#renée ahdieh

[slaughter-books]

Day 6: JOMPBPC: Red Books

❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

[bookaddict24-7]

New Young Adult Releases! (December 5th, 2023)

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Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

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New Standalones/First in a Series:

Every Time You Go Away by Abigail Johnson

Make Me A Liar by Melissa Landers

Caught in a Bad Fauxmance by Elle Gonzalez Rose

New Sequels:

This Cursed Light (The Last Finestra #2) by Emily Thiede

Dark Heir (Dark Rise #2) by C.S. Pacat

The Ruined (The Beautiful #4) by Renée Ahdieh

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Happy reading!

[libinih28]

"not even the rain has such small hands"

-- ee cummings

"for nothing, not the sun, not the rain, not even the brightest star in the darkest sky, could begin to compare to the wonder of you"

-- renée ahdieh

[scentedsstuff]

The Wrath & The Dawn

By Renée Ahdieh

Rating: 2/5 ⭐️

Coming off from the excitement of having finished The Sands of Arawiya duology I wanted to keep within the Middle Eastern based fantasy books and that's how I ended up reading 'The Wrath & The Dawn.'

Quick Plot Summary:

It's a retelling of the One Thousand and One Nights tale, where Khalid, the young Caliph of Khorasan, claims a bride every night and by dawn she dies.

This is where our main character Shahrzad is introduced. Having lost her best friend to the Caliph, she devises a plan of revenge that would see the end of his murderous reign once and for all. But ofcourse, not everything goes to plan as Shahrzad comes to discover that there is more to the Caliph than what meets the eye.

Thoughts:

This book was an interesting read, that's for sure. It had its moments but ultimately lacked direction (this is mostly applicable to the 2nd book and the series as a whole but these problems do find their footing in the 1st book).

To start off on the positive, I liked the very beginning of the book. The mystery, the allure of the tales that Shahrzad would tell, these drew me in immediately as a lover of fantasy and folklore.

Unfortunately, as the book continued I found that there was less that I liked and there are a number of reasons why.

1. The main character

I'd say it's a no brainer that if the main character isn't that likeable, the book becomes less tolerable the more you read it.

Our main protagonist Shahrzad is presented to the reader as the epitome of a YA protagonist. She's said to be cunning, fearless, and a skilled archer, to name a few, but through out the book she comes across as this careless, and short tempered girl who couldn't keep anything to herself if she tried.

She talks about getting revenge on the Caliph, but does very little in actually carrying out these plans. Her so called 'revenge plan' only lasts a few days before she starts catching feelings for the Caliph. This leads into yet another rant of mine regarding this book;

2. The Romance.

In my opinion it is both fortunate and unfortunate that I consider the romance to be the most entertaining part of both this first book and the second.

On one hand the chemistry was there, despite complications and obstacles faced I eventually ended up liking the idea of these 2 main characters together.

Did it develop much quicker than I would have liked? YES, but eventually, due to the writing (which I did enjoy for the most part), I grew to like them as a couple.

On the other hand, I couldn't bring myself to care about much else, and that is most definitely a problem because I found myself skimming through parts of the book that weren't related to this.

3. The Magic System

Again, this is a fantasy book that has its own magic system and yet, we see so little of it. It is touched upon maybe once or twice with the main character but after that not much is mentioned until the second book, which in my opinion is a little too late to be introducing your readers to a whole new magic system, especially in a duology. If it is supposed to be a component that exists within a world you've already set up, it's not something you just throw in later but should be established more thoroughly as a foundation in the world building.

And these were just the points I wanted to expand upon the most. Pair this with characters that were mediocre at best, and a tendency to drag out descriptions and there's only so much I can like in the book.

All in all it was another 2 star read for me. Here's hoping the next book I post about reaches above 2 stars.

[gothichoi]

currently reading — the damned by renée ahdieh

❝ Another moment. And another. My life is reduced to nothing but these stolen moments.❞

[bookcoversonly]

Title: The Ruined | Author: Renée Ahdieh | Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books (2023)

[flowerish-cherry-blue]

book review: the beautiful by renée ahdieh | 2019

summary:

in 1872, new orleans is a city ruled by the dead. but to seventeen-year-old celine rousseau, new orleans provides her a refuge after she's forced to flee her life as a dressmaker in paris. taken in by the sisters of the ursuline convent along with six other girls, celine quickly becomes enamored with the vibrant city from the music to the food to the soirées and—especially—to the danger. she soon becomes embroiled in the city's glitzy underworld, known as la cour des lions, after catching the eye of the group's leader, the enigmatic sébastien saint germain. when the body of one of the girls from the convent is found in the lair of la cour des lions, celine battles her attraction to him and suspicions about sébastien's guilt along with the shame of her own horrible secret.

when more bodies are discovered, each crime more gruesome than the last, celine and new orleans become gripped by the terror of a serial killer on the loose — one celine is sure has set her in his sights . . . and who may even be the young man who has stolen her heart. as the murders continue to go unsolved, celine takes matters into her own hands and soon uncovers something even more shocking: an age-old feud from the darkest creatures of the underworld reveals a truth about celine she always suspected simmered just beneath the surface.

my opinion:

wow, it may have taken me a little while to read it, but geez, that was good. the author's style and language surprised me, all the descriptions, the intrigue... It was something.

i didn't immediately realize where this book was supposed to be about vampires, as that part was revealed almost at the end. and overall I started reading because it was in top rated for vampires. gosh, and that raft twist about the killer － i know that so many authors who write about that time use that trick, kind of making the killer look like jack the ripper. and even though it sounds fullish, I like it a lot, it adds a kind of detective flavor that i sometimes miss in books.

as i noted above, i enjoyed the language and writing style of renée ahdieh, for those who are non-native speakers like me, I think this is a great opportunity to improve vocabulary, honestly.

by the way, i want to note that before this, i did not come across books with a setting in new orleans - i think it's a pity that i read the story about this city so late. as someone who is obsessed with french culture and writing stories about it, i was incredibly happy to get a taste of how french culture permeated this city, which seemed to me to be a direct embodiment of melting pot.

perhaps i should point out the following, because books always have two sides, just like coins:

• as i said, i liked the author's language, it will help those who are learning the language. but at the same time, that was the problem. as a non-native speaker, it was sometimes very difficult to wade through the pages of descriptions. just imagine, four pages, of descriptions of some closet. !not literally!

• the plot, this is going to sound strange, but it was a little primitive. just a little bit. and i don't see anything wrong with that in this case. but literally from the introduction chapter of the killer, i knew it was a jack the ripper protégé. when celine and bastien crossed paths, i understood who is with whom, and i also get who pippa will be with, literally one meeting of the four was enough for me.

• again, i really liked the new orleans setting - how many times have i read about london, paris and new york? it was something new to me that i really enjoyed and i can't wait to read more about the history of this city.

• i was a little disappointed in the choice of character who turned out to be a murderer. i swear i thought detective grimaldi or nico saint germain was the killer: michael is bastien's nemesis, nicodemus － why not. I was saddened by the introduction of an unknown character as the killer, and certainly his puppet didn't seem like a good choice at all.

• you can kill me all you want, but nicodemus saint germain is not a pleasant character. i was waiting for him to show up after the description odette provided, but here he is and the first thing he does is threaten celine, trying to intimidate her. then he refuses to save his own nephew, literally the whole court of the lions was built to protect sébastien and here, he twirls his nose, saying that if he helps, all his efforts will go to waste. oh man, i thought better of you and now, are you kidding me?

finishing, i highly recommend reading this book. seriously, I haven't read such a good vampire book for a long, well except for the coldest girl in coldtown, that's the number one favorite, but we'll talk about it next time maybe. this book has everything i love, from enemies to lovers, vampires, magic, and most importantly humor, it was really entertaining to read this book.

my rating:

4.4/5

«a snake?» pippa squeaked, looking for all the world as if she wanted to melt into the paneled wall at her back. «what kind of person has a pet snake?»

«lucifer,» celine said in a flat voice. «lucifer would have a pet snake.»

[betterbooksandthings]

“YA lost heir fantasy books are a staple of the YA fantasy genre. You cannot look me in the eye and tell me you aren’t obsessed with an unlikely heir who claws their way out of obscurity to reclaim their ancestral throne. There are dresses and sword fights and monsters and subterfuge, and even a bit of romance. It’s fun, I promise.

Runaway heirs have their reasons for getting out. But, in the lost heir trope, there is an understanding that they will have to come back. A kingdom is about to crumble under the rule of a cruel tyrant. A too-young heir must now reclaim their throne. Even better — a teen with an unknown royal lineage discovers they now have to rule. These books all have a lost teen heir to something and are often in a fantasy setting of some kind.“

[asoftepiloguemylove]

i want a love that falls as fast as a body from the balcony / and i want a kiss like my heart is hitting the ground

Renée Ahdieh The Wrath and the Dawn / unknown / Mohammed Zarir in a letter to T.M. (2019) / unknown / unknown / Natalie Wee Our Bodies & Other Fine Machines / unknown / Anne Sexton Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters / Euripides (Anne Carson) Grief Lessons: Four Plays

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🌸 Books for AAPI Month

❤️ Celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with this list featuring some of the FEW empowering, vibrant stories written by AAPI authors or starring AAPI protagonists.

🌸 What books did you read for AAPI month?

✨ 2024 Releases ❤️ Night for Day - Roselle Lim 🌸 The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years - Shubnum Khan 🏮The Great Reclamation - Rachel Heng ❤️ Lies and Weddings - Kevin Kwan 🌸 Valley Verified - Kyla Zhao 🏮 The Catch - Amy Lea ❤️ Your Utopia - Bora Chung 🌸 Tehrangeles - Porochista Khakpour 🏮 Horse Barbie - Geena Rocero ❤️ Memory Piece - Lisa Ko 🌸 The Fetishist - Katherine Min 🏮 Real Americans - Rachel Khong ❤️ The Kamogawa Food Detectives - Hisashi Kashiwai 🌸 Manila Takes Manhattan - Carla de Guzman 🏮 The Last Phi Hunter - Salinee Goldenberg and Ilya Nazarov ❤️ May the Best Player Win - Kyla Zhao 🌸 Are You Nobody Too? - Tina Cane 🏮 The Design of Us - Sajni Patel ❤️ Welcome to the Hyunam-Dong Bookshop - Hwang Bo-Reum 🌸 Heir - Sabaa Tahir 🏮 Maya's Laws of Love - Alina Khawaj ❤️ Midnights with You - Clare Osongco 🌸 Vilest Things - Chloe Gong 🏮 This Place is Magic - Irene Te ❤️ Guilt and Ginataan - Mia P. Manansal 🌸 Icon and Inferno - Marie Lu 🏮 Calling of Light - Lori M. Lee ❤️ Bite Me, Royce Taslim - Lauren Ho 🌸 Rules for Rule Breaking - Talia Tucker 🏮 What's Eating Jackie Oh? - Patricia Park ❤️ How to End a Love Story - Yulin Kuang 🌸 Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White - Amélie Wen Zhao 🏮 This Is How You Fall in Love - Anika Hussain ❤️ Just Playing House - Farah Heron 🌸 The Boyfriend Wish - Swati Teerdhala 🏮 A Tempest of Tea - Hafsah Faizal

✨ Romance ❤️ Dating Dr. Dil - Nisha Sharma 🌸 King of Wrath - Ana Huang 🏮 The Kiss Quotient - Helen Hoang ❤️ Girl Gone Viral - Alisha Rai 🌸 Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors - Sonali Dev 🏮 Role Playing - Cathy Yardley ❤️ The Hurricane Wars - Thea Guanzon 🌸 Ayesha at Last - Uzma Jalaluddin

✨ Fantasy ❤️ She Who Became the Sun - Shelley Parker-Chan 🌸 Babel - R.F. Kuang 🏮 Daughter of the Moon Goddess - Sue Lynn Tan ❤️ The Deep Sky - Yume Kitasei 🌸 The Jasmine Throne - Tasha Suri 🏮 Kaikeyi - Vaishnavi Patel ❤️ Light from Uncommon Stars - Ryka Aoki 🌸 Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

✨ Mystery ❤️ Arsenic and Adobo - Mia P. Manansala 🌸 Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers - Jesse Q. Sutanto 🏮 The Cartographers - Peng Shepherd ❤️ Miracle Creek - Angie Kim 🌸 A Disappearance in Fiji - Nilima Rao 🏮 The Leftover Woman - Jean Kwok ❤️ The Widows of Malabar Hill - Sujata Massey 🌸 Things We Do in the Dark - Jennifer Hillier

✨ Young Adult ❤️ The Wrath and the Dawn - Renée Ahdieh 🌸 All My Rage - Sabaa Tahir 🏮 Forget Me Not - Alyson Derrick ❤️ Hani and Ishu’s Guide to Fake Dating - Adiba Jaigirdar 🌸 These Violent Delights - Chloe Gong 🏮 This Book Won't Burn - Samira Ahmed ❤️ American Betiya - Anuradha D. Rajurkar 🌸 Dragonfruit - Makiia Lucier

[arab-character-of-the-day]

Arab character of the day is Khalid, the deuteragonist from "The Wrath & the Dawn" novel + Webtoon by Renée Ahdieh.

[good-books-to-read]

Thirst for Vampire Books?

The Beautiful by Renée Ahdieh

Set in 1872 New Orleans, the main character Celine has run away from Paris with a dark secret, now hiding in convert, yet the bustle and charm of New Orleans could be hiding something much more sinister.

The immortal rules by Julie Kagawa

A YA dystopian set in a walled city, and there is not only Vampires but Zombie Vampires as well. The main character Allison struggles to survive with her crew and only thing keeping her going is her hatred for the vampires that keep them like cattle.

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

Is an adult book that is a dystopian written like a high fantasy novel, it starts of with a man Gabriel being interviewed by a vampire from there it bounces between past and present as the vampire tries to piece together the knowledge for it’s mistress.

Certain dark things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Set in Mexico, this book has many different kinds of vampires in it, the main characters are a jaded vampire on the run and a young man who collects garbage.

The coldest girl in cold town by Holly Black

A YA novel, that starts with the main character waking up in a bathtub after a night of partying only find everyone killed but a beautiful boy and her Ex, which leads to a road trip with the two that starts a chain of events that can’t be undone.

[haveyoureadthispoll]

Each spring, Ithaca condemns twelve maidens to the noose. This is the price vengeful Poseidon demands for the lives of Queen Penelope’s twelve maids, hanged and cast into the depths centuries ago. But when that fate comes for Leto, death is not what she thought it would be. Instead, she wakes on a mysterious island and meets a girl with green eyes and the power to command the sea. A girl named Melantho, who says one more death can stop a thousand. The prince of Ithaca must die—or the tides of fate will drown them all. Sarah Underwood weaves an epic tapestry of lies, love, and tragedy, perfect for fans of Madeline Miller, Alexandra Bracken, and Renée Ahdieh.

[libinih28]

"The soldier. The lifelong aggressor."

-- Renée Ahdieh

In a story, if a man means to do harm, he always arrives dressed as a soldier, whether he is a soldier or not.

-Gennarose Nethercott

[readerbookclub]

Hello everyone! A new month is approaching so I'm back with another list. This time, it's a collection of fairytale retellings! Hope you like it :)

As always, please remember to vote using the link at the end of the post. And now, onto the books...

Bryony and Roses, by T. Kingfisher

Bryony and her sisters have come down in the world. Their merchant father died trying to reclaim his fortune and left them to eke out a living in a village far from their home in the city.

But when Bryony is caught in a snowstorm and takes refuge in an abandoned manor, she stumbles into a house full of dark enchantments. Is the Beast that lives there her captor, or a fellow prisoner? Is the house her enemy or her ally? And why are roses blooming out of season in the courtyard?

Armed only with gardening shears and her wits, Bryony must untangle the secrets of the house before she—or the Beast—are swallowed by them.

Deerskin, by Robin McKinley

As Princess Lissla Lissar reaches womanhood, it is clear to all the kingdom that in her beauty she is the image of her dead mother, the queen. But this likeness forces her to flee from her father's lust and madness; and in the pain and horror of that flight she forgets who she is and what it is she flees from: forgets almost everything but the love and loyalty of her dog, Ash, who accompanies her. But a chance encounter on the road leads to a job in another king's kennels, where the prince finds himself falling in love with the new kennel maid . . . and one day he tells her of a princess named Lissla Lissar, who had a dog named Ash.

A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, Edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Chapman

Sixteen extraordinary authors—including New York Times bestsellers Melissa de la Cruz, Renée Ahdieh, and Julie Kagawa—reimagine the folklore and mythology of East and South Asia in short stories that are by turns enchanting, heartbreaking, romantic, and passionate. This exquisite paperback anthology includes an original bonus story from Ellen Oh. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly called A Thousand Beginnings and Endings a “must-read.”

A mountain loses her heart. Two sisters transform into birds to escape captivity. A young man learns the true meaning of sacrifice. A young woman takes up her mother’s mantle and leads the dead to their final resting place.

Bestselling and award-winning authors explore the timeless themes of East and South Asian lore in sixteen original stories that will appeal to every reader. From fantasy to science fiction to contemporary, from romance to tales of revenge, these stories will beguile readers from start to finish.

All the Ever Afters: The Untold Story of Cinderella's Stepmother, by Danielle Teller

We all know the story of Cinderella. Or do we?

As rumors about the cruel upbringing of beautiful newlywed Princess Cinderella roil the kingdom, her stepmother, Agnes, a woman who knows all too well about hardship, privately records the true story. But what unfolds is not the princess's history. The tale Agnes recounts is her own.

A peasant born into serfdom, Agnes is separated from her family and forced into servitude as a laundress’s apprentice at Aviceford Manor when she is just ten years old. Alone, friendless, and burdened with a grueling workload, Agnes carves a place for herself in this cold place that is home to Sir Emont Vis-de-Loup, a melancholic and capricious drunkard.

Using her wits and ingenuity, Agnes eventually escapes and makes her way toward a hopeful future, serving as a housemaid for the powerful Abbess Elfilda. But life once again holds unexpected, sometimes heartbreaking twists that lead Agnes back to Aviceford Manor, where she becomes nursemaid to Ella, Emont's sensitive, otherworldly daughter. Though she cares for Ella, Agnes struggles to love this child, who in time becomes her stepdaughter and, ultimately, the celebrated princess who embodies all our unattainable fantasies.

Bitter Greens, by Kate Forsyth

The amazing power and truth of the Rapunzel fairy tale comes alive for the first time in this breathtaking tale of desire, black magic and the redemptive power of love

French novelist Charlotte-Rose de la Force has been banished from the court of Versailles by the Sun King, Louis XIV, after a series of scandalous love affairs. At the convent, she is comforted by an old nun, Sœur Seraphina, who tells her the tale of a young girl who, a hundred years earlier, is sold by her parents for a handful of bitter greens...

After Margherita's father steals parsley from the walled garden of the courtesan Selena Leonelli, he is threatened with having both hands cut off, unless he and his wife relinquish their precious little girl. Selena is the famous red-haired muse of the artist Tiziano, first painted by him in 1512 and still inspiring him at the time of his death. She is at the center of Renaissance life in Venice, a world of beauty and danger, seduction and betrayal, love and superstition.

Locked away in a tower, Margherita sings in the hope that someone will hear her. One day, a young man does.

Vote for our next book here.