Hype. It's a strange thing. It can be really great for a book-- bringing many eager readers to buy it. But hype can also really ruin a book by bringing a reader's expectations up way to high, so that basically no matter what, they'll be somewhat diappointed. 
Unfortunately I think that The Wrath & the Dawn is supremely overhyped. Sure, it's a good book, but is it as good as everyone is raving about? For me, at least, it is not. 
One thing I can agree with most on is that the imagery in this book is gorgeous. While reading, you can't help but be brought into the sandy Middle Eastern World. Sometimes you may even find that you can almost taste the fruit being eaten, or feel the hot rays of the sun. To me, the imagery might have been the best part of the book, it is most certainly the most outstanding feature. 
The Wrath & the Dawn is loosely based off of A Thousand and One Nights, which was ultimately the reason I even ended up buying the book. See, I've been hearing all about the Wrath & the Dawn for an unbelievably long time, but I was never really that interested in picking it up. What did finally pique my interest about the book was reading about the tale of A Thousand and One Nights in my history text book. I kid you not, I only bought this book because of a textbook. Call me a nerd, I don't care, I love history. 
So finally, I gave in to the hype and bought the book. Other than not exactly being interested in the synopsis. I was also put off by the book becasue of all the hype surrounding it. From my years of reading, I've learned that I must be careful of books with a lot of hype. Most of the time I end up disappointed. (*Cough* Looking at you, An Ember in the Ashes) 
If you don't know the story of a Thousand and One Nights, here's a quick retelling of it. A Caliph kills his new bride every morning, and marries a new one every day. That is, until one smart woman comes in and tells him a riveting story-- one that lasts all night. The Caliph agrees to spare her life for another night so he can hear the conclusion to the story. This happens over and over until the woman becomes the Caliph's favorite wife and he decides to not kill her for good. 
"Because you're not a gifted liar. You only think yourself to be." 
"And you're not that good at reading people. You only think yourself to be." 
A Thousand and One Nights is extremely predictable, with a sassy protagonist, a tortured love interest and a good guy love interest. Still, it managed to be a fairly good novel because its cast of characters are interesting and as mentioned before, the imagery is astonishing. 
Shazi is the protagonist of the story. She's quick witted and funny. I enjoyed that for the most part, she was not a damsel in distress and rather clever. She volunteers to marry the Caliph, who had been murdering all his wives, in an attempt to avenge her best friend's death. I read this in another review and I have to say I agree with it-- Shazi never actually makes any moves to try and kill or avange her friend's death. In fact, she kind of does the opposite. Obviously, (I don't see this as a spoiler because it's in the synopsis) Shazi ends up falling in love with the Caliph, and while I can see how they're a good pair and can't help but like the Caliph, I still cannot relate to Shazi. Why? Because I can't ever see myself falling in love with the man who killed my best friend. Even if it was somone I was already deeply in love with, I just wouldn't be able to do it. So Shazi... Not the worst protagonist, I did enjoy some of her characteristics, but there were also elements of hers that deeply aggravated me. Mostly how her thoughts always contridicted her actions. Like how she kept saying she was there for revenge, but never actually acted upon it-- or how she kept saying I will not do this and then just doing it anyway. 
"I am trying to entice you. I've been told a good story teller can trap an audience with a single sentence." 
"Then you have failed." 
Khalid, the Caliph, is an interesting character. While it's hardly a mystery as to why he kills all his wives, his personality is still quite interesting. He had a great burden placed upon him when he was extremely young, and is handling it fairly well. I did enjoy his scenes, especially because he seems like a fairly thoughtful guy, still, though, I just can't help but be a little put off by his romance with Shazi. It's a good romance, if not for the fact that he killed her best friend. I understand why he did it, but it still doesn't sit well with me. Not that I really blame Khalid for that, it just makes me a little estranged from the romance and Shazi. 
Tariq is Shazi's first boyfriend. I read in another review someone calling him a lovesick puppy. Yeah, I have to agree with that. He's sweet and will do anything for Shazi-- including rebelling against the Caliph. While I know the romance is all about Khalid and Shazi (because that's literally the whole point of the book), I still enjoyed Tariq's character. Same with Rahim, Shazi's other childhood friend. Rahim brought many smiles out of me whilst I was reading, which I greatly appreciated. 
Jalal is another character whose scenes I quite enjoyed. He's a good side character and friend to those in the books-- steadfast and loyal. Two qualities that I deeply appreciate. He, too, brought quite a few smiles to my face. I'm looking forward to reading more about him in the next book. 
Oh! I almost forgot. Another reason I wasn't particularly attached to the romance-- it felt an awful lot like instalove to me. And if there's one thing you should know about me and romances, it's that I absolutely hate instalove. 
"Strong enough to take on the world with our bare hands, yet we permit ridiculous boys to make fools of us." 
As I mentioned before, the plot was definitely not the best part of the book. It was predicable and not particulalry riveting. I had no issue putting it down while I shopped around in the airport looking for food. While there were some not fantastic elements to the book, and I believe it to be extremely overhyped, I did find myself enjoying some of the qualities. Therefore I would give The Wrath & the Dawn 6.8/10 stars. Not incredable, but not bad either. I do intend to be reading the next book soon. 
Synopsis: 

One Life to One Dawn.

In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all.

Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this possible? It's an unforgivable betrayal. Still, Shahrzad has come to understand all is not as it seems in this palace of marble and stone. She resolves to uncover whatever secrets lurk and, despite her love, be ready to take Khalid's life as retribution for the many lives he's stolen. Can their love survive this world of stories and secrets?

Inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, The Wrath and the Dawn is a sumptuous and enthralling read from beginning to end.
​
Anyway, thanks for reading!
​-Anj

Looking for a good fantasy series? Fan of Game of Thrones? Enjoy romance, suspence and action? Well, you've come to the right place. Even if you don't like Game of Thrones that much, but do highly enjoy fantasy books, I will have to highly reccomend the Falling Kingdoms Series by Morgan Rhodes. Just as a warning, the first book is not very good, but the series only gets better and better from there on out. 
I don't encourage reading this review any further if you have yet to read any other books in the series, as this review will contain spoilers to the previous books. The only thing I have to say to that is READ THE PREVIOUS BOOKS! This series definitely does not have the amount of fans it deserves. I really hope more people discover it soon, because Falling Kingdoms is one of my favorite series and I REALLY NEED SOMEONE TO TALK TO ABOUT IT. 
Anyway, I've been (impatiently) waiting a whole year for this book, ever since I finished Frozen Tides  (I finished it the same day I got it meaning I've been waiting for a very long time.) Let me just start the review out by saying this, I was not disppointed. 
The most impressive thing about this series is that it had my opinion on a character take a complete 360.
Here's how my opinions on the main characters went: 
Falling Kingdoms: 
Cleo- love
Jonas- Okay
Lucia- absolutely hate
Magnus- absolutely hate

Rebel Spring-
Cleo- still love
Jonas- enjoy 
Lucia- still absolutely hate
Magnus- hate, but slightly interested in his character

Gathering Darkness-
Cleo- love love love
Jonas- like
Lucia- absolutely hate
Magnus- dislike, but I see a light in his character

Frozen Tides- 
Cleo- love love love
Jonas- like 
Lucia- absolutely hate x10 
Magnus- Oh my god, I love him so much he's my little cinnamon roll

Crystal Storm- 
Cleo- love love love
Jonas- like
Lucia- hate, but taken out an absolutely. She's still annoying. 
Magnus- MY BABY DON'T HURT HIM! 

Yeah, as you can see, there is a big change with my opninion on Magnus. He's my litle baby. Okay, not that little, but still. (Sorry, I just have to mention how much I love the image of how short Cleo is next to Magnus. COUPLE GOALS) 
The plot was quick, maybe a little too quick. But that also might be just because I read the book incredably fast and it seemed like it ended too soon, as all good books do. There were some elements and parts to the book where I was like ??? or a little disappointed in the route that it took, but all in all I loved this book just as much as its predecessor. 
In this book we get to see a lot more into the mind of Amara, as well as MAGNEO. There is plenty of action and angst. Sorry, I just have to say now that I enjoy the drama-y angst that some others may have found annoying in the book. I liked it just because I know they'll be together in the end, so why not have some fun toying with the characters' feelings? 
Since I don't have much elese to say on Magnus and Cleo other than glowy, hapy fangirl comments, I guess I'll just move on to some other characters and events. 
Jonas? I enjoyed him in this book, though, I still think his "romance" with Lysandra feels a bit forced (even though Lysandra is dead.) I just never really felt his romance with her, because the whole time he seemed more interested in Cleo and not even subconciously showing much romantic interest in Lysandra. 
The on thing I really don't like much about these books (aside from Lucia) are the deaths. They happen so quickly that most of the time, they don't exactly feel very meaningful. When killing of main characters, you really want readers to feel the impact of it. A lot of the time the impact is not felt in these books-- like with Lysandra's death. 
I did enjoy Jonas' journey throughout the book-- even when he ran into Lucia, I enjoyed him. Just not Lucia. Though, there was a plot that was happenig with Jonas that I have to say I found myself feeling very confused about. When you read it, I think you'll probably know which one I'm talking about. 
Lucia. I didn't hate her nearly as much as I did in previous books, but I still found her to be incredably aggravating and kinda wished she'd just DIE ALREADY. 
Taran-- remember him? He's Theon's twin. I totally thought he was going to come back and stir up all kinds of trouble for Magneo-- something I was really looking forward to reading about. Unfortunately, that route was not taken and he took a backseat in the story along with Felix. (I enjoyed their friendship, if that's what you can call it.) 
Felix I found to be absolutely hilarious. Especially his interactions with Amara. The "Oops, guess I forgot to catch you" was just so perfect that it had me laughing out loud for a solid minute or two. 
Amara? How do I feel about her? EH. Neutral. I can see where she's coming from with her want for power and stuff, but I still can't entirely be with her because she is working against my baes. 
Sorry this review is so choppy, I just wrote three others and really am not in the mood. But I need to get this done, and also I don't have much to say about this book other than I LOVED IT. IT WAS FANTASTIC. and READ IT NOW. 
Just gonna briefly mention the ending here. W. T. LITERAL. F. I know everything is going to turn out fine, I really do. BUT I NEED MORE. I NEED THE NEXT BOOK NOW. I NEED MORE MAGNEO. I NEED IT. LITERALLY WHY DO I HAVE TO FUDGING WAIT FOR ANOTHER WHOLE FUDGING YEAR?! WHAT IS THIS?!!!! Well... As you can see I have very dramatic feelings abou the ending of the book and am highly looking forward to the release of the next one. 
I finished this book after I took a math test, and I guess I was making faces at it, because my math teacher actually came over and wrote down the name of the book to check out later lol. 
I'm giving Crystal Storm 8/10 stars because it was absolutely fantastic and I just cannot wait until the release of the final book. Until then, I'll just be crying and dying. 
Here's the synopsis: 
An epic clash between gods and mortals threatens to tear Mytica apart . . . and prove that not even the purest of love stands a chance against the strongest of magic.

MAGNUS and CLEO are forced to test the strength of their love when Gaius returns to Mytica claiming he's no longer the King of Blood but a changed man seeking redemption.

LUCIA, pregnant with the child of a Watcher, has escaped the clutches of the unhinged fire god. Her powers are dwindling as she goes forth to fulfill a prophecy that will keep her baby safe . . . but could mean her demise. 

JONAS treks back to Mytica with a plan to overtake Amara, but fate takes hold when he runs into the beautiful Princess Lucia and joins her on her perilous journey.

AMARA has taken the Mytican throne, but with no way to unleash the water magic trapped within her stolen crystal, she'll never be able to seize glory and get sweet revenge.

And what kind of darkness will descend--and who will be safe--after Prince Ashur reveals the dangerous price he paid to cheat death?

Thanks for reading, 
​Anj

Trilogies are hard. They either do not have enough books, and all the information feels crammed or there is not enough information and it feels like the books are just stretched out to gain more profit. There are hardly any trilogies where the majority of the readers find that the books have the perfect pacing, and right amount of material. Unfortunately, Strange and Ever After does not fall in to the minority. 
My feelings about this book are complicated to say the least. I enjoyed it as a book, but not as a finale. There were scenes in it that left me wondering what the point of them were. They weren't exacrly relevant to the plot, and they just seemed like they were there to add unecesarry drama and tension that was resolved a few pages later. And then by the end, dramatic and traumatizing things happen in the final scene. I didn't actually find myself feeling nearly as traumatized as I knew I should have been. 
Without a doubt, the first book is defintiely the best. While sure, it was predictable, it was a spunky and fun read. I loved the way all the characters were portrayed and I loved the pacing. In the second and third book however, I found myself not liking the portrayal of some of the characters (namely Daniel) and getting rather bored and or irritable with the plot. And not the good irritable where it means I am invested. 
While these are my ciritisms, I also just need to state that I did really enjoy this book. It had some great elements, I just found myself feeling disappointed with it as a finale and with its own ending. The beginning of this book started strong, and it was fun and intrugiung. I find it hard to connect the beginning of this book and the end in my head just because they are so different. In my mind, they're too seperate books. I like this book, I really did, but I also got throughly annoyed with some aspects of the story as well. 
The main setting of this story would probably be in Egypt. I really liked that each book took place in a different setting since Eleanor's dream was to travel the world, and she did, just not in the manner that she expected. 
Something I kept forgetting while reading this book was the impossibly short time frame the second and third book take place in. The events that happen in the end of the second book to the end of the third book couldn't have been more than a week. For me, it seemed like a lot longer, but then they'd mention the time and I'd be astonished. 
Okay, now I am going to start complaining a bit. Something that irked me a bunch was Eleanor's insistance on blaming all her problems on Oliver. NONE OF THEM ARE OLIVER'S FAULT. THEY'RE ALL HER FAULT. It just aggravated me so much when she did that because NO. Yeah, like I said before I fell in love with Oliver. While I liked Oliver in the second book, it was really this one that made me fall in love with him, especially after I realized there was nothing for me to be suspicious about. Though, once Eleanor accepted that she was the one screwing everything up and that Oliver was only trying (kind of) to help, I really came to appreciate the bond and relationship between the two. 
All in all, I would have to give this book a 6.8/10 stars, not quite good enough to be a 7, but it wasn't horrible. I just find myself being disappointed when I think about all the routes the story coudl have taken. Anyway, sorry for the short, choppy review-- it's been a while since I actaully read the book. Thanks for read! -Anj

Synopsis: 

In the conclusion to the trilogy that Publishers Weekly called “a roaring—and addictive—gothic world,” Eleanor Fitt must control her growing power, face her feelings for Daniel, and confront the evil necromancer Marcus...all before it’s too late.

With supernatural forces, epic romance, and a mysterious Egyptian city, Eleanor and her team are set for an adventure they will never forget.

It has been a tumultuous time for Eleanor Fitt since life as she knew it in Philadelphia came abruptly to an end. Although the Spirit-Hunters Joseph, Jie, and Daniel have helped her survive, Eleanor has lost just about everything.

And now, Jie is missing taken by the evil necromancer Marcus. Eleanor is determined not only to get her back but to finally end this nightmare. To do so, she must navigate the hot desert streets of nineteenth-century Egypt amid the rising Dead, her unresolved feelings for Daniel, and her volatile relationships with Joseph and Oliver, her demon. And it won't be easy. Because Allison, her friend from Philadelphia, has tagged along, becoming strangely entangled in Eleanor's mission.

It will take all of Eleanor's powers of black magic, and all of Daniel's and Joseph's trust, to succeed. But there will be a price.