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The Wrath and the Dawn #1-2
The Wrath and the Dawn Series 2-Book Set
A riveting Game of Thrones meets Arabian Nights love story, the Wrath and the Dawn brings readers into a tale of murder, revenge, and romance. Included in this set are the Wrath and the Dawn and The Rose and the Dagger.
Paperback
Published January 1, 2017
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About the author
Renée Ahdieh
30 books18k followersRenée Ahdieh is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. When she’s not reading, she enjoys cooking, skincare, and fashion. The first few years of her life were spent in a high-rise in South Korea; consequently, Renée enjoys having her head in the clouds. She and her family live in North Carolina.
She is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Wrath & the Dawn series, the Flame in the Mist series, The Beautiful quartet, and the picture book, Emilio Sloth’s Modern Manners. Park Avenue is her debut adult novel.
** Please note that requests for Advanced Reader Copies should be made through the respective publisher, and all other requests should be submitted through the author's website. **
She is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of The Wrath & the Dawn series, the Flame in the Mist series, The Beautiful quartet, and the picture book, Emilio Sloth’s Modern Manners. Park Avenue is her debut adult novel.
** Please note that requests for Advanced Reader Copies should be made through the respective publisher, and all other requests should be submitted through the author's website. **
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 17, 2024
Certain books seem to blow up in the reading-space, and this duology was one such example. Back in 2015, I recall seeing these novels on all my GoodReads Friends' feeds and it garnered glowing reviews. As a rule, I'm cautious whenever anything starts generating buzz because, more often than not, I'm disappointed. I perused The Wrath & the Dawn back when it was popular, and I recall it not catching my interest. However, I decided to give the duology a second chance to see if I had been too hasty in sitting it aside. Sadly, a second reading only proved my inherent misgivings - that this Middle Eastern myth-inspired duology was not worth the hype.
The two novels comprising the Wrath & the Dawn duology are The Wrath & the Dawn and The Rose & the Dagger, both of which were penned by Renee Ahdieh, and are loosely inspired by 1001 Arabian Nights. Plot-wise, this two-book series focuses on Shahrzad, a girl on a personal mission to take down the most powerful man in the land - the Caliph of Khorasan himself, Khalid. However, the teenage ruler also goes by a more notorious title as the Monster King and for good reason. Khalid has taken numerous brides, none of whom have survived to see the sun rise as he has murdered them all. One such victim was Shahrzad's friend, Shiva, and it is her death that Shahrzad seeks to avenge. Armed with a determined spirit, a courageous heart, and a head full of enchanting tales, she sets out to meet her fate. But one thing neither Shahrzad nor Khalid counted on was being drawn to one another. Will Shahrzad keep her resolve and take down the murderous boy-king, or will love urge her to uncover the truth behind his dark side?
As you might have guessed, this series takes its own spin on the enemies-to-lovers trope, which we've seen done a thousand and one (pun intended) times before - only here it's more like murderous boy meets vengeful girl. Either way you slice it, this duology comes with a whole host of problems. However, even though this became a one star read for me, that didn't mean there weren't attributes and elements I liked. The writing employs lovely description and effectively sets a given scene. It evokes all of the senses and isn't afraid to employ taste and touch along with sight and smell, and I always appreciate writing that attempts to be well-rounded in this regard. While some of the descriptions could become vague at times and felt like they were over-reaching in order to wax poetic, the writing itself became these books' saving grace.
Shahrzad also becomes a mildly likable female lead. Rather than have things simply happen to her, she becomes an active participant in the story, attempting to subvert fate. Her handmaiden, Despina, outshone Shahrzad many times as she is dynamic, hilarious, and makes for a great sidekick. (I'm saddened that she wasn't the lead character instead as she possessed more positives and fewer problems than Shahrzad.) However, on the downside, Shahrzad is often indecisive and becomes a passable yet frustrating character. One one hand, she is no wilting flower, but on the other, she is grossly unsure as to how to go about her plan to exact justice for her murdered friend. She has several opportunities to strike back against Khalid but squanders them because of her own nerves, lack of a plan, or else she finds herself developing feelings for her friend's killer.
Sadly, the writing and bright spots to Shahrzad's character are the only positives I can say about this duology as the rest became an underwhelming YA fantasy (albeit without much fantasy) at best and a highly questionable "romance" at worst. Seeing as these two books were touted as a loose retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights, that's what I went into them expecting. Regarding the first few chapters in The Wrath & the Dawn, when Shahrzad begins to tickle Khalid's ears with a tale, I was curious to see how this narrative device - a story within a story - might play out. Sadly, it gets abandoned about halfway through and is never picked back up again in either the first novel or in The Rose & the Dagger. Similarly, I was wanting to see more fantasy elements incorporated here, especially as they relate to Middle Eastern folklore, legends, and myth. Sadly, again, we get next to none.
Even the world-building feels half-finished as it starts with promise but ultimately falls short. Both novels are placed within a Middle Eastern setting, but the story's world lacks a sense of functionality. There is no sense of culture here other than the occasional smattering of foreign terms, references to garments, and descriptions of foods. It does nothing to draw inspiration from a real-world culture in order to generate an in-world culture. The way this aspect of the story was handled reminded me of the quasi-Russian elements in Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone: it's obvious what real-world culture Ahdieh's duology is drawing inspiration from (i.e. the ancient Middle East), but it's content to leave it at passing references rather than fully embrace it. In truth, if the in-world culture here was removed, the story could still work, meaning its ties to its culture are on a weak narrative bedrock. Along these lines, this isn't a fantasy series at all as other than a few mentions of legendary beings, a flying carpet, and curses, that's as deep as the fantasy goes. Thus, this is a surface-level duology incorporating surface-level story elements, turning what could have been an engaging retelling into a lackluster tale.
In terms of the story itself, both books represent some of the cheesiest content the YA fantasy market has to offer. There is far too much drama, especially emanating from the constant back-and-forth/love-hate relationship between Shahrzad and Khalid. It doesn't take long for it to de-evolve into a soap opera-ish tale, which rears its ugly head about halfway through The Wrath & the Dawn and permeates every chapter in The Rose & the Dagger. As a YA novel, some teenage drama is expected, but the situations here were too melodramatic and handled in like fashion.
Along these lines, this duology eventually focuses on a love triangle where Shahrzad must choose between two love interests, the "bad boy" Khalid and her former flame, Tariq. Both men are jerks in their own right, with Khalid being the worse offender, though Tariq isn't morally pristine himself. When he's not riding around the desert with his trained falcon sidekick, he often stoops to conniving tactics to win Shahrzad's hand back and refuses to honor her marriage vows by insisting she should run off with him (and Shahrzad doesn't exactly discourage his advances). The most obvious friction this creates is that there is no one to root for in terms of who Shahrzad should choose as neither Khalid nor Tariq are true love material.
Thus, the central "romance" is hard to cheer on because everything about it is just one...
This ties into the biggest issue many reviewers seemed to have with the way the enemies-to-lovers trope is utilized here. I'm not against this trope in general, but the fact we have a character who loves a man who has unabashedly murdered his past wives, including her best friend, is disconcerting. There is a reason for Khalid's past actions, which, without revealing spoilers, are thanks to an ancestral curse that forces him to act under duress in a way. However, I sense his dark deeds might have been more forgivable if he was taking the lives of evildoers, criminals who deserved to have justice done to them. Instead, his victims are innocent girls - his wives, at that - which makes his actions less sympathetic, curse or not.
Equally frustrating are Shahrzad's reactions to all of this. Initially she is determined to kill Khalid out of revenge for the death of Shiva, who was one of Khalid's wives; so her reasons for bringing a killer to justice are understandable. However, before long she bounces between desiring justice and falling head over heels in love with the man she originally set out to kill. One nagging question that arose for me was why none of Khalid's brides ever tried to undermine or kill him before. Shahrzad is the only one to break tradition, which makes one wonder what makes her so special other than she has a strong will to live and Khalid is attracted to her sense of resolve - but that's the only reason.
Some readers could argue that this duology pulls inspiration from Beauty and the Beast where a maiden is held captive by a fearsome beast whom she befriends and falls in love with, which, in turn, breaks his curse. I can see vestiges of that at work, but they're not strong enough to justify the track this story takes. The Beast in the classic fairy tale was a monster based on physical appearance alone, not because he was a murderer. Khalid is considered a monster because he is a murderer. Though one might claim he can't help his past actions due to magical interference, it's a weak excuse. I think a better tale that this series fits with in terms of making comparisons would be Bluebeard, in which the notorious husband was also a killer. Even that story isn't presented as a romance but more of a cautionary tale and one that rejoices in the death of a bloodthirsty criminal.
This duology attempts to communicate neither classic tale's message - not "looks can be deceiving" nor "run from evil." Instead, it presents a relationship that possesses echos of Stockholm Syndrome where the captive Shahrzad starts to sympathize with her captor, Khalid, and eventually takes his side and falls in love with him. It's bad enough to tout this kind of sub-surface message in a book aimed at adults, but I question what sort of influence such books might have on a teen readership.
Concerning the series entries themselves, The Wrath and the Drawn sets the story's stage in terms of basic plot - Shahrzad weds Khalid and plots to kill him, a plan she quickly abandons. Out of the two books, this one is the stronger and that's being generous. Aside from the writing itself and tidbits of the worldbuilding, the story itself is rife with issues as noted above and unoriginal YA narrative traps. To further exasperate its frustrations, it ends on a cliffhanger, leaving this novel's plot essentially unfinished and open-ended.
The second and concluding novel, The Rose and the Dagger, picks up with the first book's aftermath. I'll confess I skimmed through this entry almost to the point of letting it be a DNF (did not finish). This novel languishes with more soap opera-worthy drama, but I sped read my way to its flat, underwhelming conclusion. For all the excitement this duology generated upon initial release, I was expecting to be wowed or, at the very least, entertained. Sadly I was neither and felt like I had wasted valuable reading time trying to get into a series that fell shy of its hype.
Overall, the Wrath and the Dawn duology is a weak attempt to execute a Middle Eastern-themed fantasy inspired by 1001 Arabian Nights. Fans of those classic stories would do well to look elsewhere as these two books have little in common with them but only give lip service in passing. The rest of the story in both books is devoted to teenage drama and troublesome relationship dynamics. Readers who are curious to check this duology out for themselves might be disappointed as what it lacks in fantasy it makes up for in flatness.
Content:
Language - Essentially none, other than some sporadic PG-level swears.
Violence - Khallid has had past brides killed. Though the reason is discovered and it's revealed he's essentially acting under duress, his actions can be hard to excuse or justify. One character is nearly executed by hanging but is rescued. Characters get into skirmishes where blood is drawn but nothing is described in graphic detail. Daggers, swords, knives, and arrows are used as weapons, both in combat and for self-defense.
Sexual Content - Shahrzad and Khallid sleep together as a married couple, but their sensual encounters are either described with vague, poetic language or are a fade-to-black moment. Elsewhere, in both books, two female characters are taunted by men and it's implied the men want to assault them, but in both instances the women fight their way out of the situation, either physically or verbally, and are left alone. One character reveals she is pregnant by a man who isn't her husband. A man harbors romantic feelings for a married woman and kisses her a few times (she doesn't protest), but in the end he squelches these desires.
The two novels comprising the Wrath & the Dawn duology are The Wrath & the Dawn and The Rose & the Dagger, both of which were penned by Renee Ahdieh, and are loosely inspired by 1001 Arabian Nights. Plot-wise, this two-book series focuses on Shahrzad, a girl on a personal mission to take down the most powerful man in the land - the Caliph of Khorasan himself, Khalid. However, the teenage ruler also goes by a more notorious title as the Monster King and for good reason. Khalid has taken numerous brides, none of whom have survived to see the sun rise as he has murdered them all. One such victim was Shahrzad's friend, Shiva, and it is her death that Shahrzad seeks to avenge. Armed with a determined spirit, a courageous heart, and a head full of enchanting tales, she sets out to meet her fate. But one thing neither Shahrzad nor Khalid counted on was being drawn to one another. Will Shahrzad keep her resolve and take down the murderous boy-king, or will love urge her to uncover the truth behind his dark side?
As you might have guessed, this series takes its own spin on the enemies-to-lovers trope, which we've seen done a thousand and one (pun intended) times before - only here it's more like murderous boy meets vengeful girl. Either way you slice it, this duology comes with a whole host of problems. However, even though this became a one star read for me, that didn't mean there weren't attributes and elements I liked. The writing employs lovely description and effectively sets a given scene. It evokes all of the senses and isn't afraid to employ taste and touch along with sight and smell, and I always appreciate writing that attempts to be well-rounded in this regard. While some of the descriptions could become vague at times and felt like they were over-reaching in order to wax poetic, the writing itself became these books' saving grace.
Shahrzad also becomes a mildly likable female lead. Rather than have things simply happen to her, she becomes an active participant in the story, attempting to subvert fate. Her handmaiden, Despina, outshone Shahrzad many times as she is dynamic, hilarious, and makes for a great sidekick. (I'm saddened that she wasn't the lead character instead as she possessed more positives and fewer problems than Shahrzad.) However, on the downside, Shahrzad is often indecisive and becomes a passable yet frustrating character. One one hand, she is no wilting flower, but on the other, she is grossly unsure as to how to go about her plan to exact justice for her murdered friend. She has several opportunities to strike back against Khalid but squanders them because of her own nerves, lack of a plan, or else she finds herself developing feelings for her friend's killer.
Sadly, the writing and bright spots to Shahrzad's character are the only positives I can say about this duology as the rest became an underwhelming YA fantasy (albeit without much fantasy) at best and a highly questionable "romance" at worst. Seeing as these two books were touted as a loose retelling of 1001 Arabian Nights, that's what I went into them expecting. Regarding the first few chapters in The Wrath & the Dawn, when Shahrzad begins to tickle Khalid's ears with a tale, I was curious to see how this narrative device - a story within a story - might play out. Sadly, it gets abandoned about halfway through and is never picked back up again in either the first novel or in The Rose & the Dagger. Similarly, I was wanting to see more fantasy elements incorporated here, especially as they relate to Middle Eastern folklore, legends, and myth. Sadly, again, we get next to none.
Even the world-building feels half-finished as it starts with promise but ultimately falls short. Both novels are placed within a Middle Eastern setting, but the story's world lacks a sense of functionality. There is no sense of culture here other than the occasional smattering of foreign terms, references to garments, and descriptions of foods. It does nothing to draw inspiration from a real-world culture in order to generate an in-world culture. The way this aspect of the story was handled reminded me of the quasi-Russian elements in Leigh Bardugo's Shadow and Bone: it's obvious what real-world culture Ahdieh's duology is drawing inspiration from (i.e. the ancient Middle East), but it's content to leave it at passing references rather than fully embrace it. In truth, if the in-world culture here was removed, the story could still work, meaning its ties to its culture are on a weak narrative bedrock. Along these lines, this isn't a fantasy series at all as other than a few mentions of legendary beings, a flying carpet, and curses, that's as deep as the fantasy goes. Thus, this is a surface-level duology incorporating surface-level story elements, turning what could have been an engaging retelling into a lackluster tale.
In terms of the story itself, both books represent some of the cheesiest content the YA fantasy market has to offer. There is far too much drama, especially emanating from the constant back-and-forth/love-hate relationship between Shahrzad and Khalid. It doesn't take long for it to de-evolve into a soap opera-ish tale, which rears its ugly head about halfway through The Wrath & the Dawn and permeates every chapter in The Rose & the Dagger. As a YA novel, some teenage drama is expected, but the situations here were too melodramatic and handled in like fashion.
Along these lines, this duology eventually focuses on a love triangle where Shahrzad must choose between two love interests, the "bad boy" Khalid and her former flame, Tariq. Both men are jerks in their own right, with Khalid being the worse offender, though Tariq isn't morally pristine himself. When he's not riding around the desert with his trained falcon sidekick, he often stoops to conniving tactics to win Shahrzad's hand back and refuses to honor her marriage vows by insisting she should run off with him (and Shahrzad doesn't exactly discourage his advances). The most obvious friction this creates is that there is no one to root for in terms of who Shahrzad should choose as neither Khalid nor Tariq are true love material.
Thus, the central "romance" is hard to cheer on because everything about it is just one...
This ties into the biggest issue many reviewers seemed to have with the way the enemies-to-lovers trope is utilized here. I'm not against this trope in general, but the fact we have a character who loves a man who has unabashedly murdered his past wives, including her best friend, is disconcerting. There is a reason for Khalid's past actions, which, without revealing spoilers, are thanks to an ancestral curse that forces him to act under duress in a way. However, I sense his dark deeds might have been more forgivable if he was taking the lives of evildoers, criminals who deserved to have justice done to them. Instead, his victims are innocent girls - his wives, at that - which makes his actions less sympathetic, curse or not.
Equally frustrating are Shahrzad's reactions to all of this. Initially she is determined to kill Khalid out of revenge for the death of Shiva, who was one of Khalid's wives; so her reasons for bringing a killer to justice are understandable. However, before long she bounces between desiring justice and falling head over heels in love with the man she originally set out to kill. One nagging question that arose for me was why none of Khalid's brides ever tried to undermine or kill him before. Shahrzad is the only one to break tradition, which makes one wonder what makes her so special other than she has a strong will to live and Khalid is attracted to her sense of resolve - but that's the only reason.
Some readers could argue that this duology pulls inspiration from Beauty and the Beast where a maiden is held captive by a fearsome beast whom she befriends and falls in love with, which, in turn, breaks his curse. I can see vestiges of that at work, but they're not strong enough to justify the track this story takes. The Beast in the classic fairy tale was a monster based on physical appearance alone, not because he was a murderer. Khalid is considered a monster because he is a murderer. Though one might claim he can't help his past actions due to magical interference, it's a weak excuse. I think a better tale that this series fits with in terms of making comparisons would be Bluebeard, in which the notorious husband was also a killer. Even that story isn't presented as a romance but more of a cautionary tale and one that rejoices in the death of a bloodthirsty criminal.
This duology attempts to communicate neither classic tale's message - not "looks can be deceiving" nor "run from evil." Instead, it presents a relationship that possesses echos of Stockholm Syndrome where the captive Shahrzad starts to sympathize with her captor, Khalid, and eventually takes his side and falls in love with him. It's bad enough to tout this kind of sub-surface message in a book aimed at adults, but I question what sort of influence such books might have on a teen readership.
Concerning the series entries themselves, The Wrath and the Drawn sets the story's stage in terms of basic plot - Shahrzad weds Khalid and plots to kill him, a plan she quickly abandons. Out of the two books, this one is the stronger and that's being generous. Aside from the writing itself and tidbits of the worldbuilding, the story itself is rife with issues as noted above and unoriginal YA narrative traps. To further exasperate its frustrations, it ends on a cliffhanger, leaving this novel's plot essentially unfinished and open-ended.
The second and concluding novel, The Rose and the Dagger, picks up with the first book's aftermath. I'll confess I skimmed through this entry almost to the point of letting it be a DNF (did not finish). This novel languishes with more soap opera-worthy drama, but I sped read my way to its flat, underwhelming conclusion. For all the excitement this duology generated upon initial release, I was expecting to be wowed or, at the very least, entertained. Sadly I was neither and felt like I had wasted valuable reading time trying to get into a series that fell shy of its hype.
Overall, the Wrath and the Dawn duology is a weak attempt to execute a Middle Eastern-themed fantasy inspired by 1001 Arabian Nights. Fans of those classic stories would do well to look elsewhere as these two books have little in common with them but only give lip service in passing. The rest of the story in both books is devoted to teenage drama and troublesome relationship dynamics. Readers who are curious to check this duology out for themselves might be disappointed as what it lacks in fantasy it makes up for in flatness.
Content:
Language - Essentially none, other than some sporadic PG-level swears.
Violence - Khallid has had past brides killed. Though the reason is discovered and it's revealed he's essentially acting under duress, his actions can be hard to excuse or justify. One character is nearly executed by hanging but is rescued. Characters get into skirmishes where blood is drawn but nothing is described in graphic detail. Daggers, swords, knives, and arrows are used as weapons, both in combat and for self-defense.
Sexual Content - Shahrzad and Khallid sleep together as a married couple, but their sensual encounters are either described with vague, poetic language or are a fade-to-black moment. Elsewhere, in both books, two female characters are taunted by men and it's implied the men want to assault them, but in both instances the women fight their way out of the situation, either physically or verbally, and are left alone. One character reveals she is pregnant by a man who isn't her husband. A man harbors romantic feelings for a married woman and kisses her a few times (she doesn't protest), but in the end he squelches these desires.
October 15, 2024
Khaled is like my ultimate book crush. LOVEEE this books.
great story!
I have probably read them more than 50 times (But I am indeed a re-reader, and tend to read every book at least twice... so)
But you should for sure read this (even if the second book has a very different vibe than the first one, I liked them both!)
great story!
I have probably read them more than 50 times (But I am indeed a re-reader, and tend to read every book at least twice... so)
But you should for sure read this (even if the second book has a very different vibe than the first one, I liked them both!)
February 6, 2021
I loved the characters. So fun seeing a book with sparks of Aladdin flying through it. I laughed and cried through them.
June 30, 2021
Kinda boring
August 10, 2021
SO GOOD
September 20, 2021
I think the book is overhyped. But it's not too bad. 2. Book was a DNF. Why I did not enjoy it? The spark was truely missing and it just was not giving me butterflies like I expected it would.
November 1, 2021
A truly enticing series!
May 11, 2023
every single one of her books are magical. ya fantasy, and amazing character development. this is also a slow burn, enemies to lovers romance which i love
Read
July 10, 2025favorite books of all time
June 17, 2023
love it (not much) romance isn't really my kind of story :)
December 7, 2020
FAVORITES 💕
January 29, 2024
I only read the first one so far. I was kind of sceptical the first time I tried to read this book, considering it was for a younger adults. After reading it, I feel it was worth it. I downloaded the next one.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews