Worth It Wednesdays: “The Wrath and The Dawn” by Renee Ahdieh

Welcome to My Life is a Notebook’s new weekly feature, “Worth It Wednesdays”! I know that this sounds like something linky, but for the moment it’s not. This is just me, making a commitment to being a better blogger in the way that I like to blog.

See, I gave up on reviewing for a long time because I just got tired of reading books to review them. It’s draining. I just wanted to read and enjoy, you know? So I stopped and my reading habits got so much better.

But, lately, I’ve been screaming and shouting a lot about YA. I wrote this rant and absolutely blew up in a recent book club video. One of my co-hosts asked me if I could send her a list of YA books that I thought were good, and so I compiled one.

Then I realized that I should start sharing them.

Some of these books I’ll have already reviewed. Some are old, some are new. They are in no particular order. Just … as they strike me. So here we go!

Title: The Wrath and The Dawn

Author: Renee Ahdieh

Publication Date: May 12, 2015

Goodreads Description: A sumptuous and epically told love story inspired by A Thousand and One Nights

Every dawn brings horror to a different family in a land ruled by a killer. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, takes a new bride each night only to have her executed at sunrise. So it is a suspicious surprise when sixteen-year-old Shahrzad volunteers to marry Khalid. But she does so with a clever plan to stay alive and exact revenge on the Caliph for the murder of her best friend and countless other girls. Shazi’s wit and will, indeed, 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 dearest friend.

She discovers that the murderous boy-king is not all that he seems and neither are the deaths of so many girls. Shazi is determined to uncover the reason for the murders and to break the cycle once and for all.

Why it’s worth it: I’ll be the first one to tell you that I hate retellings (ew) and I also was extremely wary about it because of the romance-centric story line. But I saw so much buzz about it on social media–and I had gift card money to burn. So I bought it.

And I have lost count of how many times I’ve re-read it in the two months since I bought it.

I can’t get enough of the characters. They are each well-rounded people I wish I could be friends with in real life. The romance is real and heart-wrenching/warming. The plot of the book is far more tense and thrilling than I originally pegged it to be. The setting is lavish and sumptuous. I’m also a sucker for a story within a story.

I could literally spend all day telling people to give this book a chance. You won’t regret it. I am actually in physical pain because I don’t have the sequel yet.

Read it if you’re looking for: A strong female lead, strong romance, a unique setting, strong female friendships, diverse reads, fantasy with magic

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