The Wrath and The Dawn
(The Wrath and The Dawn 1)
by Renee Ahdieh
3.5 out of 5
The writing style of this book is right up my alley.
I wasn't the only one in that alley since this book got really good reviews.
But, you know what, this book didn't live up to its potential.
Sorry, book, but the poor plot/editing destroyed you.
Usually, when I rate a 3.5, I click the 4th star instead of 3. But I felt like this book didn't deserve the 4 star click since that would make it at level with The Kiss of Deception by Mary E. Pearson. Unfortunately, it does NOT compare.
Although there's a lot to love about this book, including the writing style, the strong female characters, the stories, the plot --- it just didn't cut it. It failed to raise Shahrzad and Khalid's story to emotional heights. I appreciate that their love is tender and intense. I love that Khalid's personality is very Mr. Darcy (which I am a sucker for). Most of all, I like that the story took the time to write out the development of the couple's relationship. So, what's wrong?
It's massively predictable. It threaded on ice as soon as the Prologue ended. You see, the Prologue made Khalid more personable and, in effect, preferable. It was so effective that the Prologue effectively ruined the climax of the ending. I just didn't care about anyone else except for our main couple so events outside of them didn't matter to me. The result is that I wasn't biting my nails when the relatively decent climactic ending was happening. Maybe because we saw very little of Khalid as a man outside of the couple. It was massively implied but the love-story was too overwhelming and eclipsed everything else. I suppose it was my fault to be invested in the love-story too much.
But, hey, that's how this was marketed and at no point was I supposed to care about the rest of this world. On top of that, I had frekkin learn Arabic (?) horse-names! I'm already burdened by the triple-consonant name of the female protagonist. Okay, thanks for the research, but it's really distracting. The weapons are okay though because it made the massively well-written fight scenes much more fun. Everything else was cumbersome.
This book has received massively good reviews from my GR friends and GR accounts I follow. I must say that it's one of reasons why I picked this up. The technique needs a lot of work. There are many issues with the first installment of this series. I guess I was expecting something like Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. The editor should take a leaf out of that book. That was a masterful way of a love-story-centric story but manages to make you care about the rest of the world. In that, if the couple is the center then the climax should be couple-related and should not be involving secondary characters (who we know more about that the main guy, exactly).
The author has shown that she can write well, such as:
1) describe feelings well
2) skirt adult scenes but remain romantic (in a fade-to-black way but not as annoying)
3) world-build effectively
But Ahdieh can do so much better than this. I wanted feels and action. I got both but I would get that from a 10,000 word fanfiction on livejournal. Give me severe feels.
... I want my heart to beat as erratically as Shahrzad's when she places her palm on Khalid's warm, bare chest.
... I want to feel the magic tingle on my fingertips when I touch the words on the pages.
... I want to get excited.
... I want... a whole new world
... a dazzling place I never knew...
Although there's a lot to love about this book, including the writing style, the strong female characters, the stories, the plot --- it just didn't cut it. It failed to raise Shahrzad and Khalid's story to emotional heights. I appreciate that their love is tender and intense. I love that Khalid's personality is very Mr. Darcy (which I am a sucker for). Most of all, I like that the story took the time to write out the development of the couple's relationship. So, what's wrong?
It's massively predictable. It threaded on ice as soon as the Prologue ended. You see, the Prologue made Khalid more personable and, in effect, preferable. It was so effective that the Prologue effectively ruined the climax of the ending. I just didn't care about anyone else except for our main couple so events outside of them didn't matter to me. The result is that I wasn't biting my nails when the relatively decent climactic ending was happening. Maybe because we saw very little of Khalid as a man outside of the couple. It was massively implied but the love-story was too overwhelming and eclipsed everything else. I suppose it was my fault to be invested in the love-story too much.
But, hey, that's how this was marketed and at no point was I supposed to care about the rest of this world. On top of that, I had frekkin learn Arabic (?) horse-names! I'm already burdened by the triple-consonant name of the female protagonist. Okay, thanks for the research, but it's really distracting. The weapons are okay though because it made the massively well-written fight scenes much more fun. Everything else was cumbersome.
This book has received massively good reviews from my GR friends and GR accounts I follow. I must say that it's one of reasons why I picked this up. The technique needs a lot of work. There are many issues with the first installment of this series. I guess I was expecting something like Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge. The editor should take a leaf out of that book. That was a masterful way of a love-story-centric story but manages to make you care about the rest of the world. In that, if the couple is the center then the climax should be couple-related and should not be involving secondary characters (who we know more about that the main guy, exactly).
The author has shown that she can write well, such as:
1) describe feelings well
2) skirt adult scenes but remain romantic (in a fade-to-black way but not as annoying)
3) world-build effectively
But Ahdieh can do so much better than this. I wanted feels and action. I got both but I would get that from a 10,000 word fanfiction on livejournal. Give me severe feels.
... I want my heart to beat as erratically as Shahrzad's when she places her palm on Khalid's warm, bare chest.
... I want to feel the magic tingle on my fingertips when I touch the words on the pages.
... I want to get excited.
... I want... a whole new world
... a dazzling place I never knew...
Originally posted on GoodReads here.
 by Renee Ahdieh 3.5 out of 5 ){kind=link}
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