One Life to One Dawn.
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?
Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end. – Goodreads
The moment I hit 100% on my Kindle, I decided I hated this book.
Why? Because it was too damn short and left me with a serious book hangover that no other book is curing at the moment.
Despite featuring several things that I completely despise (IE, love triangle, instalove, a heroine who can’t seem to focus on her one job), I absolutely fell in love with this book and could not put it down.
To start, it was written beautifully. It flowed, it created pictures in my head, I could imagine each and every character with ease. The words themselves were beautiful. This is why I love reading. Hell, I love this book.
I fell in love with all of the characters, despite their flaws. I fell in love with Shazi, for being pigheaded, smartmouthed, honest and apparently totally stupid. I fell in love with Khalid for being this mysterious murderous man with a ton of secrets. And Despina. And Jalal. Damn it.
Basically Shazi’s best friend, became one of Khalid’s many murdered wives. To get revenge, Shazi volunteers to be a wife so she can kill him. I’ll admit—I was annoyed that she never even tried to take a stab at him, mostly because she fell in love with his tiger eyes within 10 seconds. She definitely thought about it a lot, though.
So, yeah. There were some parts I didn’t understand.
The book is a series, so not all of my questions were answered in this book. I can’t wait for book two to come out.
Despite its flaws, I rated this debut a 5/5 and added it to my favorites list while sobbing because I finished it way too damn fast.
lifebetweenreads.com 