This has been on my TBR list for so long, and I've looked forward to reading it for so long, that I was afraid it wouldn't match my expectations. It came much closer than I expected though! 
 The Wrath & the Dawn is a retelling of sorts of A Thousand and One Nights. It follows brave and beautiful Shahrzad as she volunteers to be the next wife of the handsome young Caliph or Khorasan. Sounds like a good deal, right? To just volunteer to be a queen? But alas, of course the young Caliph is a murderer who weds a new bride each night and kills them in the dawn. Why? No one knows. But his most recent wife was Shahrzad's BFF and now Shahrzad is looking for revenge. 
 Cons: 
 1.	I wish the storytelling aspect was a bigger deal! I know the book only claims to be INSPIRED by A Thousand and One Nights, and not necessarily BASED on it. But I was still expecting it to be a bigger part of the story. Shahrzad really only tells her stories a few nights before that aspect of the novel just kind of fades away. 
 2.	I'm assuming it will be touched upon a lot more in the sequel, but the magic aspect seemed a little out of place. (view spoiler)[I love the curse, don't get me wrong. (hide spoiler)] But I would have liked for everything else to be explained a little more or to at least be shown more. It seemed almost like a convenient storytelling device instead of an integral part of the plot. But, like I said, I'm sure Ahdieh has plans to delve more deeply into that aspect of the novel in the next book. 
 Pros: 
 1.	No insta-love! Ahdieh does SUCH a good job building up the romance and showing the struggle that comes from both parties because of their falling in love. 
 2.	Shahrzad was such a strong character, but not at all in the Mary Sue fashion that I usually see in strong female characters. Her defining characteristic to me is that she's brave, however, it's not this blind bravery that I've seen in so many other books (*cough*Divergent*cough*). She is still afraid, incredibly afraid at times, even when she is being brave. Ahdieh constantly draws attention to Shahrzad's shaking hands or trembling knees. She is constantly shown as being fearful, but not letting that fearfulness control her. I think that is SUCH an important quality in a character. Often I see these strong ladies: they're loud, mouthy, and can stand up to anyone or anything without so much as a goosebump. And I can't relate to them at all. Shahrzad is much braver than I am, of course, but I can still feel a kinship in her. I can still see myself even in a character so different from myself.