"The Wrath and the Dawn" by Renee Ahdieh

After weeks of watching others rave about this book, I finally got my hands on it and finished it in 3 days. This is a retelling of the initial frame story of Scheherazade from One Thousand and One Nights, a classic collection of Middle Eastern folk tales. Just like in the classic book, our main heroine Shahrzad marries a powerful king who is notorious for being cruel. Every day the king marries a young girl who is then executed the following morning. One of the girls who had died such a death was Shahrzad's childhood friend. Our heroine vows to avenge her friend's death and volunteers to marry the king. So begins the tumultuous story of Khalid and Shahrzad.

Ahdieh's writing is absolutely stunning. I was hooked from the first page. It is very lyrical and creates the atmosphere of an Arabian tale. She took a familiar story and made it more complex and unique. Unlike in the original fairy tale, Khalid is not simply a cruel monster to whom the lives of young women mean nothing. His back story is more complex and is gradually revealed in the book. Ahdieh spins a beautiful plot that has romance, betrayal, politics, magic, friendship and difficult family relationships. Her characters are multifaceted and interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and highly recommend it.