The Wrath and the Dawn (The Wrath and the Dawn #1)

The Wrath and the Dawn is a YA retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights. Or, I should say, a retelling of the Arabian Nights’ frame story, of a brave young woman who volunteers to be the bride of a serial killer ruler who murders his new brides the morning after their wedding night. Needless to say, this backstory is a little problematic for the modern reader. In “The Wrath and the Dawn”, the nesting stories that the original is famous for take a back seat to the main story, a romance between the latest bride Sharzad, and the killer Caliph Khalid. There is a convoluted explanation for Khalid’s mass murder spree which comes out late in the novel, but the main character’s early attraction to a man who murdered her best friend (and many other young women) left a bad taste in my mouth. Overall, it was too reminiscent of a storyline where a rape victim falls in love with her assailant.

The book has solid writing, and a lovely amount of detail that evokes a sense of medieval Arabic life and culture. What it lacks are characters that fit into that world. Sharzad comes across as more whiny than heroic, and her bizarre interactions with her handmaiden don’t help. Khalid as a tortured romantic soul who -gosh darn it!-doesn’t want to be a mass killer of young woman, didn’t cut it for me. Sharzad’s other heart throb, Tariq, who dashes around on an Arabian horse with a killer falcon, had more potential, but his character simply walked away from a major conflict at the end, leaving me confused. In fact, the second half of the book, between the unlikely actions of the characters and the improbable plot twists, left me bewildered. To make matters worse, the novel is actually book one of a trilogy, not a fun thing to discover as you turn the last few pages.

Despite the fantastic background and setting, I’ll be giving the rest of the series a pass. There’s no explicit sex (in fact, I think some well-written sensual scenes might have added to this book) and a standard amount of sword slashing and violence.

I am not at all familiar with 1001 nights, so this story was entirely fresh for me. It was a bit slow to start, but not at all uneasy to read. I loved Shazi right from the start, though Khalid took some time to grow on me. I love the banter going on between Shazi and her handmaiden Despina. I was pretty confused by the insta-love and really could not see why Shazi was falling in love with Khalid, but by the end of the story I found myself saying “aww” to myself a lot. Which I really never do. Towards the end, I found some of the most beautiful words of love I’ve read in a while, so much that I had to stop and write them down in my reading journal. Now that I’ve finished the story, I’m totally sold on this romance and am pretty upset by what seems to be about to happen! I did find the chapters focusing on magic to be kind of strange and, well, just really weird. Hopefully that will be explained a little more in book 2. Overall, it wasn’t perfect but I definitely enjoyed this story. It’s a keeper in my library for sure.

If Im being perfectly honest, my biggest problem with this book was probably just that it wasnt for me.

The Wrath & The Dawn is basically about a corrupt king, the girl who tries to kill him, and how they both become softer, gentler people for it.

SPOILER: Sharzhard, the main character, falls in love with Khalid, the king…but it just didnt happen in a believable way in my opinion. Hed murdered DOZENS of girls, and shes just going to forget about all that? I dont think so… What sucks is once they were in love, I quite enjoyed the two of them together. But I just didnt see it happening when it did.

I also did not care for the Rahim, Reza, and Tariq chapters. They bored me, and I honestly think that the book couldve accomplished the same without them.

I also had difficulty following the story at times. I got the impression that the author expected readers to be familiar with the story already, but I was not.

Lastly, and this is nit-picky, Its a pet peeve of mine when authors use names that are similar to each other. I kept confusing Shazi with Shiva together and I didnt understand why her full name Sharzhard wasnt just used to avoid confusion.

Oh, I guess that wasnt my last thought because I also am still dumbfounded by the ending. Thats an ending???? There was no resolution, no feeling of completion. I still have no idea why (SPOILER) Jalal sent Sharzhard away with Tariq, or what happened when she found her dad, or even if Despina was foundnothing.

Despite these annoying cliffhangers, I dont feel compelled to read the next book. It was an okay book, mildly entertaining, but just not for me.

Any one who knows me knows that I love fantasy, its my favourite genre. Since reading all of Sarah J. Maas and Leigh Bardugo’s books nothing has really compared until now. This book is phenomenal. The atmosphere that Rene Ahdieh was able to create with her writing is incredible. I felt like I was living and breathing in this beautiful world. The characters are really original and interesting and not at all predictable in any way. The plot was so fast moving that I had a little trouble keeping up and actually getting into it at the beginning but once I had read a couple of chapters I was so completely immersed in this world with these amazing characters that it blew my mind. Even though it is fantasy and the things that happen aren’t real Rene really did well making you believe in it. Not many books have made me feel this way and when I did put the book down and then picked it up again after a few hours, I just fell straight back in to it like I had never put it down in the first place. While reading this book there is a mystery that you just can’t help but try to solve before you actually find out and that really keeps to engrossed.

The book follows Shahrzad when she decides to volunteer to be the Caliph of Khorasan’s new bride. But he is a murderous king that brings a new family heartache every single dawn. Each night he takes a new bride and come morning they have been killed. At sixteen Shahrzad’s closest friend falls victim to Khalid and so she decides to volunteer while determined to stay alive but also looking for vengeance.

The complex plot is very well woven together and Shazi and Khalid’s character development and relationship progresses slowly and in a realistic way that really draws you in and makes you care what happens to them. I also enjoyed the slow burning romance and I think that it was also fabulously done. The way we follow Shazi journey when she at first hates Khalid and how she is extremely angry and shocked by him to then find herself developing feelings toward him the more she gets to know him and uncovers the truth I think was beautiful. It’s definitely romance done the right way and I think it is one of the best and most well written romances that I have read in a very long time.

What are you doing to me, you plague of a girl? he whispered.
If Im a plague, then you should keep your distance, unless you plan on being destroyed. The weapons still in her grasp, she shoved against his chest.
No. His hands dropped to her waist. Destroy me.

That is really one of my favourite scenes because the snark and tension is overwhelming and I just love it! Now there is also some banter here and there between other characters not just the main two and I love banter and angst honestly the more the better and it really was just the topping to an already amazing story. I loved how loads of effort went into fleshing out side characters as well instead of just focusing on the main protagonists it really added a lot to the story and overall added so much depth. Most of the banter we see is between Shazi and Jalal who is Khalid’s cousin. The scene where he is target practising with Shazi is one of my favourite scenes of the whole book. Their slowly developing friendship is also one of the highlights and I am excited to see where that goes.

Some things exist in our lives for but a brief moment. And we must let them go on to light another sky.

The side characters in this book were very intriguing, mostly I find myself wanting to know more about Jalal, any scenes that we get in the next book are very welcome. To which I am extremely excited to see what happens next after that ending. I’m not going to go into detail because all you need to know is there are twists and turns and shocking things happen. Although I would say there isn’t very much action throughout the book however the little we do get is shocking and heart-breaking and I was sitting on the edge of my seat all while reading those last few scenes. I have also read Rene Ahdieh’s most recently released book ‘Flame in The Mist’ and I have to say even though I adored that book I think that I loved this even more, her signature writing in both of these books is so deep and as your reading it just flows along with the stories in a perfect way. Overall this book was wonderful and I highly recommend it for fans of the fantasy genre and also if you enjoy books with rich world building and characters that you will continuously root for.

5/5 Stars

After reading the final page of this first part of Khalid and Shahrzads story, I am not quite sure whether to shrug my shoulders or say that I enjoyed it.

It was a pleasant enough book. I liked the romance, even if I did not quite understand it and the setting added a bit of magic. However, I do not feel Shahrzads character is explored enough. I never felt like I got to know her that well. I felt it was strange she did not seem to have emotions regarding her physical relationships at all. Surely, a young girl of her age would have lots of thoughts and feelings about such things.

Unfortunately, although I did enjoy The Wrath and the Dawn, especially the first half, in the end it fell a bit flat for me. it really did not have enough substance for my personal tastes. I simply wanted more from it. I doubt it will stay with me very long. Just to clarify, it is not because this is YA, as there are plenty of YA books that do satisfy that itch.

It was entertaining enough, but I do not think I will be continuing this series.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member