Reviews with content warning for Death - The Wrath & the Dawn

The thing that authors really need to get right when writing enemies-to-lovers is the transition from enemy to lover—it needs to be made clear to the reader why, exactly, they fall in love with each other. But here, the author fails completely. There is no transition, there’s just Shazi hating Khalid to her saying she wants to kiss him and is in love with him (I’m not tagging a spoiler here because it’s the whole premise of the book). There’s literally zero explanation as to why she has suddenly become enamoured with Khalid. I really like the general idea of the book, especially as a 1001 Nights rewrite, but the relationship aspect falls flat without the journey of actually falling in love with someone who is supposedly evil. Had the author included a more transitionary period with their relationship I probably would have rated this much higher, but I couldn’t stand Shazi constantly waxing poetic about a man she hardly knew anything about.

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notsobinaryart's review

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challenging emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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eelizard's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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emsavors's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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dlsmk's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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gummifrog's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I remember when this book was really popular several years ago, and I was never very drawn in by the cover. But I just read it on audio for the first time and I'm so glad I did!

"The Wrath and the Dawn" is an enemies to lovers romance based on the framing device The 1001 Nights. I loved the characters so much, the world building, the relationships, the backstabbing betrayals and mistrust. This book was an emotional rollercoaster and so, so fun! It also had some interesting ideas to bring to the table about this kind of romance, which I appreciated. The writing was beautiful and it read easily and quickly. I absolutely spend a whole day doing nothing but listening to this one.

I only docked it from a 5 star rating for two things; I really disliked Tariq's storyline and POV, I just thought it was meandering and more plot-driven. The second thing was that Sharhzad's ruminations on her internal conflict were very repetitive, and I felt it could have been cut down somewhat.

I really liked the character development though, and the absolute badassery of all of the main cast. In addition, the reveal of "why is Khalid executing all these wives?" ended up being very effective for me, making his motivations make sense while not absolving him of direct guilt, which I was very impressed about!

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beckyyreadss's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I’ve wanted to read this book in forever. This book was gifted to me by my friends for my birthday and I was excited to read it. It took me a while to get into, but once I got into it, I really enjoyed it.

This book has multiple POVs from this love triangle. There is Khalid, who is an eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. There is Shahrzad, she is sixteen and she has volunteered to marry Khalid. But she does have a clever plan to stay and exact revenge on Khalid for the murder of her best friend and the countless other girls that Khalid has executed. Shazi’s wit and will does get her through to the dawn that no others have seen, but with a catch . . . she’s falling in love with the very boy who killed her friend. She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems, and neither are the death of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all. The third POV is Shazi’s best friend named Tariq and he has been in love with Shazi since they were children. He has found out what Shazi is doing and is determined to rescue her and take her home and to kill the king once and for all.

I struggled with this book at first and I think it’s because of the lack of world-building at the beginning or a storyline, it jumped in straight to the action that I sort of had to read ahead to then get what the hell was going on. I didn’t know this was a retelling of Thousand and One Nights and I've never read that book, so I went in completely blind. The world-building did get there eventually but for a fantasy I look for the world-building and how immersed I can get in the world, and it just didn’t happen here.

The thing that saved this book were the characters and the romance that was budding between Khalid and Shazi. It was 1000% enemies-to-lovers, and I was down for it. The tension, the mystery, the conflicting emotions they were both feeling and how they slowly opened to each other. I liked the mystery aspect of it and how you didn’t know who was trying to poison Shazi. I loved how bad-ass Shazi is, like everyone around her is trying to protect her and then she’s like no I can’t protect my damn self. I loved the side characters such as the guards and the maidens and would have loved to have seen more of them.

The storyline managed to keep me hooked but overall felt like it was just missing that extra sparkle that would have made it five stars. But I am looking forward to the next book of the duet.

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hazelgirl21's review

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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