Hello, fellow book nerds, and welcome back to another review!
Let me start by saying that I am an Ali Hazelwood STAN. Funny enough, the book that introduced me to her wasn’t one of her more popular STEM romances; it was Bride. So trust me when I say I’ve been eagerly anticipating this release ever since the epilogue of Bride hinted at a love story between Koen and Serena.
Mate, released on October 7, 2025, is the sequel to Bride. In this omegaverse world, we follow Serena, a half-werewolf, half-human protagonist, and Koen, the alpha of the Northwestern pack. Serena has only just discovered that she is half werewolf, which complicates the relationship between our two love interests. Serena does not understand Wolf culture, and she can’t pick up on the signs of having a mate. Koen, on the other hand, knows that Serena is his mate the second he lays eyes on her, but he can’t let himself have her because of his tragic past (obviously).
If you’ve never heard of the omegaverse (also known as A/B/O, short for Alpha/Beta/Omega), it’s a subgenre that started in online fanfiction communities and has since made its way into mainstream romance.
In this universe, some characters have “mates” (literally one of my favorite subgeneres), which are fated partners who share a powerful bond sometimes described as two people sharing the same soul. For a werewolf, being near your mate will heighten emotions, while being apart can cause real emotional or even physical distress. In Hazelwood’s version, mates are rare and deeply significant, which makes Serena and Koen’s bond even more special.
Hazelwood doesn’t shy away from exploring the more intense aspects of werewolf lore this time around. Unlike Bride, which leaned heavily on vampire mythology, Mate dives into the primal side of wolf instincts.
A heat, which is the intense physical need to mate, only happens to female werewolves, typically a year after their first shift. There are differing opinions on how often a werewolf goes into heat, but at least in this book, it’s once per year, and symptoms leading up to the heat can last for months. Poor Serena doesn’t know what a heat is, so she is even more confused about the changes happening and why she feels a strong pull to Koen (and specifically his scent).
The male version of heat is called a ‘rut’, and this is when the alpha has strong desires to mate. Biological evolution was necessary for the continuation of the species. During a rut, the male’s genitals essentially hook inside the female so that they are tethered together, and sperm will have a better chance of reaching an egg.
I know digital footprint is a thing, but whatever, I wish A/B/O was real so I could experience getting knotted. Sue me.
One of the most overused tropes in romance books is where the main character is “too big” for the average woman, but for some reason fits perfectly with the female main character. Hazelwood is known for this microtrope, and if it were any other author, I would roll my eyes at the cringefest. But Hazelwood can do no wrong in my book.
I personally devoured this book in two days and literally could not put it down. Picture me at work reading smut on my Kindle with a completely straight face, kinda like I am writing about knotts right now in a room full of professional journalists…oops. I highly recommend Mate if you’re into all the spicy omegaverse tropes; mating bites, heats, nesting, the whole thing. And if you’ve never dipped your toes into that world, maybe it’s time. Who knows? It might just awaken something in you.