The Wrath and the Dawn
The Rose and the Dagger
Khalid Ibn al-Rashid is the Caliph (King) of Khorasan. He's only 18 so people call him the boy-king. He marries a new girl everyday and then kills her at dawn by strangling her with a silk chord. The people of his kingdom hate him and call him a monster.
Shahrzad al-Khayzuran's best friend Shiva recently became a victim of the boy-king's murderous acts. Determined on exacting revenge and putting an end to these senseless murders once and for all, Shahrzad volunteers to be Khalid's new bride. This baffles Khalid and piques his curiosity. Little does he know she's there to kill him. But she needs more time. To prolong her stay (and life) at the palace, she tells stories to Khalid at night, entrancing stories that captivate him and leave him wanting to know the end (which never comes). Thus, at each dawn, Khalid lets her live.
But how long can this go on? Shahrzad needs to come up with a plan. In doing so, she starts to uncover secrets and realises that maybe there's a reason behind all the senseless bride-killings. Maybe Khalid isn't who she (and everyone) thought he was. Maybe there's more to his story. But uncovering his story will change the course of her own.
Alright, alright, listen to me y'all! GOOD. BOOK. ALERT.
This series is so amaaaazzzinngggg I don't even know where to begin.
Okay, so first and foremost: the characters are brown. I am not kidding. They're all brown! Like me!!!! South Asian/Indian/Pakistani/Arabian brown!! LIKE ME!!! I felt so good reading this. Yay brown representation!!!!!!
Moving on, the characters are great. They have depth, they have style. And some male characters are just really hot. Like, they're smart and caring and lethal and hot but also cute and really amazing. They're a package deal. The men of this book are perfect. The main character, Shahrzad is beautiful, tiny and petite but also really brave and fearsome and fearless. She's smart, cunning and absolutely determined to win. I love that about her. The side characters are really great too. Jalal (major heart eyes), Despina (heck yeaahhhh!), Tariq (kinda problematic) and so on.
The story is brilliant. The reason behind why Khalid kills, the fact that he does kill and he's a murderer but also that he's a good person, the interactions between the characters, the dialogue, the friendships, everything is so so good. And the romance is gut-wrenching. This book is a package deal. It made me cry, laugh, want to punch someone (more specifically, a character in the book), clutch my stomach due to a case of the butterflies and clutch my heart due to a case of that thing we call HEARTBREAK.
You should read it if you're looking for something really different to read. Because the culture it's set in is sort of Arabic mixed with a little bit of Persian. They use some words from those languages as well that I can pronounce and understand because I live in Pakistan and Urdu is really close to those languages. If you have trouble pronouncing or understanding them, you can come to me (or Google) but don't let it put you off, because they're really few.
Anyway, all in all, a great two-book series that deserves so much fame and glory and recognition and I hope it will get it.
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Book Recommendations (with spoiler-free reviews)
FanfictionThese are my book recommendations, with spoiler-free reviews and opinions (no hate). If you love YA, dystopian, sci-fi and fantasy novels and can't figure out what to read or in which order to read them, you can look here.
