Book Review: Bride

Up until now, Ali Hazelwood’s body of work in the romance genre has consisted of contemporary stories set in and around the world of STEM academia. Yet somehow her next novel, Bride, being an arranged marriage between a werewolf and a vampire seems like a natural next step. What can I say, those of us of a certain generation had very specific interests growing up.

Misery is the unfortunately-named daughter of the lead Vampyre councilman in the area, and is used to being treated like an expendable pawn. She is called on once again to serve her people and marry Lowe, the Alpha of the local Were pack. But unlike when she’s previously been used by her people, this time Misery has reasons of her own for marrying Lowe. For his part, Lowe is willing to go along with it purely to preserve the peace, but of course matters immediately get complicated. Don’t they always?

Despite the fantastical elements and the overall darker and more murderous tone, of all of Hazelwood’s books, I actually found this one to be the lightest and breeziest. It passes up the gruelling reality of what it means to exist in the modern world in favor of something that is a lot more fun and supernatural. Not to say the Hazelwood hallmarks are absent of course: our heroine still works in a STEM field, and our hero is just the sweetest, tallest cinnamon roll imaginable.

There are some hints towards the end that Hazelwood might want to turn this into a series, and I welcome it if that’s the case, since I feel like we barely scratched the surface of (broke the skin on?) this world of Vampyres and Weres, and it would be fun to explore the dynamic a bit further.

Bride hits shelves on February 6. Special thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for the advance copy for review purposes.