Bride by Ali Hazelwood
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Pub Date: 2/6/2024

Thank you to Berkley Romance for the free copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In Bride by Ali Hazelwood, Misery Lark, a vampyre, is thrust into a political marriage with Lowe Moreland, the Alpha of the Weres, to maintain a peacekeeping alliance. Misery navigates this uneasy alliance with her own hidden agenda, determined to reclaim something precious to her, even if it means living in the hostile territory of her mortal enemies.

Ali Hazelwood’s Bride marks an exciting shift to a new genre: paranormal romance. Moving away from her usual style, I was pleasantly surprised that she tried something a bit different. There was an element of mystery in the beginning that intrigued me. I found the subplots to be more interesting than Misery and Lowe’s romantic involvement. The steamy scenes were definitely a plus, but I just couldn’t see Misery and Lowe as a long-term couple. The pacing was a bit off in this book where some scenes dragged out and other scenes were action-packed and kept me engaged. I really liked the way that all the characters were fleshed out. It also made complete sense that this was told through Misery’s POV. The world building was a bit tedious at times and wasn’t necessary since this was more of paranormal romance. I also felt that the third act breakup didn’t make much sense and it wasn’t explained how it was really resolved. It honestly made like Lowe less. Overall, I thought this was a great first attempt into paranormal romance for Ali and can’t wait to see her explore this genre more!