The Wrath & the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh

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

by Renée Ahdieh

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.

Reviewed by Angie on

2 of 5 stars

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This is another case of a book that I probably should have read when it was first released and I was still super excited about it. Maybe then The Wrath and the Dawn would have worked out better for me, or maybe not. I was still excited for it, because that premise is just awesome, but the reality was the exact opposite. I was so bored reading this! It took me three days to get through, which is essentially unheard of, because I just kept making up other things to do aside from reading. Nothing at all held my interest.

The Wrath and the Dawn is a Historical Fantasy retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights, where a cursed young king kills a new bride every morning until Shahrzad volunteers. For some reason he doesn't kill her, and I didn't believe it at all. From what he learned about Khalid, he never even visited his wives after the wedding, but he went to her. Obviously, this is for plot reasons, but I wanted an in-story reason! I also just wasn't into their romance. It felt forced and awkward. And the magical aspect was just tacked on at the end, making things a bit more exciting, but by then it was too late to salvage.

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Reading updates

  • 10 May, 2022: Started reading
  • 12 May, 2022: Finished reading
  • 13 May, 2022: Reviewed