Love from the Stars, to the Stars || The Rose & the Dagger Review

rosedagger-review

Initial Thoughts:

As the second–and concluding–book of The Wrath & the Dawn duology, it delivered all the promises the first book made. And it did so with a language that was a mixture of poetry and song, in a setting that was filled with wonder and magic–both literally and metaphorically. And hot damn. Those characters and their sort of…togetherness. Loved them to bits.

THE ROSE & THE DAGGER

by Renee Ahdieh
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, April 2016
YA fairy tale fantasy
Rated: 5 / 5 cookies

The darker the sky, the brighter the stars.

In a land on the brink of war, Shahrzad is forced from the arms of her beloved husband, the Caliph of Khorasan. She once thought Khalid a monster—a merciless killer of wives, responsible for immeasurable heartache and pain—but as she unraveled his secrets, she found instead an extraordinary man and a love she could not deny. Still, a curse threatens to keep Shazi and Khalid apart forever.

Now she’s reunited with her family, who have found refuge in the desert, where a deadly force is gathering against Khalid—a force set on destroying his empire and commanded by Shazi’s spurned childhood sweetheart. Trapped between loyalties to those she loves, the only thing Shazi can do is act. Using the burgeoning magic within her as a guide, she strikes out on her own to end both this terrible curse and the brewing war once and for all. But to do it, she must evade enemies of her own to stay alive.

The saga that began with The Wrath and the Dawn takes its final turn as Shahrzad risks everything to find her way back to her one true love again.

Note: As The Rose & the Dagger is the second–and final–book of The Wrath & the Dawn, expect spoilers from the first book.

Last We Heard…

Not too long ago (read: less than a month ago, actually), I’d listened and reviewed The Wrath & the Dawn in preparation for a book signing I was attending the same month. If I’d liked the book well enough, I was determined to own both hardcovers, because hey, it’s a duology, which meant Rose would conclude the story I fell in love with in Wrath.

Which meant an end to the cliffhanger of book one. Which I had fortunately only finished weeks back, so my wait for book two was not as long as most people who’d read Wrath and gone “WHAT. YOU CAN’T LEAVE US HERE. NOOOO. WANT. MORE.”

So by the end of the first book, I had a ton of questions I wanted answered, like, NOW.

Clearly the duology is a love story first and foremost, between Shazi and Khalid. But how does Tariq deal? Is he going to the path of eeeeeevil or does he redeem himself? Do we see more than a glance of Irsa for once? How are the people in Rey dealing with the aftermath of the fire? Are Jalal and the Rajput hanging on? Will Despina and Jalal work through their angsty romance? Is Musa going to re-feature now that it’s clear magic runs in the al-Khayzurans? Is Shazi going to fly her magic carpet back to Rey? Is Khalid going to be separated from Shazi the entire book? ARE PEOPLE GOING TO DIE?!

Yeah, soooo many questions. And theories. And nervousness. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if the second book would live up to the first, and I adored the first.

I shouldn’t have worried. My glass ceiling was shattered enough times and I will say I loved The Rose & the Dagger much more than I did the first book.

And let me tell you why.

The Story is Practically a Love Poem

“Where is your heart, Shahrzad al-Khayzuran?” His voice was coarse in its insistence.

In an alley by the souk. In a night of oblivion.

In the promise of tomorrow.

First of all, Ahdieh writes beautifully. It could probably explain why, when I listened to the audiobook of Wrath, I was moved and soothed by the narration. It was lyrical and poetic and magical, and most of all, it told the story of Scheherazade in a way I’d often imagined it being told. I have yet to read Wrath in text form, but I plan to, if only to read the bits and pieces I loved in the retelling.

She’d always loved dusk. It was as though a hand in the sky had pulled the sun from its berth…only to have the sun fight back, resisting, leaving a trace of itself to fade amongst the stars.

Of course, with beautiful writing comes beautifully quotable descriptions. I mean, egads, the amount of times I’d taken pictures of pages just so I can quote them in this review.

The wonder of Shahrzad. Shazi goes through a lot of angst–and growth–throughout the two books. By Rose she’s able to temper a number of her emotions. She is no longer as angry as she had been in Wrath, and she has a couple of goals in mind that she wants to see through. One is to help her father. The other is to figure out Khalid’s curse. Another is to fix the mess of the impending war between two powerful nations. And only by figuring these things out will she finally be able to go Home. And yes, I capitalize that for a reason.

“Since you can’t say it, will you at least tell me how much you love me?”

“From the stars, to the stars.”

Khalid you beautifully dangerous man, you. Okay, I will admit it now. I fell in love with Khalid. I mean, I loved him in Wrath. How could I not with his lovely poetic letters and his flashing golden eyes and his expert swordsmanship? (I honestly had to tell myself “Whoah, Mari, down, the guy’s an effing serial killer, remember that?” And yes, I am aware things get better because there’s a reason behind his dilemma–which has lots to do with the ruthless calculus of curses and death.) He still constantly makes quips that made me squee every single time. And like Shazi, he struggles and grows.

The magic is real. And there’s much more of it in Rose, to a point where Shazi comes to her own magic–with the help of the people at the Fire Temple. Musa was lovely, but it was Artan that held my attention. Artan Temujin is first introduced in Rose and I have to say I loved him from the getgo. He’s an interesting fellow, and if there is any spinoff novel to be made in this world, I’d totally love it to be about Artan and his dysfunctional family (and maybe Irsa, because WHY NOT). Who knows, there may even be djinn involved, OH MY GOD HOW AWESOME WOULD THAT BE?!

Character arcs are actually concluded. Even the secondary characters have conclusions, and I was actually quite glad with how Tariq’s story panned out. Not that that says much, considering there were storylines that made me cry at the end, and one particular scene that almost made me want to throw the book out the window. But I didn’t. I held out. Thank the spirits I held out.

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