The Rose And The Dagger Book Review

The Rose & the Dagger by Renee Ahdieh
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Actual Rating : 4.5

In a storm of magic , true love and captivating events , Renée Ahdieh splendidly concludes this lushly imagined duology where true love struggles against all odds . and regardless to the wrath and the dawn being originally inspired from a thousand and one Arabian nights it can be a classic tale of its own .

this rich world building , it sucks you in a world of harsh desert and luxurious palaces , of tombs and magical creatures .
it radiates some type of luxury , you feel pride lurking from the book and every single character is an individual essence .

our two main characters , shahrazad the silver tongued , brave and limitless heroine .

"Are you worth all this trouble,beautiful one?"
"I think beauty is rarely worth the trouble but I am worth a great deal more than what you see."

and khalid the beautiful disaster with regal arrogance and temper .

“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.”

In the land of war among empires , Shahrzad has been torn from the love of her husband Khalid , the Caliph of Khorasan . She once believed him a monster, then discovered non but a tormented man burdened by a powerful curse .
Reunited with her family, who have taken refuge with the badawi trip . she should be happy. But what about all the hate those against khalid are flaring , and the plots knitted against him .
struggling to find her way back to where she belongs , she devises a plan.

i am surprised by the phenomenal character development. how shahrzad and khalid were never hesitant , they were always sure of their love , determined to create a world for it to further bloom
in here a love triangle is no worry as it doesn't even exist .

the space the author gave for secondary characters and how many of them had an important role in this book like despina and irsa , is really nice .
and sometimes while reading you come across characters like Vicram Singh , they are like transporters of the writer message at some point when its needed
i think we needed to know more about this rajput .

then the writing style described things in a way they may shimmer in your imagination
and with all the magic it felt incredible .

"the moon was a half disc of alabaster , in the distance , the clouds churned in tenebrous suggestion "

this. book. is. very. well. written.
Renee ahdieh. I. Love. her. choice. of. words. !

besides , there were uncountable number of plot twists , betrayal and plotting and then fighting scenes in which the metal to metal sounds can almost ring in your ears .

you may think the setting is Arabic , but its not totally as the names Khalid ,Tariq , Rahim and so on are Arabic with the falcons and the desert enviroment still names like shahrazad and despina are Persian and the land of khorasan is Persian as well
and while i was thinking about these two settings i was surprised by the mention of vermilion and noticing the rajput name is vikram with all these "mera dost" thing , an indian setting was added
so the setting is generally ORIENTAL and really i love it
and as an Arabic girl whose a big fan of Indian movies you can imagine why , its too familiar , it felt like home ..

and look at the covers of these books , they are too beautiful !




This book was awesome but i didn't rate it 5 for one sole reason which is The End
it was good but i think it left nothing for our imagination .
i mean ends are art !
the story should end somewhere that it lends a closure yet still leaves some space for your imagination to take place .
to tell me that they had a child years after is definitely unnecessary because i can tell this gonna happen myself . i needed something explosive for the end , a happily ever after hardly is .

but still what am i saying ! This doulogy is one more world that wont leave my insides , a story that was never a waste of time , sometimes you read book's series and they end there when you close the last book and sometimes ! they just don't .
they live in you and flourish afterwards and this is a one .

some one would ask "how much is that you admire this series" i would reply with a quote from it :

“From the stars, to the stars.”

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