Review: The Crown and the Arrow - Renee Ahdieh

Seventy-one days and seventy-one nights had come and gone since Khalid began killing his brides. This dawn, Khalid would mark the loss of the seventy-second girl, Shahrzad al-Khayzuran. Khalid didn’t know how many more of these dawns he could take. And there was something about this latest girl that piqued his interest. Not only had she volunteered to marry him, but at their wedding ceremony, she had seemed not the least bit afraid. In fact, what he had seen in her eyes was nothing short of pure hatred. She was about to lose her life. Why wasn’t she afraid? Why did she hate him so? He had never before gone to his wife’s chambers before her death at dawn. Tonight would be different.

The Wrath and the Dawn Duology:
The Moth and the Flame (Short Story)
The Crown and the Arrow (Free Short Story)
The Wrath and the Dawn
The Mirror and the Maze (Short Story)
The Rose and the Dagger

Visit Renee Ahdieh's website for more information

Review:
Although The Crown and the Arrow is set right at the beginning of The Wrath and the Dawn and technically considered a prequel I'd actually recommend reading the full length novel first because you'll appreciate this story much more if you're already familiar with the characters. It's not long enough on it's own to let you get to know anyone so I don't think it would have as much of an impact if you read it first.

This is basically Khalid and Shahrzad's first meeting but from his point of view rather than hers and I did enjoy getting to see what he was thinking when he found out that she volunteered to be his next bride.

It seems a bit petty to complain about the length of a free short story (this is around 9 pages long) but I really would have loved more from Khalid's point of view. I'm definitely looking forward to finding out how the story ends in The Rose and the Dagger though.

Source: Free Kindle book from Amazon

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