The newest queen of rom-coms released her first romantasy book and it’s filled with wolves, vampires, and so much more.
Here’s more about Bride
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.
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.
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My thoughts
I had no idea what the Omegaverse was before this book. I mean, I’m not a huge fan of fanfiction and I never got into those things when I was a kid, so I have no point of reference when it comes to Omegaverse except for what I was able to read on Wikipedia. From what I read, it’s definitely not for me. And there were parts of this book that just wasn’t for me, but as a person reading romantasy for the millionth time hoping to find what everyone else is talking about, this does the job. And if you’re a fan of Ali Hazelwood’s quirky sense of humor and her super smart female characters, then you’ll find all those great things in this new one as well.
The story follows Misery, a vampire (spelled vampyre) who played “collateral” to maintain the Vampire/Human/Werewolf alliance that exists on super shaky ground. In exchange for her, there was some semblance of peace between the clans. But that’s over with. That was Misery’s past and now Misery is her own person with a job as a software engineer working among humans and hiding her identity. That is, until she’s called by her father to play collateral for the werewolf clan, but this time she needs to marry the werewolf Alpha, Lowe. All while this is happening, her best friend (and a human) disappears without a trace and through her investigation Misery finds out that Lowe’s clan is somehow involved, so this is sort of killing two birds with one stone if arranged marriages are your thing.
I’ve come to the realization that it really comes down to the characters for me in these romances. I need to relate in one way or another, feel for them, and that emotional connection needs to be serious. And since my heart wretched for all the things that happened to Misery throughout this book, I’m pretty sure I got that connection. Being the castoff in the family must be rough and for someone like Misery who doesn’t even know how to be a “proper vampire,” who has no real family, only one friend, and being accepted into the family of her family’s worst enemy, there’s a lot of ripe angst and it’s definitely warranted. I loved Misery and in many ways I resonated a lot with her character. I might not be a vampire, but I know what it’s like to be an outcast and finding family among those who are willing to take her in.
Lowe, on the other hand, was nice enough. Eh, he’s not my type as an “alpha” male with lots of muscles and werewolf tendencies, but he was nice enough. He might be an Alpha, but there was a lot of space for Misery to defy him and he gives her the space she deserves to decide if she likes his wolf-y ways. It makes it less territorial and “Tamlin”-esque if you know what I mean. He is definitely someone’s type.
Overall, it’s definitely an interesting start to a new fantasy series. I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed it and aside from a few things that were pulled from the Omegaverse that I could have done without, it’s definitely worth the read.
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