Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Wrath & the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

15 reviews

narwhal23's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Death, Murder, and Sexual content

bookishmillennial's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

I read this as part of my #12Friends12Books 2024 reading challenge, and this book was recommended to me by @booknerderika (instagram). Thank you friend! 🩷

I thought this was such a clever story and I am excited to read the next book! It is a retelling of the One Thousand and One Nights tale, which I actually am very familiar with so it was fun to have that frame of reference. The Caliph of Khorasan marries a new bride each day and by the next dawn, she is killed, on his orders. Shahrzad marries him to get revenge for her best friend Shiva (one of the murdered brides) and plans to kill him with her longtime love Tariq (she has loved him since she was 12).

 She gets Khalid (Caliph) to extend her life by telling him a story and promising to continue the story the next night. She hides her time this way, but learns more about Khalid and his childhood. Most notably, she cannot help but wonder why all of those women had to die. Amidst all this, Shahrzhad grapples with feelings of guilt, confusion, and compassion as she gets to know Khalid. 

I did feel like their romance escalated a bit *quickly* and was curious about how you could go from hating someone for murdering your bestie to wanting to kiss him in a matter of days, but by the end, I did believe in it! I would have loved to see just a bit more of them getting to know each other and uncovering more layers of the other, but I am still satisfied with how this story unraveled. 

I am excited to read the next book & think this would be an interesting one to adapt onscreen, especially since it’s already a folklore retelling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Trafficking, Murder, Death, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

picaresquedreamer's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Murder, Death, and Confinement

Minor: Sexual content

kylosten's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death

Moderate: Violence, Animal death, and Sexual assault

Minor: Sexual content

1quillb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The thing that authors really need to get right when writing enemies-to-lovers is the transition from enemy to lover—it needs to be made clear to the reader why, exactly, they fall in love with each other. But here, the author fails completely. There is no transition, there’s just Shazi hating Khalid to her saying she wants to kiss him and is in love with him (I’m not tagging a spoiler here because it’s the whole premise of the book). There’s literally zero explanation as to why she has suddenly become enamoured with Khalid. I really like the general idea of the book, especially as a 1001 Nights rewrite, but the relationship aspect falls flat without the journey of actually falling in love with someone who is supposedly evil. Had the author included a more transitionary period with their relationship I probably would have rated this much higher, but I couldn’t stand Shazi constantly waxing poetic about a man she hardly knew anything about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Murder, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Minor: Grief, Pregnancy, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, and Infidelity

notsobinaryart's review

challenging emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Animal death, and Confinement

Minor: Slavery and Miscarriage

eelizard's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Suicide, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

emsavors's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Murder, Slavery, Suicide, Child abuse, Kidnapping, and Sexual content

truegrit's review against another edition

Really gross set up - like an enemies to lovers situation but he's a murderer and rapist? Could not abide by the story line or characters, really yucky.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Rape, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Domestic abuse

greatexpectations77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is very fun, and I'm excited to read the second book in the series. Shahrzad is strong and conflicted, and the story does a really interesting process of unfolding. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Suicide, Vomit, Alcohol, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, War, Domestic abuse, Grief, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Classism

Minor: Sexual assault