YMMV / A Bride's Story

• Angst? What Angst?: While a substantial number of villagers are killed by the invading nomads in Chapter 31, the story glosses over most of the mourning on the survivors' part, apart from some mentions of funeral arrangements.
• Awesome Art: And HOW. As per Mori's usual standards, the art demonstrates how much detail can be beautifully drawn on every single thing in manga.
• Esoteric Happy Ending: Everything ends relatively happily, but the characters are still living in an area that's going to be taken over by Tsarist Russia and its successor, they, or their descendants, aren't going to fare too well.
• Heartwarming Moments: When Henry pays Ali for his help in guiding them the whole way, Ali is overjoyed because the amount is enough for him to afford a proper bride price so he can find a wife. And after being given such a gift, his next step is to ask Henry his first name (he'd only known him as Smith throughout their journey), and after learning said name, he declares his intention to name one of his children after him for his generosity. The act is so surprising to Henry that is pushes him to overwhelmed but happy tears.
• Les Yay: Anis and her search for a "sister wife", which is basically a best friend. She meets Sherine and its played exactly like Love at First Sight, at a bath house no less. Their scenes together have such high amounts of this trope that Anis and Sherine first come across as closeted lesbians. Then Anis and Sherine have a public sisterhood ceremony where they swear to be friends forever and hold no one more important than each other, which Anis' husband lampshades at one point. After Sherine's husband dies of a stroke, Anis suggests that Sherine marry her husband as a second wife. Threesome Subtext, anyone? Kaoru Mori points out in Volume 7's afterword that the customs of khwahar khwandagi (the ceremony, the close bond, going on trips together and even on occasion being buried in the same grave) is basically exactly the same as marriage.
• One True Threesome: When Sherine's husband (conveniently) died, Anis arranged her husband and Sherine to wed. Situation becomes rather awkward. Furthermore Husband and Sherine barely know each other but both love Anis. The husband is jealous initially of Sherine's presence but eventually accepts another member in Anis' harem.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Pariya and Azel have never even met in-story, but fans have taken to shipping them on the basis that their personalities are similar.
• The Woobie:
  • Having her whole family try to sell her off (when she was already happily married no less) to be the wife of an abusive rich asshole who beat his last two wives to death adds much woobie-ness to Amir. And then her family, led by her own father, no less, attacks her adopted hometown.
  • Talas and, to some extent, Smith during the entirety of Volume 3. Talas is a widow five times over and she lives quite a ways from town with her mother-in-law. After inviting Smith to her home, feelings of affection begin to grow between the two of them. Talas' mother-in-law notices this and even begs Smith to marry her, stating that Talas has no future with her. One heart-to-heart later and Talas and Smith decide to get married, but all of this becomes null and void when Talas' stepfather-in-law enters the picture. The stepfather forbids Talas from marrying Smith, declaring that she will marry a man of his choosing, and basically runs Smith out of his house. Since the stepfather is simply doing what most fathers do, neither Talas nor Smith can go against them.

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