Reviews with content warning for Self harm - Bride

As an aroace enby who is sometimes sex-repulsed, I always find myself amused and simultaneously horrified when reading extremely cishet romance novels … but maybe not for the expected reasons.

Things I liked: Serena, Sparkles, and Owen. That Owen’s final speech to their father is basically soft-coded for “I plan to not make America great again, I plan to make America comfortably insignificant again,” which, *finger snaps.* That none of the women in this book are in any sort of competition with each other. That platonic same-sex friendship is maybe the only major plot point. (I don’t consider sex a plot point, but that’s me.)

Things I didn’t: Basically, the main Romance (and specifically Omegaverse) Thing™️ where really good sex is a) the whole point of the book, b) fundamentally transformative, c) what every normal person is built for, and d) where all the meaning and belonging of life is stored up for folks to experience.

As I mentioned, I’m an aroace enby. I will never experience romance or sex the same way as an allosexual, and I have been raised like everyone else to see romance and sex as extremely meaningful—more meaningful than platonic friendship, because the book never climaxes or ends on platonic friendship even if the author considers it important. The book never ends with someone trying to figure out if life is going to ever be as meaningful for them as everyone else, simply because they’re not built to experience love the same way. And in a book where that *exact* question is raised repeatedly, as a result of biological difference, it’s even more heartbreaking for the conclusion to be “I’d totally still love you if you didn’t love me back or experience love the same way—but isn’t it awesome that we do, in the end, feel the same way for each other and were silly silly people for thinking we were biologically incompatible and *didn’t* experience sex in all its mind-blowing fullness in essentially the same way?”

It’d be nice if someone were biologically compelled to really really like me, sexually and/or romantically, because then I could know for sure that life was meaningful and worth continuing for no other reason than that such relationships apparently make us feel it is worth continuing. It’s not Ali Hazelwood’s fault for amplifying this narrative since literally no one else I’ve ever read has managed anything else, but it does feel particularly galling here, perhaps because she *knows* and she wants to *try* at an inclusive romance. And we quite literally pay for romance books to be the way they are.

I’m not saying I hate being me right now, but I do always hate myself at least a little bit for being such a … (I’m laughing at myself here a bit) … misery melon about the whole thing.

I do dream of a world where a misery melon like me can find a meaningful ending in a romance book that doesn’t involve being transformed by mind-blowing sex, though.

Content Warnings

azrieldds's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

NO FUCKING WAY THAT SERENA IS KOEN'S MATE OMGGG
Ali Hazelwood you better give me a sequel to this or it's 🔦🔦🔦

But yeah been a minute since I read a book but aaaaa so happy!!!
I cried when

Lowe lied about Misery not being his mate
Super fucked up of him honestly

But yeah, I'll obviously continue reading books in the Aliverse, even if this is probably a different universe than her usual ones

I NEED THE KOEN AND SERENA BOOK ASAP 💳💥💳💥💳💥

Content Warnings

emmyjojoreads's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

aepompu's review against another edition

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emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

What does Ali Hazelwood put in her books?! Usually I don’t love single POV, but the way she wove in snippets of Lowe’s POV was genius, and the reader almost has an omniscient POV while still having certain important plot points obscured. It’s incredible.
I looooooved this book. I loved everything about it. I absolutely devoured it in less than 24 hours. My personal and professional life suffered because I could not put it down.
Also, thanks to Ali Hazelwood for finally writing knotting in a way that laypersons (and those who didn’t grow up on AO3 or Wattpad) can understand. I’ve read a few omegaverse books with knotting and always been a little confused, but this book managed to make it understandable and incredibly sexy.

Please, pretty please, read this book.

🌶️🌶️/5

Content Warnings

booksofautumn's review

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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