Ali Hazelwood. Wasn't on any bingo card I would have made for myself, let alone that I would be eager enough to ask for an advance copy of the books, but here we are.

In this one we follow Misery the daughter of a high-ranking Vampire who is pulled from living amongst the humans to marry the Alpha of the local Werewolves. The Werewolves and Vampires aren't exactly besties, but they've done this sort of thing before to broker peace between the two of them and when the Humans don't seem that eager to continue their peace talks with the Vampires the two species broker their own agreement sounds like a good idea. Misery is no stranger to being used as a bargaining chip as that's how she spent some of her childhood, being the Vampire held by the Humans to make sure that each side upheld their end of the peace deal. Now as an adult, she has even more reason to agree to this marriage and that has to do with the disappearance of her only real friend.

Listen, I was eating this up. I love a longer romance, this was right around 400 pages I think. I love a romance with an external plot and Misery looking into what her bestie was investigating was right up my alley. We also got a tease of the hero's perspective with a sentence or two at the top of each chapter. I just was eating this up.

I do think that the ending of the book is a little bit bonkers, the narrative starts to derail slightly and that was the major reason that I had to deduct a star. It's not so much that the narrative no longer makes sense or that it's completely unbelievable, but that it felt like we were crashing into the climax and not like we were easing into the final moments. It's a bad description, but when you read it it definitely feels more abrupt than it should. That said, all the pieces for it are there, it just needed some massaging.

This was still a delightful time and I'm certainly appreciating this era of Hazelwood releases and I will continue to look forward to their next release.

Y’all. I liked an Ali Hazelwood?! I LOVED an Ali Hazelwood?! Like is the world ending? I mean Ali’s penchant use of teeny tiny smoll women who yes are so smart but also SO DUMB and big giant fridge size men really annoys me. And although the MMX is large, Misery is TALL. A TALL AH HEROINE!!!! Plus her frequent mistakes and confusion make sense because she was sheltered, raised with humans, and doesn’t understand werewolves. PLUS, she is smart and a bit of a badass. I loved Misery and I loved Lark. Now was it obvious from the jump that Misery was Lark’s mate? 100%. Like come on. Was she dumb for not realizing it? Yes and no. Did it bother me???? NOT At all. This is AH in her element. Give me more omegaverse. And that ending better be hype for a book 2!

I actually loved this? Like, way more than her other books. Maybe she should only write supernatural romance now?

Seriously, this book is all that is promised and more. I like how Hazelwood plays to her strengths while exploring new areas in this book. It isn't like anything she's published before, and I think fans will enjoy it.

I think this is a really great indicator of things to come for Hazelwood as she branches out into new places. I love Misery and she's a badass (complimentary) and I think the plot works really well. It's not super predictable, while still paying respect to the genre's conventions. Lowe does still fit the mold Hazelwood works from, but he has tangible motivations and strong characterization outside of "he's shy and hot for her." He's not an alphahole and he manages to be selfless while also being a real person, which is a hard balance to strike. Overall, I have no criticisms, which is a first for me. I think future books will probably focus a bit more on world-building, which you do need in this genre.

IMO, her best yet.

I would love to interview Ali Hazelwood on my podcast. Ali’s writing style is so engaging and it really pulls a reader in. Every time I pick up an Ali Hazelwood book I know I’m going to have a good time.

Misery Lark is the daughter of a powerful Vampyre councilman and has been chosen to uphold an alliance between the Vampyres and their enemies, the Weres. To do this, she must surrender herself in exchange. The Alpha of the Weres, Lowe Moreland, is tracking her every move and doesn't trust her. However, Misery has her own agenda and is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what she cares about, even if it means living alone with the wolf in Were territory.

"Misery." He's saying my name like a prayer. Like I'm the one thing standing between him and heaven on Earth.

I went on a social media campaign to get this ARC in my hands one way or another and it eventually paid off. So thank you to Berkley Romance for sending me an E-Arc of this book to review. Now onto the review.

When Ali Hazelwood announced that she was going to be venturing into the paranormal romance realm, I was so excited. I was a teenager at the height of the whole vampire/werewolves in media so to hear that one of my favorite authors of all time was going to be giving us a romance book that was vampire/werewolf and enemies to lovers, I immediately started foaming at the mouth. Everything about this book ticked my boxes: a political marriage of convenience, found family, slow burn, and knotting? Say less basically.

This book brings Ali's quirky and fun writing into the world of paranormal romance in such a fun way that I think it'll be a great way for readers who don't necessarily read books like this to dip their toes into the genre. I think that it's going to introduce Ali Hazelwood to new readers but also Ali Hazelwood's readers to potentially a whole new genre of books which is always great in my opinion.

I absolutely loved Misery. Which is a hilarious sentence to type out. Her character was relatable in a lot of ways despite being a literal vampire in a fictional take of our world where paranormal things like vampires and werewolves exist. The way that she moved about the world and her internal dialogue specifically spoke to me and I just love her to pieces.

Lowe? Another Ali Hazelwood man that I wish I could date in real life. He is devoted, loyal, understanding, and a bit broody, he carries the weight of the world on his shoulders because he doesn't want to burden anyone else with it. I love him so much and I know that everyone else will love him as well.

This book had me going through it, more so I think than any of Ali's other books but it was phenomenal and I really enjoyed myself and absolutely loved how it set up as the beginning of a series that I am very much looking forward to continuing.

- vampire/werewolf
- political marriage of convenience
- slow burn
- enemies to lovers
- forbidden love
- fated mates
- opposing sides
- knotting

This might be the best Ali Hazelwood book yet! This author clearly knows what she's doing in the paranormal romance genre. Hazelwood can do no wrong!

I tried many times to push through and give this book another chance but I had to dnf.

Ali Hazelwood received so much feedback about all her books being the exact same thing over and over, that this book felt like she said "oh yeah? well watch this!" And then proceeded to write the worst romance fantasy imaginable.

The writing was choppy and weird, it felt like she was trying way too hard to write a dark edgy story and it's just not what she's good at. A personal pet peeve of mine is when we have a fantasy story with feuding vampires and werewolves on the brink of war in this epic fantasy setting and the vampire princess type character about to be married off to a big man werewolf is... working a desk job in the human world? Okay then.

So often we get a vampire or a werewolf love story but rarely do you get a combo one! Ali Hazelwood knocked it out of the park with this paranormal romance debut about interspecies relations and breaking down boundaries!

I loved this book! I would really like to even have a sequel or spin off that is in Hazelwood's world of vampires and werewolves. The romance was full of feeling, heart, and spice. While I'm more inclined to humanities than STEM, I like that Hazelwood is providing stories for women, as well as all readers, that love STEM. Her first step into fantasy/supernatural intrigued me, and I wasn't disappointed. I could relate to and love the characters. I was rooting for them and devouring the novel. I'm definitely going to be purchasing a copy for myself as soon as release date comes!

5 stars! No notes!

Ali Hazelwood's writing gets better with each book I swear and I have no clue how she does it! I am not normally a paranormal romance reader but I knew if Ali Hazelwood wrote it I'd love it... and I was right. This book is full of sexual tension, intense politics, absolutely shameless pining, and so many plot twists and turns readers won't be able to put it down. I had to read this basically in one sitting because I was so sucked into it (pun intended, I'm sorry). If you're on the fence because you love AH but don't know how you feel about a vampyre/werewolf love story--JUST DO IT. I promise you won't regret it!!

Amazing. Incredible. Glorious. I wish I'd read it sooner so I could reread it more times in my life.

I was very excited to get the chance to read this book! Ali Hazelwood romance? Yes! Vampires and werewolves? Yes! Yes! I tore through it in 1.5 days and while it was a compelling read I can’t say I loved it.

The daughter of a high ranking Vampire is married off to an Alpha of a powerful werewolf clan in an effort to foster an alliance between the two battling nations. At first, Misery is prepared to avoid her “husband” for the requisite year of their marriage while simultaneously trying to stay alive in enemy territory and solving her own secret mystery. However, things don’t go as planned and the couple finds that keeping to themselves is more difficult than they thought.

I thought that the world that Hazelwood built was unique and an interesting take on the vampire/werewolf story but I wanted more. More history, more interactions, more of everything. In general, I feel like it fell a little flat and I expected just a little more meat in this story. The relationship between the main characters felt a bit clunky and again, found myself wanting more depth to their stories.

That being said, I did enjoy reading it, I thought it had just the right level of spiciness and an interesting concept for a story. I really loved the friendship and interactions between Misery and Serena, I just wanted more of it.

I won’t pretend that I think this book has anything particularly deep to say but it was a really well-crafted mix of tropes and I was having such a good time reading it that I finished the whole thing in a single morning! I’m not sure how the whole mainstreaming of certain concepts of werewolf anatomy is going to go over with the less Raised on the Internet corner of Hazelwood’s fanbase, but if Berkley is willing to roll the dice on that I say why not, I guess. (VERY curious to see if this book ends up being a BOTM pick 🤣) Excellent deployment of a tragic woobie heroine who never sinks into self-pity, and I quite enjoyed how well Hazelwood stuck to Misery’s driving motivation being her desire to find her best friend. I will happily read Serena’s book next if she feels like writing it! My one caveat is that the random epigraphs in Lowe’s POV served no purpose and were deeply annoying. Romances do not *have* to be dual-POV.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review through Netgalley.

This was a fun read. It really draws you in while you're reading it, but doesn't stick around for a hangover.

Be warned that, impossible as it may seem, this one is even racier than Hazelwood's other works. And skipping past those parts is more complicated since they're more spread out.

I was really excited for a paranormal romance from Hazelwood and I was intrigued by the first few chapters. However, it gradually fell flat for me and by the end I was happy to be finished with it. Misery was a funny heroine and Lowe was kind of interesting as a hero, but I felt like we didn't get to know him as much as we got to know Misery. I did like that each chapter started with a couple sentences from Lowe's POV. It helped put some components of the story into perspective and gave the reader better insight into Lowe as a person.

Overall, I think this book had a lot of great one-liners, but it was just underwhelming. Compared to other paranormal romances, I found the world building to be underdeveloped. It felt like we kept getting bits and pieces of how this universe works, but the animosity between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans was not explained that well. I also found all the stuff with Serena and her disappearance to be pointless. I couldn't bring myself to care that Serena was gone and it felt like an unnecessary side-plot to get Misery to agree to marry Lowe. My biggest issue with this book was the pace at which the romantic relationship between Misery and Lowe developed. It took a long time for anything to happen between them and then when it finally did the whole uncertainty of what it meant felt grating.

I still give this book 3.5 stars because the writing was good, the story was intriguing, and Misery was very funny. The ending also made me wonder if this is going to be the first book in a series. and while this was not my favorite book, I would still read another book in this universe and will continue to read whatever Hazelwood puts out. I think this book is worth trying, however, if you're into paranormal romance, you might not enjoy it when compared to other books in that subgenre.

I jumped into this book as soon as I got it. I love paranormal romance and I love the author so it was a no brainer for me. This is a slow-burn, spicy read with a cross-species arranged marriage. I loved Misery and Lowe and their story- the banter, the side characters, the mystery, the world building, and the romance. It was such a delight to read. I want more!

thanks to the publisher for sharing a copy. All opinions are my own.

I’m late to the Ali Hazelwood world, and it has been a fan-tas-tic introduction. Oh my goodness. The girl did not disappoint while diving into the supernatural world.

Misery’s a vampire living in the human world. Her father, is a vampire councilman. An arranged marriage between Misery and the Alpha Were Lowe Moreland, is supposed to bring and alliance between vampire and were territories. They join forces to uncover some ongoing political schemes, while their marriage blooms into a forbidden romance that takes them into a wild adventure.

The amount of times he said “Misery”, had me swooning. I could only imagine it with a deep sexy voice.

I believe it has potential to become a series. The spicy scenes involving the knotting, needed a bit mote explanation, specially if you’re new to this type of world. I wish Misery and Lowe had more to their relationship, than just the mating bond. Regardless, I enjoyed their scenes together.

Thank you Berkley Publishing, Random House, Ali Hazelwood and NetGalley for the ARC.

BRIDE was unputdownable. Ali beautifully blends her STEMinist romcom style with her fanfiction, fantasy roots. This read is a masterful, gentle introduction for those who’ve never stepped into omegaverse content, and a fun, dynamic read for those who have. It’s laugh-out-loud funny, the chapter starters leave you swooning, and the bridge of contemporary rom com to fantasy/fanfic romance is artfully built. Perfect for twihards, the AO3 girlies, Ali’s STEMinist stans, Tessa Bailey enthusiasts, and dare I say Crescent City fans? A note to Ali’s publishers: give her more green lights on this style of book. The world will devour it. (It’s me, I’m the world)

Thank you to Ali and her team for an eARC via The Bibliovert Podcast, whom this review is on behalf of.