Audiobook Review:

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Read by Therese Plummer and Will Damron

Publication Date: February 6, 2024

Summary from Goodreads:

Confession:

I quite enjoyed this audiobook! This was my first Ali Hazelwood book. I have seen her romance books around quite a bit, but I never felt the need to pick one up. I’m not sure why I decided this would be my first one by her, but I’m glad that I finally decided to read one.

Therese Plummer does an excellent job bringing Misery to life. Ms. Plummer has a beautifully expressive voice that I enjoy listening to. She also does a good job with voices, bringing different personalities to all of the characters. I especially liked her voice for Lowe’s little sister, Ana. She does a small young girl’s voice well. Will Damon also voices Lowe well. He has a nice deep raspy voice, exactly how I might envision Lowe’s voice. We only hear a little bit from Lowe, he has small quotes at the top of some chapters, but it was nice that they used a separate male voice for these.

Misery is the only narrator, although we do get snippets of Lowe’s thoughts and feelings throughout the book. I liked Misery. She has been dealt a poor hand in life, and her feelings of loneliness and isolation, even among the Vampyres is felt. I loved how loyal she was to Serena, a human girl that was brought up with her. I think Misery was a better person for having such a close human friend. She is more sympathetic to humans and I think more willing to get along with the Weres because of this experience.

Misery and Lowe’s relationship develops nicely over the course of the story. They are not exactly enemies, although you can consider them that because their two species don’t get along, but there is some distrust of each other from the start. It would be hard to be living with your enemy, but Misery, does eventually win some of them over. Because we are privy to some of Lowe’s thoughts and feelings, we know pretty much what he feels for her from the start. It was a little frustrating to watch how long it took Misery to figure it all out for herself though.

Romance aside, the rest of the story was very well done. The mystery of what happened to Serena was interesting and the clues were just enough so that you could almost figure it out for yourself, but the final twist was still quite a surprise. Even though the romance was pretty front and center in the book, the rest of the story was strong enough to carry the plot on its own. The sex was just smutty enough to make this a true romance, but not overly done. Some of it even fit into the differences between the species, which I kind of liked.

Even though this is getting a little long, I do want to mention the world that the author created. I liked that the humans, Vampyres and Weres were all aware of each other and had separate territories, at least in the US. There are other countries where they all live more harmoniously, but this is only mentioned in passing. I also liked that even though they know about each other, those pesky myths about each species seemed to remain. There is racism between the three species because of this. This was an interesting theme that was used throughout to highlight the differences between the species, but could have been explored a bit more.

I really enjoyed this supernatural romance, especially as an audiobook. If you are a Vampyre or Were fan I think you will like this take on those stories. If you are a romance fan, than there is plenty of that as well which will make this a good book for you as well. I liked this author’s writing enough that I just might pick up one of her contemporary romances the next time I am in the mood.