Review: The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

THE WRATH AND THE DAWN BY RENEE AHDIEH 

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Format: Hardcover

Series: The Wrath and the Dawn #1

Pages: 404

Date Finished: 06.07.15

Rating: 4.5/5

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.

We've all read those books where the primary source of conflict is misunderstandings. Fucking misunderstandings cause break ups, wars, destruction--you name it. It happens all the time and I'm sick of it. 

Maybe that's why I adored The Wrath and the Dawn. Yes, there was angst and conflict, but it was all so necessary. When secrets were revealed, the characters gave each other a chance to explain rather than going batshit crazy, and it was just so refreshing. I can't put into words how great it was to read a book where the characters actually trusted each other. 

“She was a dangerous, dangerous girl. A plague. A Mountain of Adamant who tore the iron from ships, sinking them to their watery graves without a second thought. With a mere smile and a wrinkle of her nose.”

This book, people. Oh man, this book was good. The Wrath and the Dawn is pretty much everything I look for in a story, and I'm so happy that Ahdieh managed to write a story that met my expectations. 

I enjoyed this book enough to warrant it 5 stars, but in the end I decided to give it 4.5 because there were a few things holding it back. Whilst I was on board with the romance, I felt like it developed too quickly. I wanted build up and tension, and whilst there was some of that I felt like everything was happening too soon. Also, I didn't find it that believable to why Khalid didn't kill Shazi on that very first dawn. Maybe I just missed something, but it felt all too convenient. 

Saying that, if I had to describe this book in just one word it would be satisfying. It wasn't annoying by a long shot, and I absolutely loved how feminist it was. There was no slut shaming (personally I thought that sex was handled so well), and Shazi never acted like a damsel in distress. So many books claim to have 'strong' female characters, only to have them lose every interesting part of their personality when they find a hot boy. Not Shazi. 

If anything, she really came into her own as the book, and the romance, progressed. 

“Her conviction wavered further. “I told you; don’t try to own me.”

“I don’t want to own you.”

I said earlier that I felt that the romance happened a little too quickly, but that didn't mean that I didn't love it. I ship it with all my heart, okay? Shazi and Khalid had so much chemistry and it just worked. There was elements of a love triangle, but thankfully our heroine is no America Singer. The love triangle enriched Shahrzad's past, and whilst it did complicate her future it wasn't in a silly lovesick kind of way. What I'm trying to say was that it just felt natural. 

The Wrath and the Dawn is a romance first and foremost, but I didn't mind that. In fact, I bloody loved it. 

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

The cast of characters was great. Shazi is a wonderful heroine, and Khalid is a brooding angsty love interest done right. Despina was the perfect female companion to Shazi, and Jalal was wonderfully charming. I didn't particularly like Tariq, but that's probably because he was my least favourite part in the aforementioned love triangle. Shazi ain't yours, bro. 

Ahdieh's prose needs a mention because it's sodding beautiful. One of the very first scenes is where Shazi's appearance is described to the reader using a mirror. Normally I hate it when writers do this. It's lazy, and quite frankly boring. Not in The Wrath and the Dawn. The descriptions are so beautiful that I didn't care how they were put across. Every word felt like it had a purpose, and every sentence pulled me further and further into the rich and vibrant culture of Khorasan. 

Yeah, this book wasn't perfect. Still, it was faced paced, utterly gripping, and has left me as a blubbering mess with a burning NEED for book two. I don't know when it comes out, but believe me when I say that I'm preordering it as soon as it's released. 

“Get up, Shahrzad al-Khayzuran. You kneel before no one. Least of all me.”