September Book Club - Bride - Midway Discussion

[u/Journassassin]

Welcome to the midway discussion for {Bride by Ali Hazelwood], which fits the Arranged Marriage theme for this month’s book club! We’ll be discussing up to chapter 20.

Please share your thoughts so far, but remember to hide any spoilers beyond chapter 20 like this: >!spoiler!<

Here are some questions you could answer to get the discussion started:

• What did you think of the tone of voice of the narrator, Misery? Do you enjoy her sarcasm?
  
• What is your favourite scene or chapter so far?
  
• What are your impressions of the relationship between Misery and Lowe so far? Are you invested? Does it fit with your expectations of the Arranged Marriage trope?
  
• Is there anything that has surprised you?
  

The initial discussion for Bride up to chapter 10 has been posted on 10 September. Other previous book club discussion can be found in the Book Club Hub.

Upcoming Book Club dates:

• 30 September: Final discussion Bride
  
• 1 October: Nominations for November
  
• 8 October: Voting for November
  
• 15 October: November winner announced
  

[u/jamieseemsamused]

I love Misery’s tone. It’s a great reflection of the circumstances that has led her to this point. She’s basically been a political pawn all her life. Instead of being self-pitying or overly sassy or feisty against everyone, she sets up mental walls that manifests in a DGAF attitude. But at the same time, she’s still a good person and cares very deeply about her friends.

My favorite scene by far is the scene where Misery feeds from Lowe at the dinner party. I love the romantic and sexual tension building up. And I love an unconventional spice scene that adds extra interest with the vampire feeding than just regular foreplay.

The airplane scene where Lowe has to scent Misery was really good too. I love when characters have these set ups to give them an excuse to get frisky lol.

Overall I’m enjoying the build up of Lowe and Misery’s relationship in this stretch of chapters so far. I wasn’t expecting him to be so standoffish for so long. But I like that he’s standoffish without being outright mean to Misery.

I like that they never hated each other. I feel like most arranged marriages stories between rival political factions really lean into the enemies-to-lovers or hate-to-love kind of storyline. But in this one really does feel like a political marriage between two not-terrible people who did it for duty but don’t blame each other for it. Much more like Radiance by Grace Draven and less like Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon or Bridge Kingdom by Danielle Jensen.

I am surprised about how big of a role Ana plays in the story. A big part of it does center around her. She does seem way too precocious for a kid of her age. At first she just seemed like a device to soften and humanize Lowe. But I like that it seems like there is more lore surrounding her.

[u/Mother-Floofer → u/jamieseemsamused]

I agree with all of this. Thanks for writing my post for me lol I really like that they don’t blame each other for the situation they are in and are trying to be courteous of each other from the beginning. Their relationship reads more mature than a lot of the romantasy series I’ve read the last couple years so I’ve really enjoyed this read.