The Wrath and the Dawn

4.5 Stars

I need more of Shahrzad and Khalid and now I have to wait until May 2016 to find out what happens and to read more of their incredible story. This was an amazing debut filled with beautiful writing, breathtaking scenery, and strong, determined characters.

This book was beyond hyped when it came out and I contemplated buying it many times in May and June, but I held off and I have to say I'm really glad I waited for the hype to wind down. I still went into this book with high expectations, but I did not go into it with the insane amount of people furiously reading it at the same time.

Right from the beginning, I was pulled into this story. The writing is stunning and entices you right away. This book is a retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights which I'm not really familiar with so I cannot say much on how it matches up or how it compares as a retelling, but I can say that I loved this story. I also really loved the scenery throughout this book. I always knew exactly what was going on throughout the book and could easily picture the setting and that is a credit to Renee Ahdieh's amazing skills.

My only issue with this book was two-fold. At the beginning of the book, there seemed to be a lot of unnecessary eye descriptions. I'm not really sure why I picked up on this, but I feel like a lot of the descriptions related to eyes and it was a bit unnerving. And I know that is weird to say when I loved how descriptive this book was, but there was something about the eye descriptions at the beginning that did not sit with me.

Second, I know we all love the villain (or bad-boy) love story, but I felt like Khalid was not your full villain that he was made out to be. While he seemed like a villain at first, he really was just a tortured soul. I cannot really complain too much because I still loved his characterization but I think labeling him the villain is wrong.

Finally, the last thing I want to say is Thank You, Renne Ahdieh for making this a duology. Way too many YA books think they need to be a trilogy and this can cause series to be drawn out and have way too much filler. And secondly, thank you for not adding a needless love triangle to this duology. You definitely had the opportunity to but, I applaud the lack of executing it!

So as you can tell, I loved this book and it is definitely one of the best I've read this year! I cannot wait for The Rose and the Dagger to come out so I can find out the conclusion to Shahrzad and Khalid's epic story.