This is post originally on Vivian's Book Pavilion 
 My tears!!!! Give me back MY TEARS!!!! HOW CAN YOU STOLEN MY PRECIOUS TEARS AWAY??? Yes, it's true that some books successfully stolen my heart away, but my tears? Only few of them success. I love this sequel, I love The Wrath and The Dawn, and now, I just completely, madly fallen in love with The Rose and The Dagger!!!!! I love EVERY SINGLE MOMENT Shahrzad spent with Khalid. And my, my, my...the more I read, the more I fall in love with Khalid. (Why is my fictional boyfriend list growing larger and larger? That's insane!!!!) But as long as you read the book, you'll understand WHY!!!! how can anyone not love him??? 
 I still remember when I first visit Barnes and Noble, The Rose and The Dagger just list on the magnificently wonderful shelf...and I've always thought "Yes!!! I'm going to buy it here!!! With hardcover!!!" And now? I finally read it!!! And tears just stream down my cheeks. 
 The darker the sky, the brighter the stars. 
 The sequel is as great as the first, or...should I say, twice better? The plot twists just seize your heart, and just you think you were realize by the power...it held you in its palm once more. The plot twists...they give you so much feeling!!! Tears!!!! Laughter!!!! And tear and laughter!!! You might even start wandering when did you become so sensitive. Because that's how I feel. Five stars rule? 1. Seize my iron heart. 2. Make my dry eyes cries. And believe me, The Rose and The Dagger has done it, and I told you, there might be only five books out there on my bookshelf has successfully complete the unreachable goal. (Well...it might be reachable...just really hard to complete both of the conditions at once.) Shall we talk more about the book? I'm currently so exciting!!!! 
 From the stars, to the stars. 
 You know I have completely now resistance toward stars!!!! (BTW, I'm now currently working on a book with lots of lots of stars. ) It's just...how can you not love those beautiful things? Now? I had a "To the stars who listen" phone case on my phone, and a "From the star, to the star" quote for my phone pages. Wonderfully beautiful, as Khalid and Shazi's love. As you know, all lovers in novels are mostly "star-crossed." So do they. Yet...my heart just aches so much when they're not together!!!! Instead of whining every day and every night, the couple struggled to make their way together, to break the unbreakable curse, and to make amends. What's great about this book? Unlike The Wrath and The Dawn we mostly focus on Shahrzad, this time we had more Khalid!!!! And merciful god...I just love that. He truly grew. He was no longer the monstrous king and the boy hidden in the shadow, but a grown man, wise and responsible. Yet...it makes me wander...how old was Khalid? And how old was Shazi? Cause Shazi kept calling him "my beautiful boy-king," as well as others...but was he truly that young? Well...that doesn't matter at all. 
 The Rose's rarest essence lives in the thorns. 
 Shazi was truly a silver-tongue. She was so smart! My star...it's just...I think only Khalid can compete with her...or perhaps Despina as well. But she was so strong as well, during her time apart from Khalid, she never flinched, never yielded, never gave up. She was the queen, the Calipha of Khorasan. (She was a hundred times much more better than "the queen of Ter--") And the part that she shield herself of Khalid and Khalid tries to turn her away...(Screaming!!!!!) I just totally scream out loud!!!!! (And my classmates watched me as if I'm insane.) You know what? For that part I've already spoil myself before I started to read the book from the beginning, but still, when I moved to "that" part...I can't conceal my emotions!!!!!! SCREAMING IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE CLASS!!!! (Oh! Don't worry, it's break time, I didn't read in class.) 
 This, is how I felt for Shazi and Khalid. Khalid truly thought Shazi as an equal, that's even better. Cause still in this world, men still wanted to overpower women. 
 Some secrets are safer behind lock and key. 
 What's so interesting about this book? Other characters. Although my beloved Khalid and Shazi might lose a bit chapters in this book, but others characters just involved more in this book!!!! Although...Jalal did had a lesser part in this book...since he spent most of his time blaming. But, Despina, Jahandar, Irsa, Traiq and Rahim did have a lot more part. Even I'd wanted to grab some of their throat at the sight of their appearance. But I can't deny that all great books come with villain...even the villain isn't who you expected. Traiq...yes, Shazi's first love. Blind by his cousin's death and the truth that Shazi fell in love with Khalid that he did tons of terrible things, some I can forgive, some I can't. but...well, eventually I did. He was acting like an idiot in this book, following his emotions, please, everyone knows that a man's emotions can't be trusted. Yes, even Khalid. But he came a long way to improve himself, so no matter. You know what? Traiq acted even more childish than Khalid, it's so true that Khalid was bestowed with the gift of wisdom, even he did a great mistake before. However, I think in the end you'll forgive Traiq. Now, Jahandar...Shahrzad's useless father. Utterly useless, only thirst for power and a chance to prove himself. PLEASE!!! THERE ARE TONS OF WAYS TO PROVEN YOURSELF WORTHY YET YOU CHOOSE THE STUPIDEST WAY!!!! And not to mention he hurt his dearest people around him, yet...he was just as idiot as Remz, both of them, only an unworthy man with selfish dream. Another great things about this book is that when you just forget some minor characters, they appeared!!!! And bring you unexpected, terrible, wonderful plot twists. Such a genius, please, I need more book from Renee Ahdieh. I JUST NEED THEM ALL. Oh! Almost forget, one of the reason why I mentioned that "when you just forget some minor characters, they appeared" including Despina!!! She truly scared us to death, with those clothes and jewels...not to mention her reckless marriage. Oh! (Did I spoil something? Wait till you read it!!!!)