Title: Bride
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Genre: Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
Release: February 2024
Price: e-book (eng) 4.49€ | Paperback (eng) 8.99€ | e-book (ger) 12.99€ | paperback (ger) 16.99€ ( all via amazon)
Rating:
„Bride“ by Ali Hazelwood is her first romance with a paranormal twist in it.
Summary
The vampire Misery has lived most of her life amongst humans as a ‚Collateral‘, a modern take on a hostage, so peace was to be ensured between humans, werewolves, and vampires. After being ordered home and faced with the fact of marriage, she finds herself at the altar to be married to the Alpha of the Pack of her region. She has to stay with him for a year and again, it is to ensure the peace between the species. But Misery is fine with it, in fact, she wants this because she is looking for her human bff Serena who had vanished from one day to the next and all Misery has is a name: L. E. Morland. So she thinks Serena wanted to meet with Lowe Morland, Misery’s brand-new wolfy hubby.
As it turns out, Lowe isn’t the one Serena was looking for, and over time Lowe and Misery get closer to one another, even though it seems that he can’t stand her smell. It also turns out that Misery has zero clue on how to interact with children as she meets Lowe’s little sister Ana, who is seven years old. Little by little, Misery gains the trust of the pack and starts to feel at home, but threats are hanging over her and Ana and then she’s still looking for Serena, even though Lowe is helping her.
In the end, she finds Serena and as it turns out, Ana and Serena are very much the same: Half human, half were.
Review:
The story is written in the first person singular, which seems to be the trend right now. Misery is refreshingly honest and sassy, always straight to the point and not shy to ask uncomfortable questions. She has trouble understanding human- and were culture, like eating or other things vampires don’t do. It was fun following her along.
But, I found Lowe lacking deepness. While Misery went through a character development, it seemed like Lowe didn’t move much. Side characters had more development than him.
Also, I am not the biggest fan of the „miscommunication“ trope for the sake of drama.
I also found Serena a bit too sound and happy for what she basically went through, but then again everyone deals differently with trauma.
In the end, it was a solid novel, with some good spice (if that’s important to you) and lots of sexual tension. The main character was wonderfully refreshing.
It is just a good book that can be fully enjoyed.
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