The Wrath and the Dawn (The Wrath and the Dawn #1)By: Renée Ahdieh (@rahdieh)
Published By: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers on May 12, 2015
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 388
Goodreads // Book Depository
One Life to One Dawn.
In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.
Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?
Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end.
In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.
Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?
Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end.
"You are not weak. You are not indecisive. You are strong. Fierce. Capable beyond measure. "
I'm not a huge kicker for romances. Usually, it's an insta-love or a love triangle, and I spend my entire review complaining about that. HOWEVER, Shazi and Khalid broke my heart and mended it in every way possible. Having read this after most people had, there was tons of hype and my interest was piqued. I still went into this book only knowing one thing...that it was a retelling of A Thousand and One Nights. I had no knowledge about this story until after reading The Wrath and the Dawn, and was pleasantly surprised. One thing I loved about this book was the diversity. Shazi and Khalid are of color, as well as Muslim. Overall, The Wrath and the Dawn is a wonderfully romantic, exciting story, but not without its flaws.
The basic premise is intriguing from the beginning. Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her killed at sunrise. When Shahrzad (I'll call her Shazi in this review)'s best friend gets killed, Shazi is determined to take revenge.
Shazi was a strong lead, who sort of reminded me of Annabeth? Shazi is confident, and a tiny bit reckless, but brave nevertheless. Sometimes her recklessness frustrated me, because she missed moments that she could have gotten revenge, and basically forgot her mission to avenge her friend with the end came, but that could be overlooked.
The romance part of this novel was spectacular. It was a love triangle, but the other dude (Tariq) is stupid and useless and conceited. Honestly, there's only one real contender. The romance part was really interesting, but frusterating at times where they wouldn't trust each other. URGH.
Ahdieh's writing style is flawless. It's awfully descriptive, but not to the point where's it's overly descriptive. Shazi resides in a place for most of the novel, so of course the palace is exquisite, and Ahdieh describes that SO WELL.
I had two issues with the book. The first The MAGIC wasn't developed enough. This could develop in the second book, of course, but I thought the magic part was sort of skimmed over and not that engrossing. The other issue I had was Shazi reading Khalid the story each night (to keep her alive) was a bit boring. I was hoping that Ahdieh could weave it in more smoothly. The parts with the story was a bit long and dull.
Overall, I highly enjoyed The Wrath and the Dawn. I'm sold for the second books. I'm excited to see where this romance is going, as well as the magic getting more details.
Thanks for reading this, guys. It made my day <3
Final Rating:
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