Ali Hazelwood: Bride – Review of a forbidden love story

Bride By Ali Hazelwood is a paranormal romance between a Were and a Vampyre. When you read 400 pages in 24 hours, you know the story must be addictive.
Ali Hazelwood is the master of the rom-com genre, so I was very excited and nervous when she announced paranormal romance. Her stories are a comfort read for me. They are easy, fun, and fast reads. Her previous works were STEM-oriented. I’m glad she decided to keep her signature style in this universe. The main heroine is an IT expert. Her skills are crucial to the plot’s development.

It is a new genre, so it is no surprise that the story differs from Hazelwoods usual style. Her previous works were character-based, but Bride is a plot-driven story. The beginning of the story reads more like a mystery than a romance. She has the mystery elements in Love on the Brain, but the mystery is much more pronounced in this story. The plot depends on a mystery, almost like classical detective novels, but adds weres and vampires.

Ali Hazelwood: Bride – Characters

Bride by Ali Hazelwood revolves around Misery and Lowe.
Misery is the daughter of the head Vampyre. At a young age, her father sent her as collateral to live in the human world.

Collateral system was a way to keep the peace between the two species. When she returned, Misery was not accepted in the Vampyre society, so she decided to live in the human world.
Serena and Misery lived together while she was a collateral. Now, the two are best friends. She is the only person Misery trusts completely.
The power shift is happening in the world. With the new Were Alpha, Lowe, another attempt at a truce between Weres and Vampires is happening. Misery is again a collateral. For a truce to happen, Misery and Lowe ought to be married.

The last truce between the werewolves and vampires ended in a massacre at a wedding. As a result, everyone is wary of the relationship between the two species and the main event itself.

Bride by Ali Hazelwood is a slow burn but spicy

After everyone survives the wedding, with minor incidents, things for Misery do not significantly improve.
Being under constant supervision and distrust of the Pack, she feels unsafe. The only person who shows her welcome is Lowe’s little sister. Misery is a dark and cynical character. She was a delight to read about. Lowe is an enigma, much like all Hazelwood male characters. Although he was very hard to read, we see glimpses of him, which makes us like him and appreciate him and his actions even more.

Strong Heroine

The story is from Misery’s point of view, but at the beginning of each chapter, we get a glimpse of Lowe’s thoughts. And just one sentence was enough for me to fall for him. He is very protective of his Pack, including Misery. It is interesting to read about her reaction when Lowes comes to protect her since she always protects herself.

The romance between them is a slow burn. They rarely even interact at the beginning of the story. But chemistry in those little glimpses of them is off the charts. We see how they both start to fall for each other. The bond they develop with each other is unbreakable.
Lowe and Misery are very different, so I was curious to see their relationship development. Being an entirely different species with centuries of hatred only complicates the situation.

Their customs and knowledge about each other are practically non-existent. They need to learn a lot about each other’s needs.
It was so interesting to read this part and see how she bounded with Love and the entire Pack despite their initial distrust and weariness of each other.

The world-building is impressive for an author who usually writes contemporary stories.”The exceptional writing skills of the storytellers are evident from this. Hazelwood has created a universe where humans, werewolves, and vampires cohabitate.

Ali Hazelwood: Bride – love, mystery and politics

Naturally, there is a lot of politics and diplomacy in the story.
If you don’t like that subplot, I think you will not like this book. Even Misery hates politics. Head of Vampires, her father used her as a pawn in his political games.
A big part of her character development revolves around it. The romance would not happen without diplomacy since it is marriage to secure a truce between the two species who have been at war for centuries.
I don’t know if the author intended to, but while reading the book, I could not help but draw parallels between our current global political situation and the story.

Although politics and diplomacy are significant elements of the story, they are not dull. Bride by Ali Hazelwood is a balanced story between romance, mystery, and political aspects of world-building. Characters have depth. Despite complicated subplots, the book is fun and easy to read, just like all of Ali Hazelwood’s books. And who wouldn’t like to read a story about a Vampryee who likes to eat peat butter?