Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart.

But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Her handwriting, a reflection of her personality is described as 'imperious and heavy-handed.In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. 'A vision who speaks,' is what she says to a visiting king when he comments on her dress. She is a bit of a feminist, and wishes that people would not see her for only her beauty but also the person she is inside.

She is fiercely loyal and will always protect what she believes in, but perceptive enough to give Khalid the benefit of the doubt instead of immediately avenging her friend. She is also clever, as she entrances Khalid by telling her a story she can never finish in order to survive the dawn.

Sharhzad is stubborn and has a fiery temper. However, Khalid will not allow it, having fallen for her in turn, and sends her away when her childhood friends and accomplices storm the castle to rescue her, ending the first book. Sharhzad plans to get close to Khalid and assassinate him, but she finds herself accidentally falling for him instead.ĭetermined not to let that deter her, she maintains her composure until she learns Khalid's secret and the blood curse, after which she is willing to be killed in order to save Korasan. Khalid is cursed with insomnia and the land with drought if he does not sacrifice his brides each morning, a blood curse of the grieving father of his first bride. She volunteers out of grief for her best friend, Shiva, who was killed by the Caliph, Khalid. Sharhrzad is the first to volunteer to be the Caliph of Korasan's bride. She is the main protagonist of the series The Wrath & the Dawn. Shahrzad al-Khayzuran is the 16-year-old daughter of Jahandar al-Khayzuran and the Calipha of Korasan.

The wrath and the dawn by renée ahdieh