A review by hyzie
The Wrath & the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

4.0

 

This was beautiful.

 

I was worried, with all of the build-up it was getting, that it was going to be a huge disappointment, but in the end it won me over. I do admit I hadn't realized going in that it was a series (a trilogy I'm guessing?) and not a stand-alone novel, though, so the ending was not at all what I was expecting.

 

What sold me on it was the beauty of the setting (I really need to search out more Middle Eastern-y fantasy books--I seem to always love them when I find them) and the characters. The touch of magic in the reality of the world was carefully handled and very well-done. 

 

I did not expect the love story to work for me. I did not expect to find myself rooting for the people I did. It completely won me over, though. I may possibly have teared up a little bit at points, which I don't generally do with romance portions of novels. At best, I get cheery, but this was touching and sweet in an odd way.

 

I really enjoyed Shazi, and the caliph ended up being significantly more intriguing than I thought he was going to be. Shazi was a fabulous main character, though; a little bit snarky and focused on revenge, but able to understand herself to see her feelings changing, willing to trust and to make friends even in awful situations, and interested in everything as well as capable of making sound judgements based on what she learned. That is kind of rare in heroines, sometimes, so I greatly enjoyed it in her. In addition, I'm a huge sucker for female characters that use bows (possibly because of my video game addiction?), so that was a point in her favor.

 

I enjoyed the fact that she ended up with a female friend, and that female friendship was so integral to the story, for all that this is, in the end, a story about one woman and a rather strange marriage. I loved seeing this story retold and updated without losing the charm of the original. 

 

One of my only complaints is relatively minor and says more about how good the storytelling was than anything else: I was hoping to see more of Shazi telling stories. I know she did it, and apparently quite a bit, but much like the caliph, I was entranced and I wanted to hear more about what was going on in that fantasy world. 

 

I will absolutely be reading the next book when it comes out and I can't wait to see what else Renee Ahdieh writes.