#misery lark x lowe moreland

[todaysanother]

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

Lowe really went

[chardwic]

Books I've Read in 2024: Bride by Ali Hazelwood

"You don’t know anything about what it’s like to find your other half, I would take anything she chose to give me—the tiniest fraction or her entire world. I would take her for a single night knowing that I’ll lose her by morning, and I would hold on to her and never let go. I would take her healthy, or sick, or tired, or angry, or strong, and it would be my fucking privilege. I would take her problems, her gifts, her moods, her passions, her jokes, her body—I would take every last thing, if she chose to give it to me."

[artsbygih]

Misery Lark and her ✨husband✨ Lowe Moreland

[maddiesflame]

Bride headers

like/reblog if saved © maddiesflame

[moondrawss]

misery lark and ✨her husband✨lowe moreland from BRIDE by Ali hazelwood

[buffyfan145]

Finally got to read "Bride" by Ali Hazelwood and I loved it!!! 😀 It's my favorite of hers so far, with "Check & Mate" being 2nd, and I'm very happy to see she is writing a sequel about Serena which she confirmed on Instagram a couple weeks ago. I love paranormal romance in general and this had a great mystery attached too, and I loved the world building with the vampires, werewolves, and humans all living in our world and there being wars between them in the past but they're trying to make alliances and live in peace. I loved Misery, Lowe, and the other characters, and Misery & Lowe's falling in love after their arranged marriage. I know Ali's based a lot of her books off of various ships from movies and shows, and like "Check & Mate" they actually reminded me of Haladriel the most. It felt like a Haladriel fic, even if it was set in the first age or modern day as like Misery, Galadriel was outcasted from the elves even though her father and brother were elven royalty and having the blonde/silver hair and pointy ears like Misery. Then like Lowe, Sauron at one point was Lord of the Werewolves, took over his pack from the old leaders, and could turn into wolf himself and the "Rings of Power" show version has intense green eyes. And of course, the relationship between Haladriel too being so similar and falling for each other even though they shouldn't, and not to mention the hybrid children being like the hybrid children in the LOTR books of the Maiar, elves, and men. So of course, I loved this book, and I can't wait to read the sequel.

[phantomdialogue]

˗ˏˋ. ݁₊ ✶ ˖ 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐚𝐥𝐢 𝐡𝐚𝐳𝐞𝐥𝐰𝐨𝐨𝐝 - 𝟑/𝟓 ☆ . ݁ ˖ˎˊ˗

premise: after spending her whole life as a pawn for the vampyre council, misery lark finds herself in yet another plan to bring peace amongst the different species. however, she's got her own plan for how to use her arranged marriage to her advantage. lowe moreland wasn't expecting his vampyre wife to make him feel the way he does but as tensions shift amongst the species, perhaps working together will do far more good than expected.

couple: lowe moreland and misery lark

tropes: omegaverse (ish), vampire x werewolf, almost grumpy x sunshine, rivals to lovers (ish), arranged marriage, a little found family, fated mates

review below!

review:

i'm really conflicted on this book. i feel like i was going back and forth between two books about the same characters that the storylines didn't mesh well together. on one hand, there was some clear political drama that ali hazelwood set up between the different species of humans, werewolfs, and vampyres (the spelling did also get annoying). but it just seemed so lackluster and was used more as a filler for when the romance needed time to sit. especially at the end around 75-80%, all of the sudden everything turned on its head and the twist was just so confusing to me because i don't feel like we got much lead up to it. on the other hand, there was the arranged marriage romance between misery and lowe. that part i did enjoy... until the third act breakup. the third act breakup was just so irritating because there was such an easy solution to it and because we never read lowe's point of view, it felt really unwarranted.

misery was a fun fmc, however, and i did enjoy her snark and sarcasm. it added a light to this book and really elevated the romance to see her and lowe's interactions as their personalities clashed at the beginning because of the way they were pretty closed off from each other. lowe was... fine. he wasn't a bad mmc but he also wasn't that great. the third act breakup is literally 1000% his fault. in fact, a majority of the conflict in the romance comes from him and not being honest about what's going on. which also brings up that i felt like we dragged the conflict in the romance out immensely and then using it as fuel for the third act breakup really just frustrated me after 25 ish chapters of knowing what's going on and the book avoiding addressing it.

the smut... wasn't that great either. i loved the lead up to it (the airplane scene kind of lives rent free in my brain because that was hot) but when it got to the actual smut, it just didn't hit as hard i feel like the smut in her other book that i've read did. the knotting/omegaverse aspect of it was also incredibly hyped up online and it just fell short for me.

overall, it's not bad. but it's definitely not what i was hoping for i guess. i think that it's fine and if you want a fun werewolf x vampire book, this fills a little need for it. however, i think it would have benefitted dramatically from maybe an extra 50 pages to give itself the time to develop the political drama better if she really wanted to go that route.

q & a:

are they endgame? - probably... i guess... i feel like lowe really needs to work on his ability to communicate honestly and openly with misery to get to the point of being a strong endgame. but the way that he handled certain truths with her and caused the third act breakup really brought down his character as a whole. if he had just been honest with her, i'd probably be far more inclined to think that they would be endgame as well as rank him higher as a book boyfriend. i think misery has some issues of her own to work through but lowe feels like the main issue with the two of them.

did i cringe? - the dialogue in the smut really just did not work for me. i think ali hazelwood was going for a bit of an alpha thing with lowe and it just felt wrong because he wasn't like that except for during sex. he's supposed to be this alpha that is widely respected because of the air around him and how he holds himself and how dominating he is but we don't see that as a reader really and it makes his dialogue during the smut really out of character and sometimes gross.

favorite part? - the romance up until 75% ish through was really strong i think. i enjoyed the pacing of them coming together and connecting and falling for each other as well as acknowledging their differences. i think this book would have been so much better without a third act breakup because the romance leading up to that was probably the best part of the book.

least favorite part? - my main issues with this book comes from a lack of plot/development. there was a lot of potential here and it lived up to some of it but also falls short on a lot of it. the actual plot outside of the romance felt so minor compared to everything else going on. because of that as well, the plot twist just felt so underwhelming and confusing because there is so little actual build up to it while the build up to the romance is much more developed.

favorite quotes (some spoilers here, of course, but minimal):

I have no friends on the left, and only enemies on the right. So I ground myself and look straight ahead.

Those eerie, unearthly, beautiful eyes, glowing at me in the dim lights, a chilling green that borders on feral. I wonder if I’ll get used to them. If one year from now, when this arrangement is complete, I’ll still think them bizarrely lovely.

“Is it true that you don’t have a soul?” It’s goddamn noon. And there is a child here, asking me: “Because you used to be dead?”

It’s like you’re—I don’t know, suspended. Untethered from everything around you. I just need to see you go toward something, Misery.

They rarely touch. When they did, her wrist accidentally brushed against the front of his shirt, and he found himself tearing off the piece of fabric where her smell was most intense. He slipped it in his pocket, and now carries it everywhere. Even as he leaves to avoid her.

“Maybe there is something devastating about the incompleteness of it. But maybe, just knowing that the other person is there . . .” His throat bobs. “There might be pleasure in that, too. The satisfaction of knowing that something beautiful exists.”

"I would take her for a single night knowing that I’ll lose her by morning, and I would hold on to her and never let go. I would take her healthy, or sick, or tired, or angry, or strong, and it would be my fucking privilege. I would take her problems, her gifts, her moods, her passions, her jokes, her body—I would take every last thing, if she chose to give it to me.”

There is something patently sexual about this, no question, but it goes beyond. I’m being discovered. Mapped. Soothed and ignited at once.

“You’re not a problem, Misery. You’re a privilege."

He’s not sure he deserves the warmth of his current life, but he’ll keep it anyway.

[romanticfools]

bride by ali hazelwood: four-star review

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ / ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

synopsis:

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.

if ali hazelwood has no fans, consider me deceased because i am an ali hazelwood enthusiast first and human second. quote me.

so when i heard ali was coming out with a new book and it wasn't STEM or academia centred? honestly, i was SO excited. when i heard it was a paranormal (tick!) marriage of convenience (double tick!) between an alpha and a vampyre (tickticktick!!!!!!) i knew, going into this book, i'd like it. what can i say, i'm a simple gal and i'm satisfied with the way ali writes her characters. aka, snarky - ish independent female is used to doing everything on her own, meets a six foot nine HUGE man who has been pining over her from the beginning. oops, this was supposed to be no spoiler territory. oh well.

okay, quick list of reasons and tropes of the book if you want the tl;dr

marriage of convenience

forbidden romance (their species are enemies! AH!)

he falls first AND falls harder

first person (thank you, ali) and fem perspective

paranormal (werewolf x vampyre)

touch her and you die

grumpy x mild sunshine

spice: 🌶️ (mild)

okay, continuing with my yapping, here's a more in depth review of what i loved and what i didn't love as much.

i loved misery and lowe and their interactions. i thought they were SO sweet together, except ali totally did them dirty with the names. really??? MISERY and LOWE????????????? the book was mostly in misery's perspective but we got snippets of lowe; my fav quotes were all from him. okay, quick rundown of good things:

as per usual, the sex is sexing and it is hot

the grovelling from lowe??? the PINING??? the PAIN???? UGH, ALI

misery is a smart, independent cookie whose backstory is so delicate and painful. i love her so much as a character

minor plot twists! i thought these were delightful

fast pacing. i gobbled this in one sitting

funny in that signature ali hazelwood way

things i think could have been better:

the book didn't focus much on lowe as much as i would've liked it to

the premise of their conflict was kinda........ just a little stupid. it wasn't really believable and i found myself frustrated with the characters

overall, LOVED it but couldn't bring myself to give it 5 stars. in my opinion, love, theoretically was a MILLION times better than this. i may be biased, because that's my favourite thing ali has ever written.

loved bride just as much as i did? try love, theoretically by ali hazelwood

need more paranormal romances! try a hunger like no other by kresley cole

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

Love when Misery and Lowe sarcastically refer to each other as "husband" and "wife" and other pet names!

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

Once again, fictional men setting unrealistic expectations

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

Laughing at this while thinking back to the earlier scene (below) because Misery really does genuinely take it as a compliment lol

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

He was going to say my mate!! But I will absolutely take Lowe saying my wife instead!!

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

There's nothing I like more then fictional men being tormented and in pure absolute agony

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

Lowe is insane for this!

[artsbygih]

Misery and Lowe from Bride