I'm going to brutally honest for a second: when I first saw this novel, I had zero interest in reading it. The main reason why is because it's a re-telling of 1001 Arabian Nights, a story I'm not familiar with in the slightest. I generally love retellings, but since I didn't know the back story of this one, I felt like I wouldn't be getting the most I could out of the book. The second reason is much more shallow; I could tell by the summary that I was going to have some issues with pronouncing and remembering the character's names, which does not bode well for my memory. The third is that I was leery of the summary - for some reason it wasn't calling to me at all. But then everyone and their brother started reading this book, and I went against my better judgment and started it. It was actually due back at the library the day I began, and I ended up keeping it for an extra couple days because I wanted to finish it. 
 I'm so glad I decided to read this, because in truth it surprised me a great deal. I admit, I had a hard time getting into it at first, mostly due to the pronunciation issues. It was only after I was about a quarter of the way through that I became hooked. And while it took me a while to get there, once I did, it was impossible to put it down. For a debut novel, the writing in The Wrath & the Dawn is simply gorgeously put together. The descriptions of the desert and the palace and the finery were so intricate, and I felt as though I was there myself. Even if the plot was moving a little slowly, I always had the writing to fall back on. It's not that it's slow-paced, but I think it's more character driven than anything. Shahrzad does a lot of roaming about the palace and thinking to herself, so honestly if you don't like the characters, you won't like this book. Thankfully, I didn't have that issue. 
 I really liked Shahrzad. She was bold, curious and is able to mesmerize the stoic boy-king who for unknown reasons murders all his wives the day after they're married. I'm not saying she's prefect, she definitely makes mistakes (like letting pretty much everyone see how good she is at archery when she's plotting murder), but even so she was enormously charismatic. Her handmaid, Despina, was also good for a laugh. I enjoyed their friendship throughout the story, and their incessant bickering. Khalid - Shahrzad's new husband - remained an enigma for the majority of the book. To be honest, I didn't really buy off on their relationship in the beginning. It just didn't seem like they spent enough time together for her to be any different from his other brides. Putting that grievance behind me, I loved when they were together; they had this quiet chemistry that was kind of beautiful. It was pretty annoying, because I wanted them to be with each other, but of course I couldn't condone their relationship what with the continuous murder thing. Shahrzad admittedly wasn't the best at keeping on her initial course of killing the king; she was far too busy being enchanted by him. This bothered me, of course, but perhaps not to the degree it normally would. I have no idea why. Their relationship just felt so passionate, and the hopeless romantic in me cheered for them. 
 There is a sort-of love triangle in the book, but again, it didn't annoy me too much. Mostly because I felt that the main character had fallen out of love with one and in it with the other. As of right now, there's not much competition between the two, but I could be wrong. The triangle could rear its ugly head in the sequel, but I pray that aspect of the story is downplayed. I don't really mind Tariq's affection for Shahrzad, just as long as she doesn't return it. As the plot moved along, hints are dropped here and there about why Khalid has killed his wives (view spoiler)[I knew it had something to do with the weather (hide spoiler)], and I was eager to finally get the whole story towards the end of the book. The ending was pretty satisfactory, although the cliffhanger was evil. Maybe if I was familiar with the original story, I would have already known about the plot twist, but I'm not sure. Honestly The Wrath & the Dawn shocked me in the best possible way, and I will wait many dawns for the sequel, The Rose & the Dagger. 
 4.5 stars