The Rose and the Dagger (The Wrath and the Dawn #2)– Book Review

I feel like writing the review for this is a spoiler for the first…

ANYHOW. I have to; I feel like I literally can’t move on. God have mercy on our souls, seriously; for this is addiction and I’m afraid I don’t even want it to stop.

 

Just warning everyone now: This is a review for the sequel, so it naturally contains minor– or major, depending on you point of view– spoilers for the first book, so if you haven’t read the first, I don’t suggest that you ruin its beauty by spoiling yourself, really. It’s too precious. SO GO READ THE FIRST BOOK AND JOIN ME HERE LATER SO WE COULD SQUEAL TOGETHER!

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“Two stubborn lovers, protecting each other from the very same threat.”

Shahrzad’s land was no longer the way it has always been. The king she once believed was a monster was, in fact, a beautiful, tortured boy with a curse that chained him and his city. Her land had turned into a divided kingdom with people dying left and right, and with other people brewing up storms of their own inside. A war was approaching, and Shahrzad had to do everything in her power to prevent the destruction of those she loved and held dear.

Forced away from the arms of her husband, Shahrzad is whisked off back into the Sea of Sand, surrounded by her family and friends and yet knowing and feeling that she didn’t belong there in the desert anymore. Not when they were plotting the downfall of her husband. Not with so much hatred suffused in the air.

“Destiny was for fools. Sharzad would not wait for her life to happen. She would make it happen.”

With the help of the growing magic in her veins, she strikes out on her own to end both the terrible curse that had enveloped Khalid for years on and the brewing war once and for all. But staying alive in a desert filled with enemies was a much more challenging task than she thought.

This book is far more action-packed compared to the first, and we get to see so much character growth in such a small period of time that it’s truly magnificent. It is a story of survival, magic, war, power and the thin, veiled line, that distinguished love from hate.

“It was easy to be good and kind in times of plenty. The trying times were the moments that defined a man.
And love? Love was something that did much to change a person. It brought joy as it brought suffering, and in turn brought about those moments that defined one’s character. Love gave life to the lifeless. It was the greatest of all living powers.
But, as with all things, love had a dark side to it.”

And what about Shahrzad? Will she be able to feel Khalid’s arms again, or will risking everything to get back to her one true love end in tragedy?

I rooted for these characters in every turn of every page. The beauty of it all was that you never knew who was the villain. Who caused all that anguish. And sometimes, it’s not even a matter of who, it’s a question of what. Emotions truly control us, and even though they may be the greatest fuel we could ever hope for, they are sometimes our downfall too, if we allowed our emotions to blind us from what is right and wrong.

I personally don’t believe I have ever been this attached to a book (or  a duology) before. It was so magical, so tender, so breathtakingly wonderful that it left me all crumbled up and aching after I was done.

No, honestly, I’m still drying my tears.

I don’t normally reread, but this? I’d read it a thousand times over and still fall in love with it over and over again.

Have you stumbled upon The Wrath and the Dawn yet? Have you read it already? Loved it as much as I did? Tell me your thoughts below, I love hearing them!

Signed,

Midnight Ranter (aka Ayaka)