This week I finished The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh, my paperback, bedtime read.

It is absolutely sumptuous; the writing is some of the most beautiful I’ve ever come across. It’s a retelling of Scheherazade and the Thousand and One Nights, but with the blood-thirsty king replaced with a more sympathetic (and gorgeous) hero.

I did enjoy it, but I’ll admit to being disappointed by the ending. As well as our heroine Shazi’s willingness to sacrifice herself, which was entirely understandable but set my feminist hackles rising, it’s very incomplete. Having just gone onto Goodreads to grab a copy of the cover, I can see that it’s very much part of a series, but I’m starting to feel exhausted by the fact that nothing these days ever finishes.

Now, I appreciate that’s hypocritical for me to say, since I’ve started writing series because they sell. But just now and then it would be nice for something to just be itself and not part of a bigger story that you must see to the end.

But having said that, I’ll get the next because I really do want to see how the story progresses…