The Wrath & the Dawn (The Wrath & the Dawn #1)
By Renee Ahdieh
Genre: YA Fantasy
Recommended Ages: 18+

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?

The Gist:

I went into this book blind, not knowing anything about it, and came out with a heart utterly devoted to it. I listened to the audiobook, and I listened to it all in one freaking day because I COULDN’T STOP! There is so much suspense and tension and romance and everything I love in a YA novel. Be still my heart. I want all of you to read it. In short, this book grabbed me from the beginning, spun me around and never let go.

What I Liked:

I’ve read so many fantasy novels that take place in an Anglican Medieval-ish era that I was completely drawn in by the middle-eastern/Asia world Renee created. At times I felt like I was walking down the halls of the castle with the characters.

I was hooked the moment I was told there was a Caliph who got married to a young woman almost every night and murdered her the next morning. WHAT ARE YOU EVEN SAYING TO ME RIGHT NOW! AND PLEASE TELL ME MORE. To have a book centered around something so extreme is incredibly hook-worthy to me. That alone gave me the feeling that I HAD to learn more, because there was no way I was going to live the rest of my life without know why this evil guy killed so many women.

The internal struggles and torments of the main characters were handled so well. So often authors can go to extremes with them to the point that they become more charicitures than characters with problems. Not so in Wrath & the Dawn.

The relationship between Shahrzad and Khalid was really my favorite part of the book. Shahrzad’s cleverness and intense hatred of him in the beginning made me curious about how things were going to change between them (cause you knew they were going to change). What would Khalid do or say that would cause her to change her mind about him? And Khalid was the most beautiful tortured soul I’ve seen in a while. I think I might be in love with him.

What I Didn’t Like:

For a long time I didn’t really understand the point of Tariq. Then I did understand later. But I wish he would have had a bigger role from the beginning. It would have made the parts from his POV more interesting.

Speaking of POV, there were a few times I got confused about who’s POV a particular part was in. Now, it could be because that’s harder to follow if your listening to the book instead of reading it (which I was), but it was annoying nonetheless and could have been clearer. Actually, I think there were a few POV’s that could have been cut.

LunasLuckyRating: 4.5/5 Lunas