Book Review: The Wrath and The Dawn

 ★★★★★

“What are you doing to me, you plague of a girl?” he whispered.
“If I’m a plague, then you should keep your distance, unless you plan on being destroyed.”

My reactions while reading this book can be summed with one gif :

   My appreciation for this book is huge and quite difficult to put into words because I don’t know what to praise first (I mean it, I’ve been writing and deleting for three minutes because I can’t make up my mind!).

There’s absolutely nothing I disliked about this book, it’s a gem of a book. The Wrath and The Dawn has a slow-burn romance, strong heroines, complex heroes, family involvement (even if it’s just to mess up things) and an interesting take on love triangles.

This book is a retelling of A Thousand and One Nights, the atmosphere in this one is very mysterious and magical. It has prophecies and powerful stories, revenge and learnt lessons, rebellions and love. The main character, Shazi is a very bold heroine, she made me scream a few times ‘learn me your ways, queen!’ I loved her wit, her sarcastic retorts and most of all, her loyalty. It’s a quality I admire in people and in characters alike and Shazi is so loyal to her family and friends that some decisions were very difficult for her to make. And it was very interesting and also a bit painful to watch her struggling between her heart and her mind.

Khalid was a surprise for me, I didn’t think I would love him as much as I do, because it’s hard to love somone who kills his brides, right? Well, yes and no. I’ve fallen utterly in love with him and I can’t wait to read the sequel to see more of this new side of his. I won’t say muhc about him because I feel like you should get into the book not knowing much, it’s better for you to do that, go through the stages of disliking Khalid because Shazi does, starting to fall for his little gestures and then finally being in too deep to go back.

The plot was exceptionally executed, there were so many threads and plot lines going on through this book and I was a bit worried that Ahdieh might not be able to bring to put all of them together. But it was perfect, I feel like the twists happened at the best time possible and everything was amazing (except for Ahdieh trying to kill me with that ending, but fortunately I can start the second book right now, so who wins?).

I adore Despina, I hope people adore her as much as I do and that she’s not a underrated character because she’s perfect!! I feel like she’s such an enigmatic presence and I want to know more about her past and how she met Jalal. Just give me all the juicy details.

Like I’ve mentioned above, I really adored Ahdieh’s take on love triangles so far, it’s a healthy way to present relationships. Not everyone is lucky enough to stay with their first loves, some of us will probably always care for that person, but there will be other relationships out there for us. Maybe people with whom we are more compatible and that’s perfectly alright. I will keep my fingers crossed for Shazi to stick to her decision and not change her mind about it (thus making the triangle – a stereotypical love triangle).

This book is a solid five stars to me and I can’t wait to read the second book, so I can add this duology on my favourites list.

 

Did you read The Wrath and The Dawn? What did you think about it? (and if it’s on your TBR, what are you waiting for??? Go and read it!)