Fantasy• Romance

Review: Bride by Ali Hazelwood

November 3, 2025

I read Bride for the first time in May of last year and finished it in a day. With the second book in the series being released in October of this year (1.5ish years after the first one), I wanted to re-read the first one again to remind myself a bit about what happened. I noticed that (with the number of books I’m reading) a lot of details get lost and a refresher help a lot.

Synopsis

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 #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love, Theoretically and 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 over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and she 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.

Review

With the second book being released this month, I wanted to read the first one to remind myself again of what happened in the first one (which was a while ago). I can honestly say, that I enjoyed it a little bit more this time around.

Misery (if you are given this name, things can only get better 🙂 ) is a Vampire. When she was 8 years old, she was sent to the human world to guarantee *piece* between the different species. She had to grow up away from her family and identified more with the human world then her own. Her best friend Serena is the only good thing about it. When she goes missing, Misery will do anything to find her. Even agreeing to marry the Alpha Werewolf.

The romance is a slow burn. What started as a political agreement becomes more over time and Misery feels accepted for the first time from a group that becomes more of her family than her own.

We add a bit of betrayal, a lot of funny interactions, murder, and a lot of smut (I could have done with significantly less). But here we are. Misery and Lowe were my absolute highlight here and I enjoyed the interactions between these two a lot (minus the *thing*).

It’s not for everyone, but it for sure was something for me 🙂

🌙 Recension: Bride (Bride #1) by Ali Hazelwood | Duology
📚 Genre: Fantasy & Romance
📅 Release Date: February 6, 2024
📖 Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
📗 available in various formats
📱 Read as: Kindle
💸 Bought
🗣️ Language: English
📆 Pages: 403
⭐️ 3.75/5