If you look at my Goodreads profile, y'all know I love romance novels. As in, Harlequin romance novels, the so-called "bodice rippers" with sinful dukes and rakish earls. I devoured those shit, yo; it makes me happy. But, speaking as a fan, I acknowledge that these romance novels can teeter to the territory of ridiculousness, cause it's so over the top - and that's not a bad thing. In fact, that's why I love the genre in the first place. Though sometimes even I can't stand its ridiculousness. Case in point: I dropped Eloisa James's the Ugly Duchess, a perfectly good book, because I can't stop laughing over the fact that the hero ran away to become a pirate with a poppy tattooed under his eyes (!!!) and somehow pirating added several inches to your height (keep in mind the hero's in his early twenties the time he went a-piratin') lmao. And sometimes the "zomg you're so hot!!!! but we can't be together BUT I MUST HAVE YOU" gets old.
The Wrath and the Dawn has Harlequin elements, but like, PG-13 (the sex is acknowledged but never shown and there's no mention of bulging breeches). It has the stoic, secretly-tortured hero (my favorite kind of hero). It has the willful heroine hell-bent on revenge. It has the ~forbidden~ romance and the "we must not fall in love oh but I'm falling in love with you what to doooo" shebang. Some of the passages can be corny and dramatic, but the strange thing is, it's not. If I saw some of these quotes out of context, I'd probably roll my eyes, yet here I'm trying to stifle sobs as my soul rips into fluttering ribbons.
Shahrzad is volunteering to marry Khalid, the boy-caliph of Khorasan, to avenge the death of her best friend who was once Khalid's wife - and executed for being just that. You see, Khalid weds a girl every night and killed them in the dawn, without explanation whatsoever. Shahrzad survives the first night by telling Khalid a story. You've seen this before: it's A Thousand and One Nights retold. Yet, as the blurb tells us, Shahrzad can't help but fall in love with the monstrous Khalid, even if he murdered her best friend.
With the blurb and summary, I have some reserve reading it. The plot intrigues me, but I've had enough of insta-lust and loving someone that doesn't deserve it. Those two things do not happen in this book. Khalid and Shazi's love grows organically, though there is a hint of insta-lust on his part. I believe their romance and their anguish in pursuing it, because the prose is so BEAUTIFUL and haunting, evoking classical Arab literature.
The worldbuilding is also top notch, weaving in the mythology and the goings on of the world without veering into the "telling, not showing" territory. The plot unfolds like a blooming rose, slowly but surely, each layer telling us a different story.
I love all the characters in this book - even annoying Tariq and Rahim who I don't understand the purpose. Khalid is bae and I just want to hug him and tell him that everything's all right. Shazi is amazing, willful without being petulant, and she's intelligent even though some of her schemes can be considered as hare-brained. My boo Jalal gives no fucks and I enjoy his teasing and blatant shipping. I don't understand the purpose of Rahim and Yasmine and lol @ Tariq who spent a whole fucking chapter trying to court the Badawins to his cause only for their leader to say "mmmmm, turns out I'm not going to drag my ppl into a war lol srry not srry" in the last minute.
There are some minor defects (like what is even the purpose of the Badawins in the first place) but this book is solid and beautiful enough to deserve a five-star rating. Everyone should read this, cause it's a beautiful fantasy filled with POCs begging to be adapted into a movie (tho I'm 100% sure they'd cast Emma Stone as Shazi and Christian Bale as Khalid). The only downside of reading this book is that it's part of a duology, which is COMPLETELY unknown to me when I'm reading it, or otherwise I would've waited after the second book had come out 'cause since the torture of P.S. I Still Love You I vowed to never again reading a book that's part of an unfinished -logy. But aside from that, there's no regret at all and everyone should read this ASAP so we can angst together.
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