Misery Lark is an outcast—again. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over: she has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres.

Weres are ruthless and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. And, unlike the Vampyre Council, not without feeling. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was….

Because Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about. And she is willing to do whatever it takes to get back what’s hers, even if it means a life alone in Were territory.

I put off reading this forever because a couple of my friends disliked it and I'm so upset that I did! This is a solid 5 star read for me...and I'm hoping with that singular sentence at the end we get an offshoot for Serena in the future. As I will it, so mote it be.

Some didn't like the book because they felt Misery was a horrible vampire. I argue this is the same as saying someone isn't "[race] enough" just because they didn't grow up in the culture of their heritage. I would also argue it's one of Misery's strengths and why she was the perfect liaison in the first place. While she understands the overall hatred of weres, she is also not too stuck on them herself.

I know some reviewers weren't her biggest fan but I actually love how snarky she is. While it seems a little crazy marrying someone in order to find out what they know about your missing best friend, it also makes a lot of sense when you know that she's literally been the ONLY positive and constant in Misery's life. Like...Misery's and Serena's friendship is so REAL when this was Misery's daily existence:

I also liked the inclusion of her tech-savvy background...and it made for a nicely steamy event. She's also extremely considerate of her "stench" (read: she smells so tasty, Lowe definitely doesn't want to let that on) and is so supremely cute with Ana that I fully believe that alone would have endeared her enough to make the marriage official-official.

While we're speaking of not meeting species expectations...there wasn't much that screamed "werewolf" for Lowe other than smell, the word Alpha, a reference to mate, and a very brief wolf fight. And you know what? He was still perfect. Lowe, like all of Hazelwood's beaus, is helplessly in love with Misery and just doesn't know how to properly show it.

While the denial of Misery's discovery was stupid, it didn't last more than a page and provided the much-needed circumstance to move the plot to the finale. So while I wish there had been a better way of doing it, I wasn't too annoyed over it. I just found it a bit unbelievable that Lowe would decide THAT was the proper way to protect her freedom after all the other things he'd done to care for her.

I'd also be remiss not to mention Misery's brother. That ending and the reason for it? Chef kiss.

Recommended for the romance lovers with flavors of marriage of convenience, found family, and he's head over heels.