The Rose and the Dagger (The Wrath and the Dawn, #2)

The Rose and the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh

Published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers on April 26, 2016

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Romance, Retellings

Pages: 416

A boy who’d thrived in the shadows.
Now he had to live in the light.
To live . . . fiercely.
To fight for every breath.

More than anything else, I’m so sad to see this series go. Even though it was a fun, exciting, short duology, I’ll miss it so much. And I love it all that much more.

I fell in love with all of these characters, most of all Khalid and Shahrzad. And their story was so much more than I thought it would be.

Renee Ahideh really followed up The Wrath and the Dawn with an equally, if not more, amazing book. The writing was just as eloquent and flowed so nicely. There was not one dull moment in the book. I was not able to put this book down once it really got going. And like so many other books I’ve read, this book was nothing like I thought it’d turn out to be.

The Rose and the Dagger kept me on my toes and each chapter left me wanting more and more.

We get to see more sides of characters we’ve met and we get to delve deeper into the fantasy side of this series. Ahdieh introduces us more to Shazi’s sister Irsa. While they may share blood, the two sisters are very different but equally brave. Irsa is very honest and much less comfortable in her own skin than her older sister. Still, she had her strong suits and I became very interested in her character. Not only did we get to see Irsa, but we also got to see Khalid grow even more. Where we left him at the end of Wrath, he still struggled with who he was and how he was going to cope with his curse. In Rose, he really came into the person he’d always wanted to be. And I loved that we got to see him become the person he always was but was too afraid to become.

One of my favorite parts about this book was it was heavier on the fantasy side than romance like the first one. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of romance to keep Khalid and Shahrzad shippers happy (cough, me), but the book isn’t centered around it. Instead, we see Shahrzad learn and play with the powers she has, and the powers that rest in the everyone else.

Rose had more than enough times that had be at the edge of my seat. So many times. I really couldn’t put this book down for less than a hundred pages at one point. Sometimes sequels don’t live up to what the first book was and fall short, but I think this book went far and beyond what Wrath gave us. I think that the healthy balance of fantasy and romance attributes to that.

I’m very sad to see a great series go, but I was so happy when I finally got to have time to read it. I loved every last chapter, page, and word. I also look forward to what Ahdieh will write next.

 

5/5 Stars.

 

Featured image retrieved from Goodreads.