The Wrath and the Dawn

The Wrath and the Dawn

Renee Ahdieh

I didn't like this one as much as I expected. So far, both of the thousand nights retellings that I've read have been a little too similar.

I think that the first thing I should say is that this is primarily a romance. One that almost felt like fan-fic to me. There was a serious case of confliction in the main character and in the whole idea in general.

After Shazi's best friend, Shiva, weds the king only to be killed the following day like hundreds before her, she decides to get her revenge by volunteering to be his next wife. She swears that she will survive, if only to kill the evil king.

This book has heavy feminism in it, and I'm way cool with that. However, Shazi's thoughts and actions are almost opposite. She doesn't take to being ordered around and isn't afraid to voice her opinion (great), and often tells Khalid that she is not a possession (literally 1 second after she just said he belongs to her). Her actions speak differently. Multiple times she explained unnecessarily that she is her own person and then immediately after does something stupid and needs Khalid to save her. She has skills in fighting and in archery and she's very brave and had way too many opportunities to kill him that she didn't take. Every situation that brings them closer together is overly-dramatic. Just imagine your 'perfect romance' of a basic damsel in distress (that's also somehow independent) and her rescuer. That's basically this book. It just seems like such a fictional romance that I could not get into the story or feel for the characters.

Not too great for me, but I'll still read the next book eventually.