The Wrath and the Dawn was a fabulous retelling of the 1001 Arabian nights. Shahrzad volunteered to be the wife of the Caliph after he killed her best friend Shiva. She swore revenge and wants to murder Khalid before he can move onto the next bride, the next victim. Only she doesn't know that Khalid doesn't want to kill the brides, he regrets doing it but he can not stop. On the first night Shazi barters her story for another day to live, shes living on borrowed time because she knows sooner or later she will be killed. 
 Only she isn't, a new dawn passes each day and she continued to live and the book explores the evolving relationship between Shazi and Khalid, the reason behind why the boy-king must kill his brides and whats happening behind the scenes with Shazi's father and her friends she left behind. As the book continued I began to like and understand Khalid, I felt sorry for him and despite him killing his wives I generally liked him. I liked Despina, Shazi's handmaiden and Jalal the captain of the guards son. The characters were likeable and I was able to connect to them and not outright hate them. 
 This may sounds strange but I usually end up disliking books with female characters as a lead despite being a female myself. There has been exceptions such as The Hunger Games and Snow Like Ashes but generally I find authors present female characters as either really whiny and annoying or just over powerful as if they could destroy the world and nobody could stop them. This makes it annoying since I would love to read more books with strong, likeable female characters but I'm usually wary with books with female characters as a main. I hope I haven't offended anyone with my view but that's it. Shazi while having her moments that made me feel annoyed with her was actually quite likeable, I liked her and she wasn't all powerful or overly whiny and annoying. I liked her which made this book amazing. 
 Hopefully the second book will be interesting and as likeable as this one.