Mate
- Mar 15
- 3 min read
Bride, Book Two
by Ali Hazelwood
Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less, and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey to the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres, and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her, she has only one option left — if he’ll have her. As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander commands obedience. His authority is so absolute, only a fool would threaten his mate. It doesn’t matter if Serena doesn’t reciprocate his feelings, nothing will stop him from keeping her safe. But power-hungry Vampyres and Weres are not the only threats chasing Serena. Sooner or later, her past is bound to catch up with her — and Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation…
Going into this, I knew next to nothing, except that it was all hyped up — so much, actually, that wanting to read this first led me to Bride. With all the built-up hype and how much I enjoyed Bride, this book had a lot to live up to. Sadly, it didn’t quite deliver.
The best part was undoubtedly Serena and Koen’s relationship. I really loved them together. I just wish the plot had been a bit more developed.
While I liked the premise with the cult and the old conflicts, I wanted more of it. It did the same thing as Bride did at the end, but even worse: all the major conflicts we’d been dealing with throughout the book are resolved while Serena is unconscious, and we just get told the result. It’s such a cop-out, and feels really lazy. There’s been all this build-up, and it just fizzles into nothing.
For example, the main reason Serena and Koen can’t be together (after her “illness” is resolved) is that Koen’s made a vow of celibacy to the Assembly (basically a council of elders). But after Serena is knocked out during the shortest action scene in history, Koen just has a chat with them, and they suddenly allow it. We don’t even get to witness the conversation.
And the Vampyres who have been going after Serena for her hybrid genes the whole book are taken out by Owen, Misery’s brother. This is also just told to Serena when she wakes up. Sure, we only got one confrontation scene at the start, but we heard about more attempted attacks throughout the book, so I expected a final confrontation or some sort of in-person resolution. Got nothing.
And as previously mentioned, the main conflict with the cult was extremely short: Serena wakes up after being kidnapped and knocked out (the kidnapping part was planned). There are two cult members guarding her. She somehow takes out one of them and just guesses that the other — who has a gun — will be too chicken to shoot her. That’s wild. Then she runs over to the main conflict, tackles a wolf, and runs after Koen into a burning building. She is immediately shot and passes out, and then wakes up in the hospital. Irene, her aunt and current cult leader, was also taken out by Koen while Serena was out.
So unsatisfying.
It’s a bit difficult to rate this, because I really liked the book otherwise. Though the plot felt a bit slow, I really enjoyed Serena and Koen together. But there were so many little things that just grated on me, besides the ending.
First, the illness — insane that a Were doctor couldn’t identify Heat symptoms, even as a plausible option. Second — it’s odd that they would immediately assume that Serena wouldn’t feel the mate bond just because she’s a hybrid — they know nothing about them. Third — they’ve stated previously (in Bride, maybe?) that the Weres have issues with a declining population, so it’s strange that they wouldn’t want one of their strongest to reproduce. You’d think a mating would be celebrated. The whole celibacy thing felt like bullshit from the start, and given the sudden 180 from the Assembly, Hazelwood maybe knew this too — and couldn’t figure out how to make the characters debate it in a believable way?
I’m annoyed, because I really wanted to like it, and I thought it might be a 5-star read. It really wasn’t.
⭐⭐⭐ 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️
~🖤~ FAVOURITE QUOTES ~🖤~ |
She tore him apart and remade him. It took her less than a second. |
The sallow, emaciated girl blinking at me in the changing room mirror is no one at all. […] Her identity has been peeled off layer by layer. |
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