The Wrath and the Dawn (The Wrath and the Dawn, #1)
Renée Ahdieh
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?
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Adventurous, emotional, medium-paced
This story lingered in my head all day. One of the best stories I have read in years. Heart wrenching romance that you never want to put down. Tabbed a number of pages so that I can return to them and relive the magic!
Enemies to lovers/ slow burn
Mix of plot and character driven
Strong character development
Lovable characters
Flaws of the characters are a main focus
**content warning**
moderate: murder
minor: suicide
0This was so disappointing! I thought the premise was so interesting. Reading more about it, it looks like it’s based on actual Middle Eastern folk lore so I think I’ll just go for that instead.
My biggest problem with this was the pacing of the book. We’re immediately thrust into the action of Shazi heading to the palace and soon meeting the king, which leaves no time for us to get to know the characters and their motivations. The author just tells us these things up-front rather than weaving them into to the story. It was almost giving fanfiction writer describing their OC in excruciating detail in the first chapter of their fic!
For example, the reveal that Khalid is actual just a boy and not a monster would’ve been so much better had more time been devoted to building that before Shazi meets him for the first time. It’s the same thing with Tariq. We get little characterization of him through the narrative. It’s only evident he loves Shazi because of how much the author tells us he does! I think writing be more subtle than that.
Overall, loved the setting and premise but hated the execution.
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