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A review by icedpinecones
Bride by Ali Hazelwood
medium-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
3.0
Another year, another Ali Hazelwood book I find myself drawn to reading. Her books are like shit reality TV shows to me in that I love them & know I shouldn't. This was her first foray into paranormal romances and I found it fine & arguably better written than most of her other romances; unfortunately the dreaded third act breakup (with some trite comments made by the MMC) completely removed my investment in the amendment of their relationship because WHO WOULD SAY THAT TO SOMEONE?! Also PSA: this book has knotting in it. It was weird, and I'm not into it (sorry omegaverse fans) but I'm not kinkshaming anyone.
Aaaaanyways, onto the CAWPILE! Which if you don't know is a little system that lets me evaluate several different factors of a book (so feel free to scroll to whatevers important to you in your books).
CHARACTERS
Our main character, Misery, is who we follow through the book and as far as main characters go she's quite likeable and kind. I do feel the split of her going from emotionless and apathetic to full of emotions could've been managed better because it's more like a no emotion to lots of them but that's about all my gripes. Lowe is your standard overbearing alpha male love interest (with a penchant for drawing that's just never explored) and then you've got a cast of various side characters that are all done well enough.
ATMOSPHERE
I can't say this book went out of its way to have any kind of atmosphere, the plot circles around both romance and a mystery but I'd say the general vibes remain solidly romance with no fear on the more intense moments.
WRITING STYLE
Classic Ali Hazelwood style, fanfic esque & easy to read. Would definitely recommend this as a cozy and easy October read.
PLOT
Okay so we've got two plots going on; one being a dissapearing best friend mystery that's linked to the MMC, and the other more main plot being the forced marriage of the FMC and MMC to broker a tenuous werewolf vampyre alliance. It ain't much deeper than that but we have some overtones of racism going on due to the whole werewolf v vampire v kind of humans too?
INTRIGUE
We all know the intrigue of these books is the romance & subsequent smut. If you're feeling curious on trying something new I again point to the knotting but can't say I'll be reading more in this genre 🫡 I just couldn't stop thinking about like... This is a thing with actual dogs and they are pets and there was that weird woman on YouTube who erm.. you know. Just reminded me of that so I ended up skipping the aforementioned knotting as I just felt a bit uncomfortable.
LOGIC
I would say everything adds up and makes sense apart from an incredibly forced and uncomfortable to read third act breakup which completely revoked my enjoyment of the MMC.
ENJOYMENT
Standard romance book, definitely reads better than the other genres Ali has been publishing (and god am I glad for the change in not constantly reading about how petite the FMC is and how tall and beefy and everything the MMC is) but to me these books are always just standard romance books and never seem to emotionally stretch beyond that for me. I've read romances that really did make me feel things emotionally, but this book didn't do that (as didn't her others) and I'm chill with that.
Jessie (she/her)
[email protected]
www.instagram.com/icedpinecones
www.goodreads.com/icedpinecones
https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/icedpinecones
Aaaaanyways, onto the CAWPILE! Which if you don't know is a little system that lets me evaluate several different factors of a book (so feel free to scroll to whatevers important to you in your books).
CHARACTERS
Our main character, Misery, is who we follow through the book and as far as main characters go she's quite likeable and kind. I do feel the split of her going from emotionless and apathetic to full of emotions could've been managed better because it's more like a no emotion to lots of them but that's about all my gripes. Lowe is your standard overbearing alpha male love interest (with a penchant for drawing that's just never explored) and then you've got a cast of various side characters that are all done well enough.
ATMOSPHERE
I can't say this book went out of its way to have any kind of atmosphere, the plot circles around both romance and a mystery but I'd say the general vibes remain solidly romance with no fear on the more intense moments.
WRITING STYLE
Classic Ali Hazelwood style, fanfic esque & easy to read. Would definitely recommend this as a cozy and easy October read.
PLOT
Okay so we've got two plots going on; one being a dissapearing best friend mystery that's linked to the MMC, and the other more main plot being the forced marriage of the FMC and MMC to broker a tenuous werewolf vampyre alliance. It ain't much deeper than that but we have some overtones of racism going on due to the whole werewolf v vampire v kind of humans too?
INTRIGUE
We all know the intrigue of these books is the romance & subsequent smut. If you're feeling curious on trying something new I again point to the knotting but can't say I'll be reading more in this genre 🫡 I just couldn't stop thinking about like... This is a thing with actual dogs and they are pets and there was that weird woman on YouTube who erm.. you know. Just reminded me of that so I ended up skipping the aforementioned knotting as I just felt a bit uncomfortable.
LOGIC
I would say everything adds up and makes sense apart from an incredibly forced and uncomfortable to read third act breakup which completely revoked my enjoyment of the MMC.
ENJOYMENT
Standard romance book, definitely reads better than the other genres Ali has been publishing (and god am I glad for the change in not constantly reading about how petite the FMC is and how tall and beefy and everything the MMC is) but to me these books are always just standard romance books and never seem to emotionally stretch beyond that for me. I've read romances that really did make me feel things emotionally, but this book didn't do that (as didn't her others) and I'm chill with that.
Jessie (she/her)
[email protected]
www.instagram.com/icedpinecones
www.goodreads.com/icedpinecones
https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/icedpinecones