The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh
3 OUT OF 5 STARS.

“I do know enough to realize you cannot control the actions of others. You can only control what you do with yourself afterwards.”

Goodreads Description: 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?

FYI: There is a glossary at the very back of the book. Had I known this when I first read the book, it probably would be been very helpful. I didn’t find it until I was almost done! Onto my thoughts!

There is so much hype for this book and so many people love this book so much. I, however, am not one of those people. Sad, I know! The idea was amazing, the description (and beautiful cover) instantly drew me to it. I needed to read this book, because when I looked up the story that it was inspired by, it sounded awesome! Renee’s writing style was nice.

The story itself wasn’t exactly what I expected. I figured there would be some killing of some wives. You know, like the original story…maybe even just one or two would have been nice. That sounds horrible, but when you just finished reading a book about serial killers before starting this one, you are on that level. There wasn’t any like you would expect from knowing the story it’s a retelling of.

The names. The names started to bother me as soon as I started reading. All of these characters had like four names! Also, they are not the easiest to pronounce. Trying to pronounce four names per character got annoying. I started calling them by letters. Or just skipping over even trying to say them. FYI: remember that glossary I told you about? Remember that as you’re reading, so you can flip through and get the meanings on some them and other things!

Quick thought on some of the characters. Tariq…hated him. He was pretty annoying throughout the book, especially toward the ending. Khalid…loved him. I really started to fall in love with him toward the ending. I think he meant well and so misunderstood. Shahrzad…love/hate her. There were some times that she annoyed me, but other times she was a really cool character. Jalal…loved him. I instantly fell in love with Jalal and I wanted more about him. There are so many characters in this book and they are throw at you at once and that (plus the fact they all have like 3-4 name) can get confusing. There’s a good cast of characters though. A mix of good and bad.

Overall, I was pretty bored the majority of the time, sadly. I wanted to love this book so much. Everyone is loving and raving about it. I’m the outcast when it comes to this book. It wasn’t horrible, but it could have been so much better. There wasn’t enough action. Most of the time it felt like nothing was really going on. It took so long to find out the reason why the wives had to die and that was bugging me. AND DAMMIT, I WANTED TO HEAR ALADDIN’S STORY! I curse Khalid for always say “no” when Shahrzad asked if he wanted to hear it.

The ending started to get better and more enjoyable. I was excited for a little while. The ending also left me so confused and annoyed. I have a like/hate for this book. Sigh. So many unanswered questions. Will I read the next book? Probably, only because the ending of this one was so confusing and it’s going to bother me until I find out why it ended the way that it did. Do I recommend it? Yes, I do. I think there are a lot of you that will love this book. I mean, it wasn’t a completely horrible book, just could have been better!

“Some things exist in our lives for but a brief moment. And we must let them go on to light another sky.” Have you read this book? If so, what did you think? Or better yet, did anything bother you about it? Let me know!

Check out my mid-year book freak out tag over here. The year is over halfway over and that’s insane. You can see some of the books I read throughout the first half of the year and loved/hated and books I am excited for! I hope you have a great rest of the weekend! Bye! ❤