REVIEW: THE WRATH AND THE DAWN by Renee Ahdieh

Title: The Wrath and the Dawn
Author: Renee Ahdieh
Series: The Wrath and the Dawn #1
Genres: YA, Fantasy, Romance
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
Source: Paperback
Pages: 404

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SYNOPSIS: One Life to One Dawn.
In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.

Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end.

Just like ACOTAR and TOG this is another book which has been discussed a great deal on Tumblr (I swear that site is like the busybody and gossipy kid of the school's recession... knows everything) and so I knew I had to read it because the reviews were magnificent. Now, I posted that I went on a bookhaul and bought 7 books which arrived yesterday and I'm currently busy in a reading spree hehe my first choice was obviously The Wrath and the Dawn.

THE WORLD: FOR ONCE it is not set in US or Europe. I actually do not know where is set because the names are so weird that I get lost but I know is somewhere Middle Eastern. I know the story was inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, thus I would say it takes place in Arabia. The world is quite realistic although, as it is a fairy tale inspired book, it includes some magic and curses but not in excess. It is plus and adds to the story.

THE CHARACTERS: The main character is Shahrzad al-Khayzuran (no idea how to pronounce it, I do it the Spanish way aka reading literally as it is written), a sixteen year old girl who volunteers to marry the Caliph of Khorasan even though she is fully aware she will be killed by dawn. Sounds dramatic uh? well, the thing is that for the past year the Caliph has been marrying random young girls only to have them killed by dawn next day, such a monster. Also as a main character, of course, there is the Caliph himself, Khalid Ibn al-Rashid, who turns out to be the least you expect and you see your emotions shift as fast as wind blowing as you read. There is also the captain of the guard,
Jalal al-Khoury, no, this is not TOG and Shahrzad's maid and her childhood sweetheart and her father... they all play a role. Important roles actually but I do not care as much about them (I like the maid though). As the story progresses the magic and the curses are thrown into the mix which only makes it more remarkable because I like curses and magic for I'm a sucker for fairy tales. Oh, I warn you now... there is romance. But not the cheesy one... more like the complicated, torn, and twisted one but I ship it anyway because there is only one true pair to ship. I've hear of people choosing another pair but lol no, stop, there is just one true one.

PLUS: The story is so beautifully written. Seriously, English is not my first language but I found the language to be beautiful and I did not understand some words which tells me it is 'quality English' and that made it even better. Challenging.

Also, I have heard a lot of people praising it because the characters are not white. I don't particularly care if the characters of a book are white, black, or purple as long as I like the characters themselves and the story but I can see why some people are happy. It is true there is under representation of races in a lot of the current literature.

CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT THAT BEAUTIFUL COVER? I cannot believe I own such a book.

MINUS: Not much. I didn't like the ending because it's so abrupt but it promises a sequel and I'm happy about having a sequel although I do not want to wait until 2016!

OVERALL: yes yes yes yes and a thousand yeses. 5 stars. Right to my favorites list. I want the second book and I want it now. I recommend this to everyone and everything capable of reading. YOU MUST READ IT.

What did you think about THE WRATH AND THE DAWN?