This was my first Ali Hazelwood. I had heard her first few novels were basically Kylo-Ren fanfic and had very little interest in that but figured maybe this would be different enough to be a good entry point.
Overall, I did enjoy it and think it was a fun read even if I have oh so many nitpicks. Misery was, for the most part, an enjoyable and likable character, and generally smart even while being completely oblivious and clueless about other things. I think the backstory Hazelwood created did a good job for explaining quite a few of Misery’s cultural gaps even though there were a few moments that were very inconsistent.
I enjoyed Lowe but he also somehow became more generic as the story went – just the usual protective yet gruff alpha male that is smart and duty driven but soft around his family and chosen ones.
The story overall was fine and yet also felt like it was a bit shallow at points? I would not have complained about more world building.
The nitpicks:
- This is less of an issue for me with historical romance because well, historical, but I generally don’t love it when the woman is a virgin and the man has had an active or at least existent sex life. That said, I do think the reason that Misery is a virgin makes sense in the context of the story and world building but still seems unfair.
- The vampires – sorry, vampyres – I am unfortunately not sure how much of this impression is because we had Misery as the narrator and Misery had no idea about vampire life since she spent her childhood/teen years as a hostage to the humans but like what was the power set here? The vampyres don’t seem to have super strength or anything, are sluggish during the day time and vulnerable to sun light, and seem to be really good at manipulation with some mind control (which depends on the vampyre and how trained/strong they are). Not entirely sure how they are so dominant. To be honest, it feels like Hazelwood wanted to write something paranormal and figured Vampire/Werewolf/Human would be a good trio of species but her vampyres were oddly both super powerful politically and pretty boring as a species. To be honest, she could have just as easily said they were fae or vulcans – pointy ears, logical, not emotional or driven by feelings. I think she just went vampire so she could have sexual blood sucking.
So overall, not in a rush to read more Hazelwood but would also not be opposed to it. From reading some of Malin’s reviews, sounds like her most recent contemporary romances are huge improvements on her first one or two and go beyond the Kylo-Ren of it all so at least I have options if I do.