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A review by xanderrabbit
The Wrath & the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh
5.0
“You are ridiculous, Khalid Ibn al-Rashid. I am just one girl. You are the Caliph of Khorasan, and you have a responsibility to a kingdom.”
“If you are just one girl, I am just one boy.”
4.5 stars!!
(I actually changed my rating for this several times, but in the end, 4.5 came out on top. A more accurate rating for me would be around 4.3, but I'm gonna round up to 4.5 because I don't know how math works and I'm not that technical of a person.)
Let me start off by saying I had really, really high expectations for this book. I will be honest and say it did not QUITE meet my expectations, but it did surprise me, and that always counts for something.
Okay, The Wrath and the Dawn is a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights, which automatically had me excited. I have to admit I am always 100% down for a retelling, especially one with such a GORGEOUS cover!!! Shahrzad's best friend is murdered by Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan, who takes a new bride and has her murdered every night. Shahrzad volunteers to be the next bride of the Caliph in hopes to not fall victim to him and "end his reign of terror". Obviously, this does not go as planned, and she discovers that things in the palace are not all as they seems, and she finds herself having unplanned feelings for her new husband.
This started off a little weird for me. I have to admit I wasn't into it, but not because I thought it was slow. The writing just seemed to get better as I got deeper into the book. The writing, itself, it reminded me majorly of Red Queen, but better. I loved the pacing, and it always kept me interested and on my toes. There were SO MANY MOMENTS where I felt the tension literally wafting off the page, and I was SO STRESSED. SO. STRESSED.
I really liked the romance between Khalid and Shazi. Sometimes it did feel as though it developed really fast, but I'm not too strict about things like that. A liiiiitle unrealistic, maybe, but it's fiction, and it's entertaining, and I liked it, most of the time.
There were some things I didn't like. For instance, (TW)why did Khalid have to sleep with Shahrzad before they had feelings for each other? Like, literally, when he thought she was going to die in the morning, and he ADMITTEDLY "saw hate in her eyes"? And Despina later revealed that he hadn't gone to see any of the other girls before they died (by his order). That's not romantic. Honestly, that's sexual assault, even though the book doesn't seem to consider it such.
I haven't read the sequel yet, but I am planning to!! Hoping there are some LGBT characters but I will live without.
4.5/5 stars.
“If you are just one girl, I am just one boy.”
4.5 stars!!
(I actually changed my rating for this several times, but in the end, 4.5 came out on top. A more accurate rating for me would be around 4.3, but I'm gonna round up to 4.5 because I don't know how math works and I'm not that technical of a person.)
Let me start off by saying I had really, really high expectations for this book. I will be honest and say it did not QUITE meet my expectations, but it did surprise me, and that always counts for something.
Okay, The Wrath and the Dawn is a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights, which automatically had me excited. I have to admit I am always 100% down for a retelling, especially one with such a GORGEOUS cover!!! Shahrzad's best friend is murdered by Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan, who takes a new bride and has her murdered every night. Shahrzad volunteers to be the next bride of the Caliph in hopes to not fall victim to him and "end his reign of terror". Obviously, this does not go as planned, and she discovers that things in the palace are not all as they seems, and she finds herself having unplanned feelings for her new husband.
This started off a little weird for me. I have to admit I wasn't into it, but not because I thought it was slow. The writing just seemed to get better as I got deeper into the book. The writing, itself, it reminded me majorly of Red Queen, but better. I loved the pacing, and it always kept me interested and on my toes. There were SO MANY MOMENTS where I felt the tension literally wafting off the page, and I was SO STRESSED. SO. STRESSED.
I really liked the romance between Khalid and Shazi. Sometimes it did feel as though it developed really fast, but I'm not too strict about things like that. A liiiiitle unrealistic, maybe, but it's fiction, and it's entertaining, and I liked it, most of the time.
There were some things I didn't like. For instance, (TW)
I haven't read the sequel yet, but I am planning to!! Hoping there are some LGBT characters but I will live without.
4.5/5 stars.