The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh | A Review

Please welcome my dear friend Aparna, who is here with another new review. This time it is The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Ahdieh.

Title: The wrath and The Dawn

Author: Renee Ahdiem

Pages:416

Genres: Romance, Y.A, Folktales and folklore, Fantasy

Buy from: Amazon

A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

Here is the review.

This book is rather hard for me to rate.It started out so well that I was sure this will end up as one of my favourites.The story,the language,the characters,everything was just so perfect.But somewhere along the way,the characters lost their initial charm.I still loved it,still finished it in one setting ,but at the end,what I felt was that it could have been something more.

The author has done an excellent job in creating a story which is so similar,yet completely different from the 'Arabian Nights'.The focus here is not on the tales,but the budding romance between Shahrzad(Shazi) and Khalid.It is portrayed exceptionally well.Yet,by the middle of it,I felt that there was too much romance and little else.Both Shazi and Khalid seemed to have forgotten everything else but each other.Even though completely justified,the transformation of Shazi from a scheming and vindictive girl to a lovesick one was a little hard for me to stomach.But who can object?Amor vincit omnia!

The characterisation of Khalid,the cursed hero is exemplary.His inner struggles and growth is real and palpable to the reader.

The Wrath and the Dawn is a beautiful,seductive romance with an ending that left me gasping and yearning for more.My only complaint is that it didn't deliver as much as it promised.

Rating 3.5/5

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor| A Review

I have been hearing about this book for a while now, but never had I reached around to reading it. So finally I decided to put all my other books on hold and decided to give it a go ( The fact that my exams were going on and I was in a mood to procrastinate had nothing to do with it). Before plunging into the review, let me give you the basic details about the book.

Title: Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Author: Laini Taylor

Genres: Fantasy romance, Fairytales and Folklore

Pages: 448

Buy from: Amazon

Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky.

In a dark and dusty shop, a devil’s supply of human teeth grows dangerously low.

And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherwordly war.

Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real, she’s prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands", she speaks many languages - not all of them human - and her bright blue hair actuallygrows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she’s about to find out.

When beautiful, haunted Akiva fixes fiery eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?


Laini Taylor's writing has ruined me for everyone else. Sigh.

That said this was an almost five star for me. If I had rated the book halfway through
I would have definitely given it five stars. But after the halfway mark the story dragged a little. I understand the need for the detour, but it slowed the book down and made it lose a star.

I should probably skip reviewing her writing, because it was beautiful and perfect. Not so Shakespearean as to make us pull out our hair in frustration, but poetic enough to make one fall in love. Even though I wanted to devour this book, I forced myself to read slowly. Because I wanted to savour each sentence. see this example.

Now onto the characters. In most books I find that the only the lead characters are well fleshed out. That is not so in this case. Everyone from the Brimstone to Zuzana and even Razgut the fallen was well written. It is very easy to distinguish each one from their speech patterns. And I love Zuzana, we both agree that If there is no chocolate, then It is not breakfast.

The main characters are so unique. From Karou's Blue hair to Akiva's tiger eyes, early in the book itself we get a sense of their uniqueness, and a peek into their mind will only enhance this feeling. I will just summarize in two sentences why you should read Karou's and Akiva's story.

My friend who is a very picky reader, crushes on Akiva.
And I find Karou to be a realistic and mature heroine, not at all irritating ( thank god for that).

So read this story,
For its unique storyline,
for its lovable cast of characters 
for the writing and world building and
for the twist at the end.

Rating: 4/5
P.S: I hate the blurb they have given for the book. I almost didn't read because of it. It makes the book sound very weird and alien. It is different concept but when you read it, it wont feel as weird as the blurb is making it sound.

This books has a lot of different covers, depending on the country. I didn't like the one for India, but this one is awesome. anyone knows which country it belongs to?