Bride by Ali Hazelwood: Book Review

Bride by Ali Hazelwood is a romance fantasy novel about Misery, a Vampyre who has always been used in her father’s political games, and Lowe, a newly-minted Werewolf Alpha. In order to keep the peace between their two species, the two of them get married. The deal is that they’ll stay married for a year and then Misery can go back to her life. But nothing is simple, and Misery has her own reasons for agreeing to the marriage.

Bride Book Review

Bride has that unadulterated joy of fanfiction, the fun and playfulness of it. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and it’s not pretentious. It’s just pure fun. Sure, Ali’s world of Vampyres and Wares isn’t perfect, but the story she told within is entertaining.

Misery was the perfect heroine for this story. The previous Ali Hazelwood heroines were all a bit too quirky. Their humor was straight out of Disney Channel and it wasn’t funny at all. Misery, on the other hand, has the deadpan humor of someone completely resigned and aloof. And she’s so funny even when she’s not meaning to be. She might die? Oh, well.

What I liked about the romance is that it sort of happened without much fuss. They liked each other, they spent time together, and it transitioned into more without the extra long internal monologues on whether it should. There were no misunderstandings (and related angst), more so intentional misleading that sort of works in this case

I liked that the species were described through science rather than magic, and the mystery was all right too. The answer wasn’t very obvious, but then again, I wasn’t really trying to solve it. I was more interested in character interactions, and frankly, enjoying Misery’s laugh-out-loud observations. Also, the dirty talk wasn’t really my thing, but thankfully, there wasn’t much of it so it wasn’t a big deal. 

Highlights

• Funny main character
• Romance that is surprisingly well done
• Great side-characters
• A bit of a predictable villain
• Werewolves and vampires but science

Here’s a few more things you should know before you read Bride by Ali Hazelwood: 

• Bride is written in first POV from Misery’s perspective
• Each chapter begins with a little snippet of what Lowe is thinking
• There’s knotting in this book, which you should google before you decide if Werewolf romance is your thing
• There’s also mating in this book
• Misery feeds on Lowe a few times — Bride is very much a creature romance so it will be different to you if you’re mostly used to regular romance books and have never read fanfic
• There are no huge trigger warnings, but a few that I noted are child neglect (in the past), attempts of murder, and attempts of kidnapping of a child

Books Like Bride by Ali Hazelwood

1. Fanfiction 

I cannot recommend fanfiction enough for good werewolf content. Werewolf romances similar to Bride are just making it in the trad pub world, and not all of them are great, but there are already tens of thousands werewolf fics on AO3. Sure, not all of them are great but it’s a much bigger pool to choose from. Just edit your search for the pairing you like with a werewolf tag and sort by most kudos. But if you’re looking for recommendations, I loved Way Down We Go, a Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy fic in which Harry is a werewolf. It’s beautifully written, brilliantly funny, and has all the hallmarks of a great werewolf romance — other than the spicy bits. But honestly, you won’t even notice (I didn’t). Then there’s Who We Are in The Shadows, in which Harry is, again, a werewolf, but has to work with Draco on a case. This one is spicy. And the best part is that fanfic is free!

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