THE WRATH & THE DAWN REVIEW
AUTHOR: Renee Ahdieh
SERIES: The Saga Of Shahrzad And Khalid Book 1
PUBLICATION DATE: May 12 2015
PUBLISHER: G. P. Putnam's Sons Books For Young Readers
SOURCE: Paris Bookhaul
RATING: 4.5 STARS!!!
Goodreads Summary
A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights
Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi's wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.
She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.
MY REVIEW
Shahrzad's best friend is dead. One night she was married to the Caliph of Khorasan, Khalid, and like others before her she did not live to see the dawn. Shahrzad is furious and bent on getting revenge, so she volunteers to marry Khalid much to the population's shock. Khalid is curious why a girl would willingly walk to her death. But Shahrzad has a plan to kill him and stop all the sorrow of the families who will loose their daughters is she does not survive. In the meantime, Shahrzad's first love and her father will stop at nothing to get her back from the clutches of the Caliph. Even retort to black magic. But what they don't expect is Shahrzad wanting to stay with Khalid. And every dawn, Shahrzad survives,she is a ticking bomb waiting for the day Khalid wakes up and decides to kill her. But why does he kill all his new wives?
I fell in love with the synopsis right away. The plot was pretty much amazing and very intriguing. You already know that even though Khalid is as emotionless as a bathtub, he is way too "neutral" to kill his brides without a reason. All his kills have made him cold and emotionless. He knows his people hate him because of his kills but he can't help it. He has to sacrifice his humanity and lives for the lives of others. I think what made Khalid an attractive character was his perfectly masked anguish and torment-which you rarely had a peek of. And when you did, you could really see how broken he was.
Shahrzad was nothing short of enigmatic. She weaves beautiful stories to keep the Khalid's attention without showing her real dispassion for him. As she fights against her growing feelings, she lets the guilt at falling for her best friend's killer eat away but at a certain point she doesn't care. She can't help but fall for him. I also loved that there was no insta-love or any degree of attraction at first either. Khalid was merely curious and Shahrzad was loathing. Well anyway the love definitely blossoms between the two!
As for the side characters, they were interesting i guess but i really didn't like Tariq, Shahrzad's first love, probably because i was TEAM KHALID!!! But i do admire his devotion and determination to rescue Shahrzad though. I really LOVED Despina and Jalal though! They would make a totally awesome couple! So Despina is Shahrzad's handmaiden and Jalal is the captain of the guard. He is also Khalid's cousin, witty and absolutely adores Shahrzad like a brother! Maybe the author will grace us with a teeny tiny novella for Jalal and Despina? *FINGERS CROSSED*
I guess i have just one tiny little objection to this book-almost nonexistent really! Okay so basically there was a bit of a lack of "happening" i guess. I really couldn't get where things were going and the pacing was a little slow. The writing compensated for that though because it was story-like and really gripping!!
Anyway loved the book and cannot wait for the sequel. I do not regret spending 15.60 Euros of my travelling-Paris pocket money on this!!!!
4 comments
Awesome review. Hopefully I’m going to be reading this book sometime this month. It’s been sitting on my TBR shelf for a long time.
ReplyDeleteAj @ Read All The Things!
LOL ME 2 :P
DeleteSo glad you enjoyed this one! It was one of my favorite books of 2015. Great review! :)
ReplyDeleteI ordered the book and it's on my way as we speak! Too bad I'm leaving on vacation saturday so I probably won't get to it until September.
ReplyDeleteThanks a million for taking the time to post a comment :)