Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Noiva by Ali Hazelwood

27 reviews

emilywemily6's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This book was an entertaining intro to the omegaverse! The politics and backstory of the vampires vs weres vs humans was really interesting, and I loved seeing Misery come to love the werewolves and their culture. I wish some concepts had been explained a little more. I enjoyed these characters but they didn’t have a lot of depth. While I liked the romance for the first 3/4 of the book, I really hated the relationship dynamic toward the end and how Lore lied and gaslit Misery once their relationship progressed 🙄 obviously that resolved but I just didn’t like how the relationship evolved overall when things got sexual, or how easy it was for her to forgive him, or how clueless he was about his poor decision. Overall, this was a fun read, but I feel like there is more that could have made this a really great book in this paranormal romance category.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Gaslighting, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Xenophobia, and Sexual content

Moderate: Kidnapping

mal_eficent's review against another edition

emotional funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

My 'issue' with Hazelwood's stories is that they're all very much structured like fanfiction. I love fanfic, that's not the problem, but fanfic has different structures and expectations than normal fiction and it's really hard to review or explain why this works really well if you don't have a background reading fanfic. 

I totally get why people don't get along with her style: fanfic skips a lot of world building and character motivation because you're expected to have an idea of how characters are related to each other thanks to the original media, and the world building is just set dressing to exploring how characters interact. Bride pretty much follows that trend completely – the world feels like it works and exists, but big chunks of description and exposition are skipped. It's bingeable, with a lot of character reflection, and that's even more present in Bride because of how isolated Misery often is. (I'm also just going to assume this is Reylo again because I think the only non-Reylo pairing Hazelwood has written is Stuck with You)

I will say Bride has a lot more connecting scenes than The Love Hypothesis did, which is definitely a move away from fanfic styles, and that makes it a more much traditional read. (Fanfic doesn't care about what's happening 'in the background', sometimes, because again, the readers are here for the characters and typically there's an emphasis on character interactions.)

If you like fanfiction, and you like Ali Hazelwood, there's a non-zero chance of you enjoying this. If you're not up for a slightly more loosey goosey, race to the finish line kind of romance and intrigue plot that hand waves a lot of the actual work in favour of characters chatting...You might not enjoy this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Blood

Moderate: Xenophobia and Abandonment

seapotatohowisitalrtaken's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Sexual content

Moderate: Racism, War, Kidnapping, and Xenophobia

unicornofthesea's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Blood, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Confinement, and Sexual content

goldenleafbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I could not put this book down. I absolutely adored the characters. Misery being naive to Lowe's feelings was truly believable, which is something that I feel like a lot of authors struggle to pull off. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Confinement, Blood, War, Xenophobia, Torture, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Cursing, Colonisation, Classism, Bullying, and Abandonment

Moderate: Medical content and Gaslighting

vixenreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

It’s like if “Underworld” was a Rom-Com, with less leather and more peanut butter. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Blood, Racism, Sexual content, War, Xenophobia, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, and Medical content

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death of parent, Confinement, Animal death, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Murder, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, and Pregnancy

Minor: Police brutality, Alcohol, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Car accident, Kidnapping, Outing, and Racial slurs

Be aware that there is assassination attempts, allergy alerts, arranged marriages, political intrigue, and parental neglect/abuse.

frantically's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Never did I think that Ali Hazelwood would be the one writing the biggest paranormal romance of the year, yet here we are.

This book was so addicting, I muted the football game I was watching and just continued listening to the audio – I couldn't stop.

It's the perfect mix of delicious smut and actual, well thought out world building and plot. 

The Feelings were there from page one and while I usually hate miscommunication, here it was just so adorable and so well done, all I could do was root for Misery and Lo and their HEA. 

Also: Lo Morland is my new book boyfriend

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Murder

bookishbeans's review against another edition

funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I REALLY wanted to love this book. "Paranormal romance? Werewolves and vampires? Count me in!" Is what I said before I picked up the book. Had I known it would be in a contemporary setting and that the pacing would be all over the place, I wouldn’t’ve picked it up. I liked the development of Misery and Lowe's relationship, but the rest of the book was simultaneously too fast and too slow for me. Prepare yourself for long chapters with this one, if that's not your thing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Xenophobia

themichellegray's review against another edition

funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I was knot expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did!

Bride is a fast-paced paranormal romantasy with the perfect balance of worldbuilding, mystery, humor, and spice. I really enjoyed the writing style as well as the cast of characters (and their banter) who all showed major growth by the end. While this was an extremely predictable story, it was altogether fun and easy-to-read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Abandonment

Moderate: War, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Violence

Minor: Classism and Death of parent

percervall's review against another edition

funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

While I started this out of morbid curiosity because everyone and their dog were talking about it on TikTok, I really, really enjoyed this

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Xenophobia, Murder, Death, War, Torture, Classism, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent