If you’re active in the romance scene, you’ve probably heard of Ali Hazelwood. She is probably the most well known for her book The Love Hypothesis which gained a lot of notoriety for its depiction of women in STEM. It also gained a lot of attention because it is basically Star Wars fanfiction with the setting and characters changed. Ali Hazelwood has a type and tropes she loves to use, as can be seen in pretty much every one of her books, but they still remain some of the best comfy reads. Easy to get through and loved by her fans.
Bride is her most recent book, published just this past February. It gained a lot of traction on social media and among fans because it was something new from Hazelwood that stepped out of her comfort zone of the STEM field and into fantasy. The plot of Bride follows Misery Lark, the only daughter of a powerful vampire councilman in the Southwest. Her time living in anonymity in the human world, disguising herself as human, and trying to live a quiet life are over when she is called in to fulfill a historic peace-keeping deal between Vampires and their enemies, Weres. A historic deal built on marriage. Misery Lark must marry the new Alpha of the Southwest pack, Lowe Moreland, in order to keep the peace. But this marriage of convenience might be the only chance she has at finding the one thing she cares about most.
Ali Hazelwood has a type when it comes to her characters. We saw it in The Love Hypothesis and now in Bride. Her men pretty much always have to be six foot, pushing seven feet tall and almost always fall for the main character first. Her women are almost always really smart, into something STEM related, and emotionally naive. We see this here in Bride with Misery, who was emotionally neglected as a child, outcast from her family, and now lives the life of a human-disguised-vampire coder in the human world. She doesn’t quite understand love, emotions, and friendship except for one person that’s closer to her than anyone. It’s her experiences throughout the book that help her grow emotionally and finally build connections with people.
Lowe Moreland is your Hazelwood-typical over six foot tall, buff, cold-at-first love interest. I got very Twilight vibes from their interactions as Hazelwood added in qualities of the “fated mates” trope into this story. At their first meeting, her scent overwhelms him and makes her believe that he dislikes her. Very Edward-Bella-esque. This misunderstanding continues as he falls deeper for her and she has no idea, believing that he is pushing her away or outwardly dislikes her. I personally love the stories where the male lead falls for the other first, and that’s a very typical story direction for Hazelwood. However, I think she really improved her ability to write male characters here as I felt Lowe was a lot more interesting than some of her male leads. He felt a little more complex.
“You think, but you don’t know. You don’t know anything about what it’s like to find your other half, I would take anything she chose to give me—the tiniest fraction or her entire world. I would take her for a single night knowing that I’ll lose her by morning, and I would hold on to her and never let go. I would take her healthy, or sick, or tired, or angry, or strong, and it would be my fucking privilege. I would take her problems, her gifts, her moods, her passions, her jokes, her body—I would take every last thing, if she chose to give it to me.”
Lowe – Bride by Ali Hazilwood
As for the story, I liked it! Though I have to say I wish there was just a little more development of the world. I realize that would make the story longer and maybe less of the comfy read people expect from Hazelwood, but the idea of a modern world split between Weres, Vampires, and Humans always at a point of tension is really interesting. She gets into a bit of the politics but kind of keeps it vague. I know she said she has a sequel planned maybe after her next book comes out, so maybe it will be fleshed out a little more. It could be an interesting world to explore in more detail. However, I’m not sure how many of Hazelwood’s fans are coming to her books for political intrigue and international relations.
I love that she made the story a little more than just a romance by adding in that mystery element of her missing friend Serena and how her acceptance of the marriage deal was a way for her to find out more information. I love Misery’s dedication to her friend and the ultimate unraveling of this mystery. I thought Serena was a really interesting character in the book, and I hope she becomes the focus of any sort of sequel that Hazelwood winds up writing. I think she certainly leaves it open for us at the end.
I also thought the inclusion of Liliana/Ana in the story was really cute, and really allowed Misery to grow as a character through her interactions with Lowe’s sister. However, one of my friends who works with children pointed out that Hazelwood doesn’t quite have a great grasp of the mental age of children, as she thought that Ana, who is about 7 years old, acted much younger for her age. I have to agree here, though I’m not sure if the majority of Hazelwood’s fans would really notice too much. I think overall, Ana acted as a foil to Misery’s character, bringing more light to Misery’s emotional naivete and more attention to it as she begins to develop that part of herself.
As for spice, I think Hazelwood fans would be pleased. I think in comparison there is a little bit more spice than she tends to put in some of her other books. However, you have to be okay with some Omegaverse/Alpha-wolf parts. She doesn’t add in a lot, which I was thankful for, but there are still a few things that may turn non-omegaverse readers off. For example: the inclusion of a special smell for your mate, knotting during sex, and biting and marking of mates. If you haven’t read a werewolf or alpha/beta romance, you may get a bit turned off by these, but I liked that she didn’t push it too much.
If you’ve read Bride, let me know in the comments what you thought!
~~Thanks for Reading!~~
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