POV: MULTIPLE POV, THIRD PERSON, PAST TENSE
CHARACTERS: 4/5 (Couldn’t relate to any characters but I enjoyed them. IMO, MCs were too young for the plot)
ROMANCE: 4.75/5 (My guilty pleasures in romance books) PLOT: 4/5 (My explanation was down below)
WRITING STYLE: 4.5/5 (The writing works for me. I liked it! ) TITLE & BOOK COVER: 4.5/5 (The title was genius and the cover was unique but not my favorite cover)
When I learned that this book was a retelling of A Thousand and One Nights (aka Arabian Nights) I was like…..”okay???”......Simply because I wasn’t familiar about that book (I know that’s a little embarrassing but that’s the truth). So I did my research and found out that AT&ON was a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories. The infamous stories of Aladdin, Ali Baba and Sinbad were just a few of the stories included in the compilation.
Since The Wrath and the Dawn was a retelling/reimagining of AT&ON, expect that they were not exactly the same (duh). TW&TD was like the YA version of AT&ON but I kind of prefer the latter’s story than the former for 2 reasons:
1. Even though I only read the synopsis of AT&ON, (I think it’s impossible for me to acquire a copy of it now) I think its story was more plausible than TW&TD. I found it hard to believe a 16-year-old girl would sacrifice her life to avenge the deaths of numerous girls, and an 18-year-old boy-king to have such a huge burden, well I know this was fantasy so anything was possible, but I think the story suited characters in older age???(maybe???) That would be more credible in my opinion.
2. I was expecting more of storytelling from the heroine since that was the highlight of AT&ON but found them lacking/inadequate in this book, so I was a little bit disappointed. TW&TD was more on swoony-fluttery-romance.
That being said, TW&TD presented 2 of my guilty pleasures in fantasy romance novels.
1. Enemies turned lovers (well in this book, sort of). Shahrzad’s plan all along was to revenge the murder of her best friend and other girls. But despite her hatred to Khalid, she fell in love with him. She fought her feelings for him but failed to contain it. Khalid was supposed to have Shahrzad killed, but spared her life for some reason and thought she was worth all the sufferings he had to endure. (Oh come on, admit it. That was sweet right? Yes?No? Whatever)
2. A misunderstood hero. As for Khalid, people misunderstood him as a killer, monster, cold blooded, etc but behind all that there was a reason. Sometimes they just have no choice.
All in all, I did enjoy this book. I also liked Despina and Jalal, I wanted to read more about them (The Moth and the Flame wasn’t enough). Kudos to Ms. Ahdieh for a wonderful debut. I’m dying to have The Rose and the Dagger on my hands. Of course a must read for fairy tales and fantasy romance lovers out there.
#this book cured my reading slump, it kept me awake until I could no longer read and passed out
#Khalid’s letter for Shahrzad made me teary
#I stalked Ms. Ahdieh online just to know how to pronounce her last name…I also admire her persistence as a writer
#I also wanted to read A Thousand Nights, another retelling….maybe soon
