Truth to be told, I was a bit reluctant to pick up Bride because my experience with Ali Hazelwood's books is a mixed batch but it's a fun, relatively fast-spaced romantasy/paranormal romance that pokes fun at plenty of stereotypes that can be typically found with vampires and werewolves (e.g., garlic, requiring an invitation to enter a house, ...). I did enjoy it more than I thought and it made me laugh often enough. The focus is on the romance, so don't expect in-depth world-building, but the book serves well as a summer read due to it.

The world-building is relatively straightforward and the story is set in a fictional city in the USA, with mentions of other places like California or Zurich (Switzerland), and happens mostly within a very limited area. I would have liked more information about the city's politics and why certain habits were picked up in comparison to other places were the human - were - vampyres populations don't seem to require such politics/behaviour.

The romance is built on several tropes (arranged marriage, hostage exchange, forced proximity, fated mates) and while it has a touch of insta love (due to the fated mates trope), Misery and Lowe still have enough chemistry to work on their own without the trope. While I'm still sure that it's still Reylo fanfiction (like all her other books), I found it less noticeable and both characters are more enjoyable than her typical "He is so big and she is so quirky" characters, which tend to get onto my nerves very quickly. I could do without the spice because it was cringy but it's relatively mild in relation to her previous books (and other romantasy books).

My main issue with the book is the predictability of everything that happens in the last third of the book. There is the typical third-act conflict for the relationship (my biggest romance ick and she forgave him too quickly at the end), there are betrayals and mild plot twists, ... but if you paid attention in the previous two-thirds, it was very predictable. My second biggest issue with the book is Hazelwood's vocab. I have no idea how intelligent she is (or what her educational background is) but please stop using unusual vocabulary in a fucking romance novel. I don't know how native speakers view it but as a non-native speaker, I found it exhausting and I had to look up a few words to get their meaning.

There's a hint for a second book - as a possibility - at the end and I think I would read it as well because I was entertained enough by Bride. Please, don't expect a literary masterpiece but just something to entertain you on a hot summer's day.