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

by Renée Ahdieh

[Veronica 🦦]

Trying to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but there may be a few things that will slip through.

It's good. Nothing crazy spectacular. It's good enough. However, it could have been so much better. Don't get me wrong, I sort of adored this because there were parts of it and certain lines that really caught my eye. However, the only reason why it's 3 stars is because I think it's more 2.5, but making this a 2 star review isn't enough.

“I’ve been told a good storyteller can trap an audience with a single sentence.”

And there's no denying that good storytellers can trap an audience. However, stories need to stay interesting. They need to continue to capture people's attention and hold onto them. I'm not expecting [b:A Game of Thrones|13496|A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)|George R.R. Martin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1436732693s/13496.jpg|1466917] or [b:The Pillars of the Earth|5043|The Pillars of the Earth (The Pillars of the Earth, #1)|Ken Follett|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388193707s/5043.jpg|3359698] kind of length with YA, but I felt like with this book, maybe it should have been longer.

It felt EMPTY. It should have been more dense.

I adore the premise, but retellings need to capture me and bring in something new to the table. Rehashing is cool, but tossing in the token love triangle doesn't make something unique, nor does it add something new in to the mix.

I didn't really feel anything for the characters. Alright, maybe I did, for Khalid to an extent because of his story, but I felt detached to him because I felt like there could have been so much more, but there wasn't. If there was just MORE I feel like I would have enjoyed this book more, as well as felt more emotions for these characters & cared more about what happened to them.

But, Shahrzad annoyed the hell out of me. I didn't feel anything for her, I just felt annoyance. Same with Despina tbh, but Shahrzad holy bejeweled she was just frustrating. She kept going back & forth with her decision, all the while talking big game that she's gonna kill the king. LOL sure honey.



uGH anyway

Honestly, my biggest issue with this book was there should have been more substance. The story has so much potential, but it just seems to go down the drain. A shame really.

Look, books do not have to be long for them to be enjoyable. They can be short and still be full of life. Again, this book, on the other hand, felt empty and dead at times. Would making it longer have helped it out or make it come to life better? Maybe, maybe not. However, it just didn't feel ENOUGH for me.

I wanted more. More time between the characters so it felt realistic that Shahrzad did that whole flip flopping nonsense. More interactions between Shahrzad and Khalid that actually had some chemistry in them so that the romance felt more realistic. More emotions, especially from Shahrzad. JUST MORE.



It's good! If you see this in the library or you know a friend who has a copy, then read and see for yourself. I'm going to be reading the sequel because I wanna see this book through. Even though it was kinda a disappointment, I wanna see what happens next.

However, would I call this one of the best books I've read? Nah, I've read better.