"You are not weak. You are not indecisive. You are strong. Fierce. Capable beyond measure." 
 I'm not a huge kicker for romances. Usually, it's an insta-love or a love triangle, and I spend my entire review complaining about that. HOWEVER, Shazi and Khalid broke my heart and mended it in every way possible. Having read this after most people had, there was tons of hype and my interest was piqued. I still went into this book only knowing one thing...that it was a retelling of A Thousand and One Nights. I had no knowledge about this story until after reading The Wrath and the Dawn, and was pleasantly surprised. One thing I loved about this book was the diversity. Shazi and Khalid are of color, as well as Muslim. Overall, The Wrath and the Dawn is a wonderfully romantic, exciting story, but not without its flaws. 
 The basic premise is intriguing from the beginning. Khalid, the Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her killed at sunrise. When Shahrzad (I'll call her Shazi in this review)'s best friend gets killed, Shazi is determined to take revenge. 
 Shazi was a strong lead, who sort of reminded me of Annabeth? Shazi is confident, and a tiny bit reckless, but brave nevertheless. Sometimes her recklessness frustrated me, because she missed moments that she could have gotten revenge, and basically forgot her mission to avenge her friend with the end came, but that could be overlooked. 
 The romance part of this novel was spectacular. It was a love triangle, but the other dude (Tariq) is stupid and useless and conceited. Honestly, there's only one real contender. The romance part was really interesting, but frusterating at times where they wouldn't trust each other. URGH. 
 Ahdieh's writing style is flawless. It's awfully descriptive, but not to the point where's it's overly descriptive. Shazi resides in a place for most of the novel, so of course the palace is exquisite, and Ahdieh describes that SO WELL. 
 I had two issues with the book. The first The MAGIC wasn't developed enough. This could develop in the second book, of course, but I thought the magic part was sort of skimmed over and not that engrossing. The other issue I had was Shazi reading Khalid the story each night (to keep her alive) was a bit boring. I was hoping that Ahdieh could weave it in more smoothly. The parts with the story was a bit long and dull. 
 Overall, I highly enjoyed The Wrath and the Dawn. I'm sold for the second books. I'm excited to see where this romance is going, as well as the magic getting more details. 
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