Tag: Ali Hazelwood

This Chicks Audio Review: Bound by Ali Hazelwood

Surprise! The very prolific Ali Hazelwood released the audiobook of Bound in November. I had no idea this one was on the horizon but as I’m a big fan and the synopsis seemed different I thought I’d give it a listen.

Veronica “Vero” Mercer grew up with con artists as parents. In grad school for a degree in art history, Vero gets talked into doing a little forgery to keep her friends in their jobs at an art dealer. Her forgeries are so good she comes to the attention of Dr. Viktor Ashworth, a very private, British professor. He too has a little side job for her. He wants her to reproduce an ancient manuscript for him. It’s supposed to be a short term deal, but as Vero spends more time with Viktor and things become more dangerous she has to wonder. What does Viktor really want? And why can’t she seem to stay away?

As I listened to this book, I realized that this author has done it again. She’s pivoted subject matter and type of romance and given her fans a slow burn romance that takes place in a world where our heroine is very knowledgeable about art history and how to forge a books. How does Ms. Hazelwood find the time to both write a novel at breakneck speed and research a new subject matter, assuming she herself wasn’t an art history major? I never felt like I was being sold a bill of goods and found everything she wrote to grab my attention in a way where I didn’t doubt what she had written. She is truly amazing.

I need to also give credit to the two narrators. Brittany Pressley and William Macleod did a great job imbuing the characters with life and personality. Viktor was a little stuffy, but he was English, Immortal, and a professor so that modulated tone fit well. Did you catch that I threw in the word immortal? Yep! The author pivoted genre’s and has given us a paranormal species (race?) that we haven’t read before in any of her past novels. Viktor and his crew were very interesting and I wished that their past had been fleshed out just a touch more, however, I enjoyed what was written and their being immortal didn’t detract from my liking the story or where it led me.

If you’re a fan of Ali Hazelwood’s I think you’ll also like this novel. Bound is different, kind of like her other paranormal series, but not too much like them and not set in that world. I was entertained which for me is what reading or listening to a good book is all about. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* Bound

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This Chick Read: Mate (Bride #2) 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…

This world is quite a departure for this author, but after devouring Bride, the first novel in this series, I’ve totally bought into this Human, Vampyre, Were world. Each species is so distinct and separate, so when it becomes known that Serena exists she becomes a tool to be used. Serena not only doesn’t want to be used, but she doesn’t have time to be used as a political tool. However, she’s willing to be a red herring so that little Ana will not have any of the focus on her that is now on Serena. This act of self-sacrifice puts her back into the hands of her mate, Alpha- Koen Alexander. It is only with Koen that she feels safe. It is only with Koen that she wants to find a way to survive and thrive.

Serena and Koen’s love story is fraught with political tension, not just inter-species, but also just among the Were’s. Not everyone wants their alpha to be mated to a hybrid. There is also a lot of sexual tension- neither of them are willing to give in to this attraction which creates a lot of frustration. Then something from Serena’s past is revealed that brings a whole new level of danger to the Northwest Were’s. Luckily her mate is alpha enough to face this new danger, but when Serena uses herself as bait it just might be Koen’s breaking point. I loved this danger trifecta in Mate! This book had all the tension! This was a slow burn romance of the best sort, ending with some very satisfactory togetherness. Ahhh, Were love. LOL.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❣️

I would recommend reading Bride first as there is some sub-plots that will make more sense if you read this series in order. Enjoy!

Click this link to purchase this book!* Mate

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This Chick Read: Problematic Summer Romance (Not In Love#2) by Ali Hazelwood

Maya Killgore has been in love with her brothers best friend for three years and she just can’t get over her feelings. They haven’t talked in almost a year but her brother’s destination wedding is going to force them to be together for one week straight. Maya knows she can handle it, but being with Conor Harkness is going bubble all of those feelings to the surface and she’ll have to face being treated like a child by the man she loves. Conor has a real problem with their age difference. Maya is twenty-three and Conor is thirty-eight. She decides a summer fling might be just what she needs even if it’s a problematic one.

I really do love all of Ali Hazelwood’s female protagonists. Maya may be only twenty-three but she is a brilliant scientist. Her outlook on life through that microscope lense does make her a bit more mature than your average young woman starting a career, but there are moments when the reader is reminded of her inexperience. Most of those are seen through flashbacks to three years ago when she and Conor really got to know each other. I think they are supposed to represent not only their history, but also a contrast to how young she was then to the more mature Maya three years later. It works a bit, she does know what she wants, but without a little life experience she does seem a little young. Conor on the other hand, at thirty-eight does have his own business, but is a bit emotionally stunted from things he went through in his youth. He’s older, but feels a little younger. That narrows down their age difference to around 12 years. Does that really matter? Each reader is going to have their own opinion on that scenario. Despite Conor’s bringing it up all the time, I wouldn’t really have noticed the age difference.

In this novel, the author returns to a slow burn format. This is where our two romantic leads percolate through the whole book, building tension until the reader wants to give them a good shove in order to get the romance started. With the main conflict being their age difference, I really liked that they didn’t immediately get physical. I think that would have felt a bit icky, but because the tension built by the time they declared their feelings and got physical, their age difference felt natural and the reader was able to enjoy the story.

Ali Hazelwood is exploring a lot of themes in her books lately. The theme of an age difference in Problematic Summer Romance was interesting and surprisingly hot. Conor had that perfect amount of surly Alpha that the author does so well and Maya had just enough brilliance to match his experience. This novel is going to appeal to a lot of her readers. I know I enjoyed it.

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* Problematic Summer Romance

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This Chick Read: Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

Ali Hazelwood quickly became one of my favorite authors with her debut release of The Love Hypothesis back in 2021. Her heroines are typically STEM themed doctors, scientists, biologists, mathematic geniuses, etc. and her hero’s are in that field but also broody, good looking, and at the top of their game in their chosen field. Deep End’s characters are a bit younger, in college at Stanford, but otherwise they fall into the same characterizations. Scarlett Vandermeer is in med school and Luka Blomqvist is also in that field. What makes this story unique from the others is that Scarlett is on the dive team at Stanford and one of the top divers in the country, and Luka is an Olympic gold medalist on his way to the next Olympics. Obviously at the top of that field as well. These two characters share the pool and have been in each other’s world for a few years, but it’s not until Luka and his girlfriend (also a diver) break up that Scarlett starts to notice him as a person. When his ex Penny let’s slip one of Luka’s secrets, Scarlett can’t stop noticing him, and Luka notices right back.

Just as with this author’s prior novel Not In Love, she seems to be veering away from the slow burn romance and veering towards more of a mild erotica feel to her novels. If that’s not your thing than you may not enjoy this novel which plays on control in a sexual relationship. Unlike other novels which may use this theme as an excuse to have slightly kinky sex, in this novel with two characters who are competitive in their sports, and in a high level field like medicine it somehow added to the narrative and didn’t detract from the story. In my opinion it added to their characters and explained emotional conflicts, which I appreciated.

Despite liking how their sexual relationship added to the growth of their relationship and revealed emotional problems I do like a slow burn romance and I miss the old Ali Hazelwood style of writing. I love the enemies to lovers trope and while Deep End had dark and broody Luka, they were never enemies, more forbidden lovers. I hope this author trades off and her next novel returns to a slow burn style, but you know what? I love this author and will be reading any book she writes so she can really ignore my protestations and just get on with writing!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

Click this link to purchase this book!* Deep End

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This Chick Read: Cruel Winter With You (Under the Mistletoe #1) by Ali Hazelwood

I’m always amazed when an author writes a complete story with a beginning, middle, and end, within the confines of a short novella. In this case, 73 pages. It helps that our two main protagonists, Jamie and Marc, already know each other, but the fact that Ali Hazelwood write what felt like a complete story is pretty amazing- after all she did have to fill us in on their backstories, build tension, create conflict and resolve it!

Marc is Jamie’s best friend’s little brother. Jamie was essentially raised in their family and when Marc was born they had a special connection, until their teen years when they didn’t connect at all. Now, Jamie is a brand new pediatrician and Marc is a tech billionaire. They are both in their hometown for the holidays, Jamie to spend time with her father and Marc to watch his parents house while they are out of town. Jamie planned to avoid him but her father needs a pan big enough to fit their turkey and that pan is in the house Marc is watching. When she shows up at his door you feel the immediate tension and when she gets snowed in with him you know that the conflict and resolution is going to happen and it will happen that night. Ali Hazelwood did a great job telling their story and as I always do when a novella is written well… I want a full size novel!

❤️❤️❤️❤️

This novel is part of the Under the Mistletoe collection and can be found on Amazon on Kindle Unlimited and Audible.

Click this link to purchase this book!* Cruel Winter With You

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This Chicks Audio Review: Two Can Play by Ali Hazelwood

Video game designer Viola Bowen has the chance of a lifetime to design a game based on her all-time favorite book series. The only downfall is that she’ll have to work with her arch-nemesis Jesse Andrews.When their two companies both win the bid to co-design the game their bosses think a wintry retreat is just the answer to get their teams to bond together. Viola has tried to befriend Jesse before but has been snubbed repeatedly and she is not looking forward to this retreat, but in order to be part of this dream job she’s willing to suck it up. Unfortunately she doesn’t count on their chemistry making a bad situation…..better?

Narrated by Kelsey Navarro Foster who gave these characters life, this novella was just the right fit to get an Ali Hazelwood fix. The audio book is about 4 1/2 hours but there’s a lot packed into this five day retreat. Great back stories for our two main characters, lots of anxiety, great dialog, and a resolution that packs an emotional punch. This enemies to lovers romance brought the gaming world to life, but even better, this author created three dimensional characters in a very short timeframe. Something a lot of authors struggle with when writing novella’s but this author excels. If you have the time, I’d add this audiobook to your TBR and when you find that 4 1/2 hours of downtime, give it a go. I think you’ll find it a fun story!

❤️❤️❤️❤️❣️

Click this link to purchase this audiobook!* Two Can Play

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This Chick Read: Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood

Rue Siebert is a successful engineer at Kline, a promising bio-tech start-up. Her life is stable and secure until Kline is bought out and their very attractive front man comes in to evaluate the company. Eli Killgore and his partners want Kline, but since meeting Rue, Eli also wants her but she’s off limits, or she should be. Rue and Eli are faced with amazing chemistry and decide to have a secret affair with a deadline. The day the buy-out goes through.

Ali Hazelwood’s novels typically run more towards a slow burn love story but Not In Love immediately introduces the heat and the flame just gets hotter as the story moves forward, never dimming. Not quite erotica, but the steamiest novel I’ve read in quite awhile. So, if you are leary of explicit scenes, especially in audio books, you may want to steer towards a paperback that you can skim through. This author has always done a great job at building up the tension in the two main characters, and because she’s taken away the ‘will they or won’t they’ build-up she supplies us with a really great subplot, the reason for Kline’s takeover.

In an interview I read with the author, she described this novel as being full of “angst”. I’d certainly agree. Rue delves into this secret relationship with Eli, has constant regrets, and her friends don’t want her to have this relationship. Eli, too, has friends who don’t agree with his pursuit of Rue. Reading both character’s POV’s help the reader understand these characters and definitely adds to the emotional tension. I was thankful for Eli’s point of view because Rue comes off as kind of a cold character, hiding all of her wants and needs behind this cool persona. A facade she uses to protect herself from hurt. If I hadn’t been able to see how Eli viewed Rue, it may have been difficult to get past her walls and identify with her and like her.

I truly enjoy these STEM romances by Hazelwood. She is now not the only one writing in this sub-sub genre, but I favor her style and look forward to seeing what aspects of real-life women she will write into her characters. Rue was a little more difficult to like, but I still appreciated her differences and loved how Eli viewed and was attracted to her character. Their love story was different, a little more antagonistic, and yes “angsty”, but I still enjoyed reading their story. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* Not In Love

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This Chick Read: Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Misery Lark is the daughter of the most powerful Vampyre Councilman in the southwest. When she is called upon to help broker peace between the Vampyre and their enemies the Weres she steps up to do her part. She marries the alpha wolf, Lowe Moreland. Lowe doesn’t trust easily and he really doesn’t trust his new bride.

I am obsessed with this novel! Her first novel in the paranormal genre and Ali Hazelwood hits a home run. The world building….wow! Vampyre, Humans, and Were live in the world together but in separate, heavily guarded regions. The humans are about to have a shift in leader which jeopardizes their vampyre relationship. When this new pact is made between Vampyre and Were – the first since a previous reunion ended in a massacre, Misery is asked to sacrifice her secret life among the humans to move into the unknown. Coming from a species who has very few emotional expressions, Misery finds the Were’s and their passionate responses dangerous but shows no fear and only increases her sassy, quick witted responses. She was fearless and funny.

Lowe was the perfect contrast to Misery’s coolness. She pretty much ignored his alpha stature and advanced into were life with humor and bravery- and had her own agenda. Lowe was conflicted in wanting to protect this little vampyre and see what she was up to. I loved their interactions and was fascinated with the differences in their species. This was a book where once I got lost in the world and the plot I COULD NOT PUT DOWN. It’s truly been awhile since I’ve said that.

Do you love Ali Hazelwood’s STEM romances? This one is different but there are many similarities too! Misery is smart, sassy, difficult, and brave. Just like the STEM heroines. Lowe is a bit more alpha, but he’s pretty similar to STEM romance heroes. Tall, handsome, in over his head with the female he’s interested in- definitely! It is just a different world that they live in, but everything Ali Hazelwood quirk that you love from her previous books are in this novel too. I am so eager for a second book in this series. We get a hint at the end so there better be one!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* Bride

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This Chick Read: Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood

Mallory Greenleaf gave up chess four years ago but her best friend has asked her to take an open spot on her team in a charity tournament and guilted her into playing. As she knocks off one challenger after another she finds herself facing the #1 player in the world, the “kingkiller”, Nolan Sawyer… and wipes the board with him. Nolan’s loss to an unknown player shocks the world and Mallory is drawn back into the life she’d once left and cash prizes she can receive to help support her struggling family. Keeping it all a secret from her family is imperative but when Nolan shows up at her door imploring her for a game that secret is threatened.

I loved this first YA novel by Ali Hazelwood. I say YA, but really this reads as an adult novel with characters who face adult issues. They only thing that’s YA about it is the age of the characters who are in their late teens and early twenties. If you’re a fan of The Queen’s Gambit, as I was, this novel reminded me that I don’t know a bit about chess but the strategy, skill, and drama can be riveting despite my lack of knowledge. Mallory’s life was decimated by her parents tragic divorce – all tied to the game she loved, so she dropped it like a hot potato and was determined to put the past behind her and help her ill mother support the family. Fortunately, she was drawn back into the chess world and Nolan Sawyer took and interest in this young lady. Despite him being a good guy, there were classic moments of good vs. evil and our Mallory dueled it out on the chess board. What fun!

Nolan was a pretty typical Ali Hazelwood character, but had his own tragic past that kept him separated emotionally from his pretty solid group of friends. He was everything a hero should be, handsome and loyal, but he was also pretty secretive, which made for some great conflict and resolutions. He was very well matched in skill with Mallory and it was nice to see that he wasn’t threatened, but relished the challenge. I loved this healthy relationship that helped each of them deal with their troublesome pasts.

This novel, like I said above, is a young adult novel, and is in comparison to adult novels pretty clean. I would consider it a slow burn romance, but there is some sizzle towards the latter part of the book so if you’re looking for clean, this may not be a good fit. For me, it was the perfect mix of relationship building, conflict, drama, and heat. Check & Mate was the perfect play and one helluva a good story.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review and it was honest.

Click this link to purchase this book!* Check & Mate

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This Chick Read: Love, Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

Theoretical physicist, Elsie Hannaway, is an adjunct professor who hates teaching and just wants to finish her research project she’s been toiling on between teaching a million courses to undergrads and working for Faux, a fake-dating service. Being a fake girlfriend helps pay the bills but her lives are about to intersect when the brother of one of her favorite clients turns out to be the experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and rules the physics department at MIT, where there’s a job opening for her dream job. When Jack meets Elsie the theoretical physicist when he’s known her as Elsie the librarian, her two lives are about to collapse. However, the Jack she comes to know isn’t the same horrible tyrant who ruined the lives of theoretical physicists everywhere.

I love these women of STEM romance novels of Ali Hazelwood’s. Not only are they cleverly written, but the characters are flawed, real, and go through all of the self confidence issues that regular folks like you and I face on a daily basis, but perhaps even more so! Elsie had a great back story that captured my heart immediately. Diabetic since her youth, she’s always felt like she was a burden to her parents and because of this kind of lets the world walk all over her. When she meets Jack, the person who she thinks is her arch enemy, she is shocked that he doesn’t appear to be what she’s always believed. As we read further into the story, we understand Jack more and more and find him very easy to love as well. Both characters have had things shape their lives and mold them into who they are today. Totally flawed individuals who have to grow to connect with this other individual who certainly seems to be their soul mate. Their story was certainly swoon worthy!

Romance novels have certainly evolved over the years and Ali Hazelwood’s have helped that evolution by writing about a segment of our female population that aren’t usually the heroine’s in romance novels. Kind of like the first “Wallflower” books in the historical romance genre (now totally overdone btw), these women of STEM are certainly intellectual, but Ms. Hazelwood does a great job of showing how these women of STEM have the same insecurities and messed up youths as the rest of us. Underneath those white lab coats are women who just want to be loved, just like you and I. I have a Bachelor’s in English and by no means am proficient in science, math, etc. but I LOVE reading these novels and identifying our likenesses. I also love the surly men who come to love these great women. If you’re looking for a different kind of romance novel, please give this book a try.

Love, Theoretically is an exceptional romance novel. Not only does it have my favorite trope, enemies to lovers, but it has a little mistaken identity and rom-com thrown in as well. What isn’t funny about a young woman who has to fake-date men for a little extra cash to survive? Those scenes make for some great storytelling! Jack is a beast of a physicist and a prime specimen of a man and their interactions have great chemistry and heat. His direct stares followed me into my dreams and haunted me. Really!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I received a copy of this novel through NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review and it was honest!

Click this link to purchase this book!* Love, Theoretically

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*Amazon Associate- if you purchase this book through the above link I’ll receive a small stipend.

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