{"id":81122,"date":"2025-11-16T03:19:40","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T08:19:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=81122"},"modified":"2025-11-16T03:19:40","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T08:19:40","slug":"audio-review-mate-bride-2-by-ali-hazelwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/?p=81122","title":{"rendered":"Audio Review: Mate (Bride, #2) by Ali Hazelwood"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Amazon\u00a0<\/a> |\u00a0 Paperback<\/a><\/b><\/h4>\n
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\r\n <\/div><\/div><\/b><\/h4>\n
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Review<\/b><\/h4>\n

4.5 stars!<\/b><\/p>\n

This is a fantastic read. A paranormal, fated-yet-forbidden romance that is full of chemistry and laughs, and a wickedly slow burning grumpy\/sunshine love story that had me near bursting with anticipation! It\u2019s such a fun read, and I loved it.<\/p>\n

This book is set in the same world as the fabulous Bride<\/a> (the heroines are best friends). There is character crossover, but you can read this one as a standalone. But they are both fantastic books, so don\u2019t miss out on either of them!<\/p>\n

Serena is a human\/werewolf hybrid, only one of two in existence. Her weird genetics have made her a target, and safety comes from the most unlikely of places when her estranged mate steps in to protect her. Koen is a werewolf alpha and a supreme badass. He\u2019s strong, brave, controlling and broody, and is much-loved by his pack. Upon meeting Serena, he immediately identified her as his mate, and it\u2019s the last thing he wanted. That doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s going to ignore her when she needs him though. He brings her to his territory and into his home, setting up the most fabulous dynamic as the two shifters who are drawn together by their very nature try their best to stay away from each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou find me attractive.\u201d
\n\u201cThat might be the dictionary definition of \u2018understatement,\u2019 but yes.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The dynamic between Koen and Serena is so awesome, and I loved every moment of them together. They\u2019re not enemies, there\u2019s no fighting, they\u2019re in a really difficult situation, they both know the score, and they deal with it without unnecessary drama or stupid behaviour. Though they won\u2019t\/can\u2019t act on their attraction, they don\u2019t hide it either, and the sexual tension is so good. Koen does his best to ignore his mate, but she quickly wins over his pack and infiltrates every aspect of his life with her bright cheerfulness. Her happy mixed with his broody, and the fact that we only get glimpses of his perspective to know what he\u2019s feeling makes the whole thing all the more intense as we wonder what\u2019s truly going on.<\/p>\n

Bringing an emotional element, Serena is dealing with more than just external threats. She has some serious health issues that she has been managing in secret, and when she finally opens up, Koen\u2019s protective goes into overdrive and he gets all up in her life, and things begin to really change.<\/p>\n

He easily resigned himself to a lifetime without her, but\u2026 Simply put, he is unwilling to contemplate a universe in which she no longer exists.<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The romance is a wicked slow burn, but it\u2019s worth the wait and I revelled in the anticipation of everything between these two. The build-up is sensational, the sexy time is intense, and the love story is really beautiful.<\/p>\n

It all unfolds while they continue to hunt down those that are after Serena, and she unravels secrets from her past, and all of the different elements of the story tied together so well to keep me completely invested and desperate to see how it would all play out.<\/p>\n

This is great a fun read with lots of laughs and a heartfelt romance that I couldn\u2019t get enough of.<\/p>\n

I loved it \u2013 4.5 stars.<\/p>\n

I listened to this as an audiobook, narrated by Ellie Gossage and Teddy Hamilton, and it\u2019s such a good one to listen to. They both bring so much to the characters, and I highly recommend this in audio.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bride<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\" \u00a0\"\"<\/h4>\n

Bride (#1) <\/strong>(Lowe & Misery)
\n<\/strong>Review<\/a>\u00a0
\n<\/strong>Buy:\u00a0\u00a0Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n

Mate (#2) <\/strong>(Koen & Serena)
\nReview<\/a>
\nBuy:\u00a0 Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buy:\u00a0 Amazon\u00a0 |\u00a0 Paperback Review 4.5 stars! This is a fantastic read. A paranormal, fated-yet-forbidden romance that is full of chemistry and laughs, and a wickedly slow burning grumpy\/sunshine love story that had me near […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78239,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","yasr_overall_rating":4.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[454,972,10,9,29],"tags":[1414,59,1642,48],"class_list":["post-81122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio-recommendation","category-forbidden","category-paranormal","category-romance","category-steamy","tag-ali-hazelwood","tag-arc","tag-bride","tag-review"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Mate.jpg?fit=200%2C300&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gaNL-l6q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/78239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.escapistbookblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}