Review: Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Bride by Ali Hazelwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via the Berkley Besties program and Netgalley, however I did end up borrowing the final production version of the audiobook from my library.  As always all opinions are my own.

I thought the narrators did a great job, however this is mainly narrated by Thérèse Plummer, with Will Damron voicing small snippets at the beginning of each chapter.  It was a creative way of giving the MMC a voice without writing in alternating POVs.  I really would have liked to see some full chapters from Lowe's POV, but I really enjoyed that we did get some of his thoughts and that the audiobook did voice them with a male narrator.

I thought this was a really fun take on urban fantasy.  I haven't read a good vampire romance in a while.  Misery is the daughter of a powerful Vampyre councilman.  Her father has used her as a bargaining chip for most of her life, so she hasn't spent much time among her own kind.  She grew up with humans, and now she is being used once again to keep the peace.  Instead of a peace agreement between the Vampyres and Humans, she is being used as a pawn between the Vampyres and Werewolves.  Her father has arranged for her to marry the alpha of the Were pack in exchange for peace, and she agrees because she has an ulterior motive.  She suspects her best friend has been kidnapped by her new husband and she is determined to find her.  What she didn't expect to find was a kind man behind the powerful Were and someone who just might care about her.

Initially I thought this was YA, but let me tell you it is not YA at all.  This has some significant spice and once things heat up the dirty talk is off the charts.  I'm not a fan of the dirty talk personally, but if you are this delivers.  The scene on the plane was more my speed, but that is the beauty of books, everyone gets to have their own preferences.  Again we see some repetition with the terms and phrases used, you will never look at a knot the same again.  I think this is something that really happens with dogs and wolves so it makes sense that it would happen with werewolves.  Apparently knotting is also popular in fan fiction, especially in erotica and paranormal romance, so it makes sense that the author would include it here.  I thought it was mentioned a bit too often.  Those scenes are NSFW, so plan accordingly or if you are like me skim past them if they aren't your cup of tea.

This relies heavily on tropes we've seen before in shifter books, but honestly that's kind of why I love shifter books.  This leads to parts of the plot being a bit predictable, but I didn't mind that.  Some of the plot points were repetitious especially when it came to Misery and Lowe's relationship and the concept of mates.  You know from the second they meet they are fated mates, but the topic throughout the book as it is discussed often but instead of accepting that they are mates it is avoided and dismissed.  Hardware and software is also mentioned alot as an analogy for compatibility.  I've only read 1 other book by the author so I'm not sure if that is her typical style or not.   There is a bit of a mystery plot as Misery tries to find her friend and figure out what happened to her.  I love that Misery had her own career and figured out how to survive on her own.  She is her own kind of vampire and she's OK with being different.  She also finds her own place among the her new pack despite them being terrified of her.  

Overall this was a really enjoyable read.  It has a bit of everything you would want from an urban, paranormal fantasy.  It had an engaging plot with a bit of mystery and lots of politics, a good romance, and fun characters.  I'm not sure if this is a standalone or intended to be a series.  It ends with closure, but it has the makings of a series.  If there are more books I'm here for it.

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