A fun, well-written introduction into one of the pillars of fanfiction–the Omegaverse–this homage to Ali Hazelwood’s roots gives plenty of my wife, biting, Twilight’s Edward-level stink face, and mate talk.
This review is relatively spoiler-free.
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.
THE ROMANCE
I don’t know why I expected this novel to be any different from past Ali Hazelwood, except for the fact that it’s a completely different genre, gives extremely fanfiction vibes, and was explicitly Omegaverse, something which anyone who’s spent any time on Archive of Our Own has been forced to explain to our saner, more boring friends.
In reality, this romance had all the familiar beats of previous Ali Hazelwood novels. It’s well written, don’t get me wrong, and it hits plenty of tropes, but maybe because it’s pretty well-written, it doesn’t have that unhinged vibe of an Omegaverse book. Nor does it have the sex, but that I was actually happy about.
I wasn’t the biggest fan of the male love interest, and there’s a bit too much miscommunication for me to be entirely comfortable, but I did appreciate that it wasn’t too insta-lovey (though he does do the Edward thing where the first time he’s in the same room as her he acts like he just smelled a skunk). In fact, the way these two fall in love is actually really sweet. If you haven’t read this kind of thing before, this is actually a really, really good starting place.
Throwing in an excerpt that made me roll my eyes harder than I’ve rolled em in a while (I thought we were done with I’ll-just-love-her-and-pine-for-her-from-afar when really I could just be with her, but alas):
“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.” His lips open and close a few times, as though he can only find the right words by shaping them first to himself. “Maybe some things transcend reciprocity. Maybe not everything is about having.”
The last thing I’d say–and I don’t have too much to say simply because this was not a super interesting or complex book–is that I appreciated that the FMC wasn’t some simpering y/n. She was a vampire, which, that’s fun in itself, let’s combine all the sexy supernatural beings, but she also had a fair amount of agency, personality, character, etc. She really reminded me of the FMC of Bite of Loyalty / the Blood Oath series, which, to be fair, has a little more Zodiac Academy vibes in general than this, but I’m just talking about the main characters. I don’t know what’s up with the trend of FMCs just having the one best friend who’s their guiding light in a dark world, but I guess I don’t…hate it?
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