“No. He was not here to wreak revenge.
For revenge was trifling and hollow.
No. He was not here to retrieve his wife.
For his wife was not a thing to be retrieved.
No. He was not here to negotiate a truce.
For a truce suggested he wished to compromise.He was here to burn something to the ground.”
This isn’t the first retelling of the Arabic folktale 1001 Nights that I have read. A few years ago I read A Thousand Nights by EK Johnson, and I enjoyed it, it was a lovely little book.
But I absolutely loved this.
The Wrath and the Dawn and The Rose and the Dagger are two, beautifully written books. They are slow-paced novels, but they are never boring.
In the first novel we are introduced to the walking mystery that is Khalid the Caliph of Khorasan, and Shahrzad his new, ill-fated wife. Shahzrad is a well-drawn character in that we like her because she is headstrong and smart, but also incredibly realistic as she is stubborn and reckless. While Khalid is a perfectly dangerous mixture of mystery and danger and honour.
It’s a romance series, but it’s a romance seeped in mystery and tension. There is magic, but it’s never fully-explained in either books and it’s a testament to the skills of the writer that I was never truly bothered by this. It seems that magic in this world, though obscure, is well-known to it’s people.
The books are also both filled with intriguing politics and the occasional plot twist and back stab.
And the scenery! Oh, the scenery! The lavish descriptions of the palaces and the foods, honestly, it made me want to hop onto a plane to the Middle East immediately. The writing style is quite unique. At least for me, there was something about these books that made me feel warm and fuzzy.
My main criticism is that after all our main characters go through, the ending of The Rose and the Dagger feels a little rushed. Also the curse, which was such a focal point to the first novel, was pushed to the side in the sequel, overshadowed by other magical elements like her father’s book and the magic carpet.
Other than that, I just loved it! I found myself truly immersed in the world, desperate to unravel the mystery of the boy-king and willing the main characters to fall in love despite the events that forced them to marry in the first place.
If you like slow-burn romances and tropical settings, then this books might just be for you!
All the best,
— Rachel Writes x
The Talking Bookshelf 