The Wrath and the Dawn (Wrath and the Dawn, #1)

by Renée Ahdieh

Ariana Delawari (Narrator)

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.

• ISBN10: 1101892234
• ISBN13: 9781101892237
• Publish Date: 12 May 2015
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 25 March 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Listening Library
• Edition: Unabridged edition
• Format: Audiobook (CD)
• Pages: 1
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9781101892237

Reviews

[paperbackjedi]

Shazi vows to take revenge upon the boy Caliph of Khorasan after he murders her best friend; something he has done to a different bride every night for the past month or so. Desperate to enact her revenge, she volunteers to marry him and comes up with a plan that will get her to the next dawn alive. Unfortunately (or fortunately) her plan works a little too well and now she finds herself not only surviving each night, but married to a man who is not quite the monster she imagined him to be. And she’s falling in love with him more every day.

H’OHBOY. I read this book in four hours straight through and I have to say, it was AMAZING. First of all, The Wrath and the Dawn is a retelling of Arabian Nights which I was only vaguely familiar with so I can’t speak to the nuances of the adaptation. I can only say that this book makes me want to read the source material. Let’s talk writing. The descriptions were intense and so beautiful that I could almost feel them. This book comes with a glossary in the back so if you’re not familiar with the culture or terminology, DO NOT LET THAT DETER YOU FROM READING THIS BOOK. I repeat, it was amazing. The writing is detailed and evocative and I often found myself closing my eyes after reading a paragraph to fully embrace the picture it created in my mind. Seriously, the descriptions of the food made me hungry so maybe don’t read this book on an empty stomach. :P

The characters were just as amazing as the prose. Shazi is a fierce heroine and she’s determined to be her own person and make her own judgement calls. Even when she starts to develop an attraction to Khalid, she remains staunchly independent and insists that she fight her own battles and even calls him out when she feels like he’s being possessive or too protective. Also, the girl can fight– not just mentally, but physically. All in all, she’s a very well-rounded, well-developed main character and I loved her immensely. Khalid was also a complicated character layered with guilt and the burden of leadership and a whole lot of responsibility. It’s odd because sometimes the reluctant misunderstood hero can get on my nerves, but his character was so beautifully fractured by the choices he was forced to make in service of his people that it really broke my heart and made me feel for him. I also loved his best friend Jalal who added some much needed comedy, charm, and warmth in areas that were pretty dark. The narrative sometimes switches to minor character POVs like Shazi’s father and her first love, Tariq and both of those characters had individual arcs that contributed to the overall story in surprising and interesting ways. Af first I felt frustrated at the shifts because I didn’t understand why it was necessary, but by the end of the book, you realize how all the different threads have woven together to create this heartbreaking situation and by then, I thought Ahdieh was a storytelling genius.

You wanna talk romance? LET’S DO IT. Shazi and Khalid together are a tour de force, but watching them get to that point was tense and the anticipation was half of the fun. Shazi definitely intends to kill this guy for the first half of the novel and you kind of want her to. But as she gets to know him, so do you and you begin to understand her dilemma, for the Caliph of Khorasan is not who we think he is nor what we would expect a murderer to be. And once the man is revealed, it’s harder and harder to see the monster the world has made him into. And when they come together, it’s freaking awesome. Passionate, wild, and powerful are adjectives that come to mind. Luckily, their story continues in the conclusion entitled The Rose and the Dagger which is due out in 2016. I will definitely be pre-ordering it when it’s announced. This is one of my favorite reads of the entire year and I highly recommend it. It’s an amazing novel rich in culture that is deftly and poetically explored. And I’m giving it five stars to boot. Guys, read this book. It’s beautiful.

[Joséphine]

Initial thoughts: While The Wrath and the Dawn hasn't become one of my favourites, it has left me yearning for its sequel, The Rose and the Dagger. Listening to the opening chapters, I first noticed the beautiful prose. I loved listening to it especially because of the melodious voice of the narrator. As much as I enjoyed it, I think it occasionally it hampered the story as the expressions bordered on pomposity. The premise was very much rooted in The Arabian Nights with a caliph marrying a woman every night, only to have her executed in the morning. Sharzad volunteered to marry the caliph and was determined to put an end to the murders by telling stories in the hopes of living to see another dawn. What differed however were the motivations and it's how these motivations unfurled that captivated me.

Sharzad meant to put an end to the murders by avenging her dearest and best friend's death. She wasn't the only one who wanted to avenge her. The involvement of others deviated from the The Arabian Nights. This is where I expected the originality to flourish because retellings to me should be reimagined tales — not simply renditions of existing stories with meek alternative possibilities. In the end, I think this originality will be found more in The Rose and the Dagger. That's why I'm so excited for the sequel.

[sarahjay]

I THOUGHT THIS WAS A STANDALONE. OMG.

I highly approve of this book and I need more ASAP.

[shannonmiz]

It's nearly 5:00am, my eyes are puffy from crying, and I need the next book immediately. So basically, it's a win.

[violetpeanut]

Originally posted on


The Wrath and the Dawn is a retelling of One Thousand and One Nights.  Khalid, the Caliph (or king) marries a new bride each night and then has her put to death each dawn.  One of these unfortunate brides is Shahrzad's friend and so she volunteers herself as a bride with the intention of killing the caliph and avenging her murdered friend.  I found this book a little bit hard to connect with at first but after a few chapters I was hooked and it just kept getting better.

Shazi (Shahrzad) is a strong-willed and impetuous and goes in with a pretty flimsy plan, in my opinion.  She hopes to stay her execution by telling the caliph a story but leaving it unfinished so that he will want to come back the following night to continue it.  She assumes that the caliph is a heartless monster who just enjoys using girls and then killing them.  She spares no thought for why he might be doing these awful things, or if there might be some larger explanation. Her single-minded plan turned me off a little bit and I had a hard time connecting with her at the start.  Shazi soon starts to realize that things are not just black and white, they are much more complicated than they first seem.

Khalid was also hard to connect with at the start and I think that parallels how Shazi felt about him.  He's built these walls around himself to protect the outside from the monster he believes himself to be.  He holds everyone at arms length and keeps his secrets close, making it hard for Shazi, or anyone really, to develop any kind of a relationship with him.  I really loved how Khalid's personality is more quiet.  He's powerful but he doesn't flaunt his power and he's a man of few words.  He communicates as much with his eyes and body language as he does with his words and I loved that.  It's nice to have a male protagonist that isn't in your face with their ego, over the top with their professions of love, or a clone of every other male in the book.

As the story continues, Shazi and Khalid find themselves growing closer despite their situations.  Their relationship felt very organic to me.  There's no insta-love and there's nothing easy about the relationship.  Shazi feels a huge amount of guilt about her growing feelings for Khalid.  She's betraying her original purpose for marrying Khalid and in turn betraying the memory of her murdered friend and her family.  Khalid, on the other hand, feels like he's betraying his people by falling for Shazi and is torn between his duty to his people as their king, and his own wants and needs.  Their relationship is complex and understated and beautifully written.  There are some swoon-worthy moments, but they are not over the top.  The romance is very well done. Eventually, all secrets are revealed and that's where things really got good.  I was so happy that the author didn't draw things out just for the sake of drama.

The writing is really beautiful and flows nicely - as you would expect of a story about a story. The descriptions and world-building are wonderful.  The descriptions of the clothing, the architecture, the climate, the room decor - it all makes this book very atmospheric and brings the reader there.

Overall, I loved this debut and can't wait for the second book in the series.  Despite a somewhat slow start, the great romance, strong characters, a great supporting cast, beautiful writing and detailed world-building make for a fantastic start to this series.