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?
The Review
I don't know where to start with this book, but here goes. Up until the last few pages I was going to give this 5 stars. But alas, I'm getting ahead of myself. ​ When I was a kid I found a magical book in the library called One Thousand and One Nights, which is of course the collection of tales that a young newlywed bride tells her husband to stall her execution. I was utterly captivated by the stories within the story and to this day I like to lose myself within them. There have been many, many books recently published that center around Arabian Nights and none of them have had the same magic. I've started a few only to be disappointed and set them aside in a very bad mood of dissatisfaction. I was reticent to try this one after seeing so many that just didn't transport me to a whole new world of magic and adventure. The Wrath & the Dawn is such a thrilling story full of compelling characters and I couldn't drag myself away. I went into this fully expecting to hate it and if I'm being honest, I think I kind of wanted to. It isn't the same as Arabian Nights by any stretch, but it retains enough to stay classically inspired without reiterating the same old things. Shazi is not my favorite kind of heroine; she's overly dramatic, bratty and (I'm with Despina) arrogant. The more I read though, the more I could understand and eventually, magically, I fell in love with her spunk. I would have loved to have seen more of her history though, because at some point there has to be a reason that she became as bold as she is. The romance was sticky sweet and I think I need to see a dentist about it. Khalid is quite a character but I don't particularly like him. I am empathetic to his plight and feel for the guy, but come on. I think if I were ever responsible for the deaths--or worse the perpetrator--of murdering hundreds of young women, I would lose myself in depression. Khalid seems to be on the cusp of such a break-down when Shazi enters his life. I never really felt a strong connection to him, which is great considering that Shazi can't quite break his guard down either. I suppose that had they become closer earlier on I would have loved him. Since they didn't, I don't. Now, onto the negatives; I have no idea who the real threat is. When a book ends, I expect to know the villains from heroines and in this one I simply don't have a clue. There are three possibilities which I won't mention specifically, because it could spoil some for you. But seriously, it could be one of them or all of them, maybe even none of the potential people. The ending was awful. There, I said it. The last 20 or so pages ruined my good vibes and made me a lot less psyched for the next book. It's a cliffhanger but also not? Basically, I have no idea what happened. Maybe I'm just too dense or something, but it lost an entire star from me.
