Bride by Ali Hazelwood

e-Audio, 12:52:07
Narrated by: Thérèse Plummer & Will Damron
Release Date: February 6, 2024
Published by: Berkley (Books on Tape)
Read from: January 16-18, 2024
Stand-alone (?)
Source: PRH Audio App
TW: Blood, Violence, Injury/Injury Detail, Confinement, Racism, Kidnapping, Death, Death of a Parent, Abandonment, Emotional Abuse, Gore, 
For Readers Interested In: Paranormal, Politics, Romance, Marriage of Convenience, Adult

        A dangerous alliance between a Vampyre bride and an Alpha werewolf becomes a love deep enough to sink your teeth into in this new paranormal romance from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis.
     Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is an outcast-again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are she has been called upon to uphold an historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange. Again . . .
     Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was . . .
     Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she’s ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory . . . alone with the wolf.

*MY THOUGHTS*

If you know me, you know I was a little iffy on whether or not I wanted to read this. As a young adult during the time that Twilight came out and then the paranormal romance craze happened, I told myself I wouldn’t read another vampire book again. And for the most part, I haven’t (and if I have, I either DNFed it or mentioned that I don’t actually like them anymore lol) But when I heard about this, I knew this was going to be one of those exceptions lol

I was also a little worried because this felt like it came out of left field. I was so used to Hazelwood’s STEM romances, that this felt odd. But nevertheless, I immediately added it to my TBR as soon as I could lol And now that I’ve read it, I can’t imagine not having read it. So if you’re having trouble wondering if someone who has only written contemporary romance can pull off a vampire romance, don’t worry about it. Hazelwood makes sure you enjoy your time in this world.

I hate to start off on the thing I didn’t like, but it really only makes sense to start here. The world building in this is so BOMB! She doesn’t use descriptive language to tell the setting, but we do get all the background, rules, and like everything besides the origin stories. We even get the story of another marriage of convenience that ended in bloodshed. The only problem is the way it was delivered. It was info dumpy and delivered in clumps throughout the story. As an audio reader, I had to rewind it a few times to go back and rewind it to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I will be reading this again as a buddy read next month, so I will get my Walmart exclusive copy as well as the audio again and I will have a better time getting all the details. But for anyone reading this for the first time on the 6th, just a warning.

Other than that, I really enjoyed this. And I’ve noticed a trend through the readers who have already finished this. If they’ve been reading shifter books, this doesn’t seem to fit their fancy. But if they haven’t read any in a while or have just read their first Omegaverse novel (me lol) then I have found they really liked it. It was like light on the alpha speak and light on him shifting in general. And that pleased me. But I will say, when he DID shift, he DID THAT. lol After reading my first Omegaverse like a couple days before this one, I was a little put out on the way his alpha tendencies were like “ME, WOLF, ME, CAVEMAN.” I was not excited for more of the same. So when this one didn’t have that, I was so much more excited. And the way he explained what a mate was and why he didn’t want to explain it from the beginning?! Lordt I was like legit swooning. Their romance actually worked for me. (Besides the knot stuff lol Which I can blessedly say was minimal. I’m still trying to wrap my head around that lolol No pun intended) I guess it seems like paranormal lite and that’s why I was so into it.

The plot of this was crazy. I’m not even gon lie, I was more into this than the dude that was trapped in freezing cold temps or the girl that was a secret genius chess player. I ATE this up lol I just KNEW that all that was going on wasn’t just that one group. So basically when shit started hitting the fan, I was all in. I could not stop listening. And then I realized I was almost at the end and I didn’t have a clue what was really happening. Usually I have a guess or something, but I didn’t get there this time. I didn’t give myself time to. I just kept listening until it was over. And in the version I read, the ending leaves us open to another book, either a series or a companion novel. And let me just say, I hope there is more. Because I need to know how this is going to end.

I was expecting this to go a completely different way because of my past with vampire novels. But this was a pleasant surprise. I went into this with reservations, but by the end I was cheering on the romance, trying to pick apart the mystery, and learning more than I care to know about weres and vampires. Now, did I also pre-order an exclusive copy, yes, and I don’t regret it. I hope if any of you have hang-ups like I did, you let it go and just open your mind to this fantastical world and get lost in the mystery of this like I did!

Overall, I give this