The Wrath & The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh (2015)

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In the city of Rey, girls are disappearing, and in the same way. Every night, a girl become the King of King’s bride, and then die at dawn the next day. Which is exactly what happens to Shahrzad’s best friend, Shiva. Filled with a goal of revenge, Shahrzad volunteers to become the next bride, something that has never done before. But before she plots out revenge, she must survive the first night. Her plan: tell a piece of a story each night to the king, one he can’t resist from hearing. To her surprise, and everyone else’s, she get’s past the first night, and then another and another. Revenge is right in front of her, but the King of Kings is also showing a side to her the makes him seem human. Not just a human, but a boy lost in his world with a kingdom to rule. Soon, against all of her reservations, she starts to fall in love with the king, which introduces a new problem: can she love her best friend's killer?
This is Renee Adieh first novel, and I think for a first novel, it wasn’t terrible. The Wrath & The Dawn is a retelling of A Thousand and One Nights, which I’ve never read. So, I thought the plot would be pretty solid, but I really had a hard time following the story sometimes. First of all, the book starts with Shahrzad already in the hands of the king, which I thought was odd since the official synopsis mentions her plotting for revenge after Shavi’s death and her volunteering to be a bride, but none of that was told. Unfortunately, I think that part of the story really needed to be told, and in not doing so made me (and probably other readers) not understand Shahrzad thinking process. The action scenes, and basically any situation, seemed too perfect in the way they played out. Characters always showed up at just the right time and say just the right things  and it didn’t seem very realistic.
At first glance, this book gave me the impression of historical fiction, but there was just enough magic to make it fantasy. However, the magic system was very vaguely explained, and wasn’t mentioned until halfway through the book. All of a sudden, Shahrzad has a special touch, yet there was no indication  that she thought she had or had the history of having powers. Honestly, the story would’ve been fine without the hint of magic, and would’ve been so much less complicated.
On the character’s themselves, I’m really torn. I wasn’t a huge fan or Shahrzard, our main character. I know she was supposed to be really out for revenge, but I found her to be quite emotionless. She was also very arrogant, and not in confident way, but just really obnoxious, especially for the position she was in. I also found the King of Kings, Khalid, to be a very unoriginal, He basically assumed the typical bad boy role, and honestly, he was emotionally abusive to Shahrzard. Yes, he had a bad past, but an abuser’s past does not excuse their actions. Definitely do not want their romance to be seen as great, because it’s a scary one. However, the secondary romance between characters Despina (Shahrzard’s servant) and Jalal (captain of the guard) was really light, fluffy, and cute. It was exactly was this book needed.
As Ahdieh’s debut, The Wrath & The Dawn gives promise for her future writings.

3 Stars

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