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! 🫶🏻

wow this was absolutely fantastic, Ali does a wonderful job at Omegaverse and it was such a fun read that I couldnt put it down.

i feel like all my friends who also loved this one, were all by my side here on goodreads, back in the early 2010s, reading all the paranormal romances known to man (or that our moms kept on their bookshelves). the nostalgia for books like riley jenson, black dagger brotherhood, kate daniels were so very felt. yet, this book completely stands on its own and is a really good book that i highly recommend.

and this book had so many of my favorite paranormal romance trope sets – forbidden romance, bonded fated mates, and of course a marriage of convenience between our two main characters:

➛ misery – vampyre who has been living amongst humans her whole life, but finds herself as the key component in an alliance that will keep the peace with her people, while also having her own human inspired agenda for this forced arrangement.

➛ lowe – werewolf alpha who is still asserting his new dominance over his people, while also trying to assess who he can trust or not, while also being an amazing caretaker for his little sister.

“I would take anything she chose to give me—the tiniest fraction or her entire world. I would take her for a single night knowing that I’ll lose her by morning, and I would hold on to her and never let go. I would take her healthy, or sick, or tired, or angry, or strong, and it would be my fucking privilege. I would take her problems, her gifts, her moods, her passions, her jokes, her body—I would take every last thing, if she chose to give it to me.”

and they had me truly rooting for them, unable to put this book down, after the very first scene of them together. but this also has a pretty big mystery plotline that took me by surprise, and also completely enthralled me. and ultimately this had such a big emphasis on found family and finding your own pack of people you love and trust unconditionally that i feel like i just ended up loving the entire cast of side characters too.

let’s just embrace the bullet points and quickly talk about other things i really loved:
➛ obviously vampires and werewolves
➛ arranged marriage but forbidden romance
➛ one bed scene(s)
➛ the cutest little sibling ever
➛ the sweetest brother and sister relationship x2
➛ and also a really heartwarming found family / best friend relationship
⤷ It was truly giving bryce and danika but better
➛ a big appreciation of peanut butter
➛ an amazing epilogue that will hopefully set up a book two in this world

i will say that there was a very unnecessary and annoying third act conflict that just didn’t make sense to me (and made me side eye lowe a little), but i still really enjoyed this one and it was such a fast paced read that really tugged at my heartstrings in all the found family ways. i think i just really like ali hazlewood’s stories, and i always end up connecting with them on some level, and that just enhances my reading experience each and every time. i recommend this to all my romance friends, but i extra recommend it to all my pnr friends who want a little extra nostalgia on top of a really good story.

lastly, and least importantly, if i ever dated anyone named misery, i feel like i would have to send hayley williams or paramore royalties. because the way misery business was living in my head rent free while reading this was actually insane.

content warnings from the author (please use caution for potential spoilers): death of several people within the context of a war between different species (vampires, werewolves, and humans) is mentioned, several mentions of blood, kidnapping, mild violence, poisoning and attempted murder, attempted kidnapping/harming of a child (she is unharmed), death of a parent (off page in the past and off page in the present), explicit and graphic sexual content, knotting (the mmc’s apparatus is not quite human?), cursing and vulgar language

other trigger + content warnings i found while reading (ali’s books really do have such good tws – i am always so thankful and impressed): missing friend, mention of sickness of child (she is fine), spider mentions, brief mention of death during childbirth, brief mention of loss of a partner in past, mention of vomit, parental abuse and neglect, and violence

I was a little hesitant to read this book, only because I was not a big fan of The Love Hypothesis and I have seen excerpts from her other novels. Just the way the author writes her FMCs as these oblivious and "quirky" women just irks me. Like she is apparently the most beautiful women theses people have ever seen but she doesn't think so because she wears t-shirts with owls on them or whatever??

However, this was an entertaining read and the mystery element kept me going. I did like Lowe's and Ana's relationship and thought it was just so cute and wish we got to see more of Ana.

Thank you so much to Berkley and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for a review!

If you love a quirky FMC and a muscle MMC obsessed with the FMC, and one is a vampire and the other is a werewolf, this book is for you. Give me a book with an obsessed MMC any day of the week, anytime I will stop what I'm doing to read it, and yes this did take over my life for the two days it took me to devour this book. I could not get enough. Ali Hazlewood's books have a perfect vibe. They are always a fun time. I can't wait for the next one.

Bride by Ali Hazelwood
Adult Paranormal Romance / DNF’d at 107 Pages / Pre-2024 Review Copy

I think it’s time I accepted that Ali Hazelwood is not for me. I DNF’d The Love Hypothesis a few years ago, found Stuck With You mediocre and only pushed through to the end because it was so short, and have now DNF’d Bride. There was nothing wrong with it per se, I was just bored and didn’t care about either the characters or the plot enough to read another 300+ pages. Thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and NetGalley for the ARC.

This book was very fun. I honestly didn’t know what to expect when I heard Ali Hazelwood was writing a paranormal romance between a vampire and a werewolf but I was excited for it nonetheless. What we did get is Ali’s funny quirky writing and characters in a fantasy setting and it was good! The tension between Lowe and Misery is very good. I loved getting to see the interactions between Misery and Lowe's little sister Ana she was so cute. This book, especially In the beginning, focused more on the plot than the romance which I wasn’t expecting but really liked because we got a developed plot which I think is important in a fantasy/paranormal compared to a contemporary romance. You can definitely tell this was written by Ali Hazelwood it has her typical miscommunication/hiding of feelings between the main characters which some people might dislike but for me it works every time. I will say Lowe’s refusal to admit his feelings and communicate with Misery near the end really did bother me.

I am a huge Ali Hazelwood fan. If she writes it, I'm reading it. However, I was so skeptical on this one because paranormal romance is not generally my vibe. I was so pleasantly surprised! It was so good.

Misery was still our STEM FMC that Ali loves to provide us with. She's beautiful, she's funny and most importantly she's a vampyre.

Lowe is the Were Alpha. He's loyal, handsome and he's willing to do anything to keep his pack safe.

As someone who doesn't read this genre often this felt like the perfect gateway! The world building is minimal and gives the basics of the different species. The banter is so funny between Misery/Lowe and Misery and literally all the characters.

Highly recommend giving it a chance and maybe you'll join me in liking it more than you expected!

“There might be pleasure in that too. The satisfaction of knowing something beautiful exists.”

3.75 / 5 ✨

Thank you to netgalley and Berkley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

While I enjoyed this book in many aspects there were also a few major flaws that kept emerging, in my opinion. As always Ali Hazelwood is a great writer. She paints imagery beautifully and really knows how to weave a wonderful story. This book differs to her other books in that fact that it is her first dive into fantasy. When i heard she was writing a book about vampires and werewolves, i couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

The action and overall storyline was captivating and draws you in. I loved the idea of rival species coming together in unpredictable ways. The fantasy was easy to follow and captivating, surprising me coming from a first time fantasy writer/ long time romance writer. However, for the first time in a Ali Hazelwood novel, the romance fell flat for me. I didn’t feel the chemistry between the two main characters until the last part of the novel. While the sex scenes were informative and unlike anything i’ve ever read before, this also resulted in them being very mechanical, making it hard to get drawn into the moment.

Some of the twists were much too predictable but i did appreciate the aspect of found family and of the friendship in this novel. i loved the idea of love in ways other than just romantic. Overall, i found this book entertaining and well written and while it was far from perfect i definitely think it is worth the read.

“This won’t end well, but so few things do. Why deny ourselves?”

🎧Song Pairing: Wedding Plans - Howard Shore (yeaaah this is from Eclipse)

💭What I thought would happen:

Well I don’t love vampires nor werewolves so colour me curious when Booksta is losing its Count Chocula Puffs… kind of thought it was a bride vampire with a pet wolf 😂 not marrying a wolf

📖What actually happens:

Misery is getting married. Never met the man and oh he’s a werewolf. She’s a vampire…kind of mortal enemies. Except hello her new wolfy hubs is hawt. When Lowe sniffs her be can’t believe what he is smelling…could she be?!

🗯Thoughts/sassy musings:

To quote my husband… “picante!” Jamie likes to refer to spicy things by yelling picante. Aka yeahhh she got heat.

I suspect it was too much to expect a nice wholesome vampire romance with just a 1 liquid oz pour of spice rather than say a 4L jug 😂 if I keep listening to my audiobooks out loud…I just fear for Kacey’s vocabulary

I like that it’s set in a modern world where grand theft auto and Ken dolls #imkenough make an appearance.

There are several I want to say nods to Twilight? Lowe’s initial repulse to Misery’s scent and the spider monkey reference that I still cringe at when I think back to the movie. Ick! Anyone else?

Overall, Ali Hazelwood has range. Like damn girl! You keep doing you. Wasn’t my fav but hey did not hate either 🤪🩷

OH MY GOD??? who died and made vampires sexy (heh) this was AMAZING!! i NEED to read more books like this and we need a sequel!!

I’ve enjoyed all of Ali Hazelwood’s previous work but there is something so fun about Bride! I haven’t read a paranormal romance in YEARS and this has me ready to rush back into this genre. Misery and Lowe have such amazing banter with one another and being able to be in Lowe’s head at the start of every chapter just made their chemistry so much more palpable to me.

The world-building in this book was done so well and I am hopeful for more books in this world!

Thank you to NetGalley and Berkley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

YES! I loved this so much, I want more paranormal romance from Ali Hazelwood! This cured my reading slump.