**A Fan's Perspective: Discussing "Song of Wraiths and Ruin" and "The Wrath and The Dawn" Series**

As a fan of fantasy novels, I recently had the opportunity to dive into two exciting series that left me eager for more. In this article, I'll be discussing my thoughts on "Song of Wraiths and Ruin" by Rosie Brown and "The Wrath and The Dawn" by Renée Ahdieh.

**"Song of Wraiths and Ruin" - A Promising Debut**

I had the chance to read "Song of Wraiths and Ruin", the first installment in Rosie Brown's duology, before its release. While I found some aspects of the story and world-building to be unoriginal, the setting and a lot of the magic felt fresh and exciting. The actual plot didn't feel super fresh either, but what really drew me in was the character development. I loved the characters, who felt like realistic people, and their struggles with very real-world issues made them relatable and endearing. The story itself had a lot of action, stress, and imagery that transported me to a beautiful city. I'm excited for the sequel, "A Psalm of Storms and Silence", which is set to be released on November 2nd. With Rosie's willingness to push back the release date to ensure her satisfaction with the story, I'm eager to see her growth as an author and how she chooses to develop the characters.

**"Song of Wraiths and Ruin" Plot and Characters**

The story follows Karina and Malik, two protagonists whose paths intertwine in a unique and complex way. Malik is a refugee who has lost his family and is struggling to survive, while Karina is the daughter of the sultana, facing her own struggles and losses. Both characters are forced into a situation where they must kill someone to save the people they love, which sets them on a journey of self-discovery and growth. The enemies-to-lovers dynamic between Malik and Karina is particularly compelling, with their banter and tension adding depth to their relationship. What I appreciated most about this story was its realism - the characters' struggles felt authentic and relatable, making it easy to become invested in their journeys.

**"The Wrath and The Dawn" Series - A Retelling of Arabian Nights**

Next up is the "Wrath and The Dawn" series by Renée Ahdieh, a retelling of the classic tale "1001 Nights". This story follows Shahrzad, a young woman who volunteers to be one of the brides of Khalid, the ruthless ruler who kills his brides after a single night. The spelling may be different, but the core elements of the original tale remain intact - including the mysterious and heartless nature of Khalid's behavior.

**The World-Building and Characters of "The Wrath and The Dawn"**

Shahrzad's motivations for volunteering herself as a bride are rooted in her desire to avenge the death of her best friend, who was killed by Khalid. As she navigates the complexities of palace life, Shahrzad must confront her own feelings and desires, all while trying to uncover the truth behind Khalid's actions. The world-building in this series is rich and immersive, with vivid descriptions of the city and its inhabitants. I appreciated how Ahdieh explored themes of identity, loyalty, and power, particularly through Shahrzad's character development.

**A Fan's Excitement for the Sequels**

Both "Song of Wraiths and Ruin" and "The Wrath and The Dawn" have left me eager for more. I'm excited to see how Rosie Brown develops the characters in her sequel, "A Psalm of Storms and Silence", and how Renée Ahdieh continues to weave the threads of Shahrzad's story in the second installment, "The Rose and The Dagger". Whether you're a fan of fantasy or romance, these series have something for everyone - so be sure to pick them up and join me on this reading journey!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enIt took me for a ride - this book took me for an absolute ride.I almost just said a really big spoiler so I'm going to stop.Six of Crows...hmm....Hi everyone it's Cari and this video is dedicatedto enemy of the state number one:Jennifer Lynn Barnes.And you might be thinking - what has shedone wrong? Let me tell you. Her crimes include: number one, writing a book that I wanted to writemyself which is the worst crime ever. But the most heinous of all is, she wrote a fantastic first  book, made me believe that that was going to be a duology, and that second book just came  out, I read it pretty much the day that it did come out and let's go watch an instant replay -Wow I am so excited to read the second and final book in the Inheritance Games duology!That was not a satisfying ending.I'm going to have to look this up on the internet.Cool cool cool.Okay, okay.That's fine.Enough of that. But really was I the only person that thought that the Inheritance  Games was going to be a duology? I specifically remember that being a thing. That's not a spoiler,it's gonna be a trilogy. You should still read it but  perhaps wait a little bit so that you aren't waiting another year for the last one as I -  I feel like I'm just - I got back on the same train, you know? So let's talk about actual  duologies, not this fake duology stuff. Could it have been my fault? Could I have just misunderstood?Yes, but we're still gonna blame Jennifer because I want to and this is my channel.  Talking about duologies, I actually have grown to really love them. I didn't know that they were  really a thing until I read Six of Crows, I think was the first duology that I read.  What I really love about duologies is that oftentimes standalones can be a little rushed  because you are working with less book space I suppose, but with a duology, the author is  able to throw in so many more twists and turns, you're able to go a little bit deeper into the  characters, like you just have more room to do things with. So I'm going to go through a few  duologies - just as a side note, originally Vicious by VE Schwab was going to be in here but she  has now stated that Vicious will be continued someday when she's not writing her 500 other books -  If you're wondering why my hair is different, man, I say one potentially controversial thing about  Six of Crows and my camera just shuts off. I recorded half of this video and half of it  just came out black. I was talking about Vicious. Continuity be damned, I'm going to have my hair up,I'm so sorry. VE Schwab said that she is continuing Vicious, it is no longer a duology. The same thing  has occurred with Six of Crows and I'm going to talk about that more at the end when I'm  talking about Six of Crows, yeah Six of Crows is potentially no longer in the duology category  either which is just messing with my life. Guys, stop telling me things are duologies and then  taking it back! But we are going to jump into actual duologies that are not lying to us.  Two of them are going to be completed very soon so you have just enough time to pick up the  first book and read it. So let's begin! Starting off with These Violent Delights and the sequel  and final book is Our Violent Ends which is coming out potentially on November 16th. So These Violent  Delights is a retelling of Romeo and Juliet but instead of having two Italian families that are  feuding and the teenage son and daughter fall in love and there's a tragic ending - spoiler  alert - instead we have Roma who is part of the Russian gang that is kind of controlling things  in Shanghai and then we have Juliet who is part of the Chinese family gang that is also controlling  Shanghai. So the story is actually quite different from Romeo and Juliet, it just kind of has that  like two warring gangs backdrop to it. One big difference is that Roma and Juliet actually  already have a history. So in Romeo and Juliet, they just like meet at a party and fall in love  but in this case, they already were kind of like childhood friends and then they became more  than friends and then something happened and we don't really know what - that made them become  super enemies. We kind of meet them after all of that already occurs. I have mixed feelings about  this book because I didn't love it so much while I was reading it, but I find myself thinking back  on it and enjoying it and being really excited for the second one so I don't know what that means but  the thing that really confused me about this book is that it had this really rich setting of 1920s  Shanghai. There were gangs, there was just all this rivalry, all this history, so many cultures  mixing together - I thought it was incredibly well - I assume researched really well - it felt  very accurate, I don't actually know for sure. It was just so rich and then the reason why  they have to kind of work together is there's a supernatural element - there's actually this monster  that is living in the river and threatening life as we know it. It was just a little jarring to  have this like so rooted in reality story and then just like a monster story. In a weird way  I didn't love the plot but I actually loved the setting and I loved some of the side characters  and that's really what got me through it. I'm excited for the second one as I said, like the more  that I think about it, the more that I'm excited about it. But this wasn't the easiest book to get  into. I thought that the ending of the first book was actually a wonderful twist and it was a very  interesting take on the Shakespearean end, like honestly the last scene really saved the entire  book for me and I think that's why I'm so excited for the second one if that makes sense. And that is  These Violent Delights, Our Violent Ends, coming out November 16th. Next up for books that the  second one is coming out in November is a Song of Wraiths and Ruin which I read, god, it was probably  like a year and a half ago at this point. This is a young adult fantasy that didn't knock my socks off  but what I loved about it is that the author took a lot of inspiration from West African mythology  so it just felt like something I hadn't read before. The setting and a lot of the magic  was something that I hadn't felt before, the actual plot didn't feel super fresh. But at the  same time I loved the characters, I felt like they were very realistic people and overall I'm excited  for the second one - A Psalm of Storms and Silence I believe, and that is coming out on November  2nd. And the reason why I'm excited for the the sequel is because Rosie actually pushed  it back ,this was supposed to come out a lot earlier and she basically said she was not  satisfied with it and she really wanted to work on it more and so I'm very excited to  see her growth as an author and see what she does with the story because it definitely leaves  you on a cliffhanger. It follows Karina and Malik - this is a book that switches povs a lot.Malik is basically a refugee, he and his two sisters had to leave his village and they come to  kind of the capital city in hopes of finding work, food, shelter, a way to survive. Very early on,  tragedy strikes and Malik finds himself in a position where he has to basically commit murder  in order to save the person that he loves. That involves him enrolling in this kind of like  carnival that the capital city is having at the time, where it's sort of like this competition - not  like the hunger games but it's definitely this weird kind of magical competition thing that  goes on. Malik needs to win and also needs to kill someone and it's just gonna be a mess. Then we have  Karina who is the daughter of the sultana and she is in pretty much the exact same position as Malik  where, very early on in the story, tragedy strikes her and for completely different reasons she also  needs to kill someone in order to save the person that she loves the most. And of course Malik and  Karina's paths kind of intertwine it was just a really interesting enemies to lovers story. I  thought that the characters struggled with very realistic things, that's the thing that I liked  the most is that especially Karina - the choices that she made and like her attitude and stuff  like that, she just felt real. I just remember it being a lot of like running around a lot of stress.  Just the imagery of the city itself was wonderful, like I said, the story wasn't necessarily super  fresh, I just loved the setting, the imagery and I'm so excited for the second one so  definitely give Song of Wraiths and Ruin a try and then in November, let's read a Psalm of Storms  and Silence together, shall we? We shall. And next up is one that I'm really excited to talk about  because I actually just read it recently and it is The Wrath and The Dawn and the sequel is The Rose  and The Dagger and this is actually a retelling of 1001 Nights, also known as Arabian Nights in which  there is a king that, for one reason or another, kills his brides after they get married.They have one night together and then he kills them the next morning and so this story is very  much the same. The spelling is different but correct me if I'm wrong I think that the main  character's name is also pronounced Shahrzad. So we follow Shahrzad who has volunteered herself  to be one of the brides of Khalid who is the ruler who is killing all of these  women that he is marrying. Who knows why? We don't know. He's, you know, just this ruthless heartless  ruler that nobody really likes and we learned that the reason Shahrzad has volunteered  is because he killed her best friend and she has decided \"I'm gonna take this dude down but I can't  just walk in there and immediately kill him, I need to get my bearings, I need to understand how  the palace is laid out, so I'm gonna go be his bride and I'm going to convince him to keep me  alive.\" Like in 1001 Nights. what Shahrzad does is - she tells him a story and then leaves him on  a cliffhanger and so he can't kill her because he needs to know how the story ends, right?! And so  it's just a really interesting retelling of that. It has obviously a magical element going on,  it's an enemies to lovers story. Overall I really enjoyed it. There were kind of like unexpectedly  sassy characters. My only complaint would be that I didn't love how the romance developed.  Once the romance was kind of out there, I actually really enjoyed it, but the development felt a  little like it just kind of happened but overall it was a really fun read a great retelling of 1001  nights and if you are interested in an enemies to lovers kind of thing, highly recommend. I also  love a girl who's a badass at archery and I got that so there it is: The Wrath and The Dawn. And  last but not least for my newly read books, I read Savage Song by Victoria Schwab who, something  that VE Schwab does is when she uses the name VE Schwab for her books, that is a marker of the  book being an adult fiction, if she uses Victoria Schwab, it is a young adult or a children's book.  This one was Victoria Schwab so it was definitely young adult and it definitely felt younger, so just  be aware that this one was really quick. It felt like something I would have loved in middle school  because this is actually fantasy but it is also dystopian! We don't get a lot of information but  for some reason this is kind of like in the future - for some reason when violent crimes are committed  it leaves behind a monster, like out of the shadows of murder emerges a literal monster.  Some of them look like people, some of them look really scary and like very obviously monsters,  etc. We don't know why, but that just it's just how it happens. So now we're living in a world with  monsters that will kill you once the sun goes down. And so I believe this takes place in what used to  be Chicago - correct me if I'm wrong, but it's called V-City, the city has been kind of divided into -  On one side, this man has taken control and he's kind of like a mob boss, so you pay him protection and  the more you pay him the more safe you will be. It's really orderly, there's like normal schools  stuff like that. You just don't go out at night and the poorer you are the more likely you are  to be in the more dangerous areas where there's less protection and so you might still get hurt.But overall very orderly, very safe, feels kind of like you're working with the mob but, you know, if  the trains run on time...On the other side, it is kind of a mess. People are getting killed but at  the same time people are more free. Basically you get the feeling that like mob boss dude is not  great and kind of like a dictator and power hungry and the other people are more like we want freedom,  we care about civil liberties, kind of thing. So our main characters - we have Kate who is from  the safe side of the city. I can't tell you much more about her because it would be a spoiler  and then we have August. We know that his family is really involved in trying to keep the treaty like  there's a peace treaty between them, trying to keep that together because if mob boss decided that he  wanted to attack the other side of the city like it would be done, lots of people would die, it would  just not be good. August ends up kind of becoming a spy and going to school on the other side of the  tracks in order to make sure they aren't planning anything weird to attack the other city - he's just  there to keep tabs, you know? The story goes on from there. I actually, like I said, I  think I would have loved it in middle school, it definitely just felt young reading it now  for me. I will read the second one, I haven't read it yet but I enjoyed it. I thought that the tie  to music was really beautiful - I love VESchwab's writing. My only bone to pick is that  I actually, I have like a few stories that I work on occasionally when I feel like writing and  one of my character's name is August and when I read that her character in this book's name  was August I was so heartbroken because now all I see is this August instead of my August and Ineed to kind of get him back. Anyway, overall if you're looking for like a dystopian quick read  without - I don't even think there's any romance involved - Savage Song and then Our  Dark Duet. Okay, I saved my three favorites for last. I'm so excited to talk about these.  Number one of my favorites being Fable and Namesake and this doesn't make it a trilogy  because it's totally removed - Adrienne Young actually just came out with a new book called The Last  Legacy which I also read, which I will talk about in a later video - which is set in that world, so if  you've read Fable and Namesake and you liked that world, check out The Last Legacy, it's completely  removed, you don't need to have read Fable and Namesake to read that book. It's a standalone.Just wanna give it a little shout out right there. What is Fable and Namesake about? It is about  a girl named Fable and she has been abandoned on an island, basically just forced to make a living  for herself and survive and all she wants to do is get enough money so that she can buy her way  to get to the main island where she knows the guy who left her there is working and she wants  to like find her way back to him find out what the hell, why did you leave me on this island? And  make her way in the world, get off of this gut forsaken island where it's just like a bunch of  kind of creepy dudes who dive for gems and sell those gems. So it has a real pirate kind of feeling,  it's very nautical. It's all about the gem trade  between all of these islands. It just had this  wonderful vibe to it. I'm a big pirate girl like I kind of forgot that this lived within me, but  like I loved pirates when I was a kid so reading this I was just so into it. The first book,  I think I said this before when I reviewed it - while I loved it, it felt like it was just setting  us up for the action that will happen in Namesake. So Fable isn't super action heavy, it's more of  us understanding the world, understanding the characters, and getting the vibe, I guess. There is  action but you can tell that Namesake will have a lot more and so within Namesake of course we  get all of this action, it has a lot of twists and turns, it feels a little bit heisty. I thought that  the romance was - the romance made sense, it wasn't a huge part of the story which I loved. Adrienne Young  also like picks the best names for things - she's a great namer. I don't know, I just, I really loved  this book. I loved the vibes, I highly recommend it - Fable and Namesake. Yoho, I love it. Okay let's  get a little controversial with our next one. We are talking about, of course, Six of Crows.  As I said in the beginning, I did not include Vicious in here because VA Schwab announced that  she would be continuing the duology and making it into at least a trilogy. Leigh Bardugo kinda  did the same thing. She basically said that if we want it, she will write it. And she has tentatively  put a third Six of Crows on the table. So is this a duology? In my heart, 100% What is Six of Crows  about? If you do not know, which...please read it. Six of Crows follows these six misfits shall we say -a gaggle of interesting characters, who are given this job. They're all like low-key kind  of criminals, and they are given this job to steal something from an impenetrable place and if  they do it, they will get a life-changing amount of money and they each have a different reason for  this money. They do the heist thing, in the second book there's kind of another heist thing but it's  it's a, it's a more heartbreaking heist thing. There is fantasy, there is friendship, there is romance,  there is heist, there is - I just I really, you know, this was a book that is the reason why I started  my booktube channel. I really love this. Do I want a third one?Absolutely not.I do not want it to continue. I have a tiny bit of a spoiler for the King of Scars duology -oh my god I didn't add that duology in there - okay we're gonna talk about that.  I'm gonna add a little spoiler for the King of Scars duology so close your eyes now and I will  tell you when to open them, don't open them yet, don't open them yet, right? Okay, now you can open  your eyes. I don't need more. I thought it ended so perfectly, I thought she tied things up so well, it  was a perfect duology, the character growth, their arcs, everything just fits so perfectly together  and if she were to do a Six of Crows three, far in the future, I just don't want it. I don't want it.  I think some things are perfect and best left in their perfection, as much as I would love to read  anything that Leigh writes, I really don't want her to make a third one. Will I read it if she writes  it? Yes. Will I probably like it? Yes. But I would just prefer it if it didn't existed and that's  a controversial take - let me know how you feel down below. Which leads me to the duology that I forgot  about: King of Scars and Rule of Wolves which is also part of the Grishaverse, as is Six of  Crows, written by Leigh Bardugo. This is a duology that you absolutely have to read AFTER you finish  Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows. There's kind of like a lot more work you have to put into  diving into King of Scars than you would any other book in this list. It follows Nikolai,  and I have mixed feelings about this book. Because as you guys know, I love Nikolai. I love Nikolai. I  usually don't like blonde boys and here I am, biggest Nikolai stan. I liked it but it almost felt like  two very different books because we follow Nikolai and kind of his close inner circle and then we  have Nina and everything that she's doing and they don't cross paths very often in the duology  whereas Six of Crows, everyone is so intertwined all the time. King of Scars kind of felt like I was  reading two different stories at once and then it kind of all connects at the end. I liked each story  separately but it felt a little jarring reading it because I was sort of like \"what's going on?\"I can't really tell you much about what it's about because I don't want to spoil anything it is kind  of a continuation of Shadow and Bone essentially. There is a lot of fantasy, there is a curse, there  are new characters introduced that I love, there's absolute tragedy, there are characters that you  know and love that come in. It felt very much like it was written for the fans, you know? Rather than  it being just kind of like this organic wonderful idea that Leigh came up with which I feel like you  can feel in Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows. King of Scars felt more like \"let's do it for the fans,and for the Nikolai stans\" which I appreciate but also it wasn't my absolute favorite. Which is why  I'm kind of not on board with the Six of Crows number three. That was a ramble, I'm so sorry, I  just have a lot of feelings but I also incredibly do not want to spoil the Grishaverse for anybody  because I was a little bit spoiled for King of Scars - it wasn't a huge deal but it was kind  of a bummer so I just want you to go into it not knowing anything. Read Shadow and Bone, read Six of  Crows, read King of Scars and I'll shut up, I'll shut up about it. So there you go and last but  certainly not least. is the duology that I actually made an entire separate video about and that is We  Hunt the Flame and the sequel We Free the Stars. I feel like this series just hit me at the perfect  time. I think if I had read it at a different time I might have felt differently but I was  tired, in a reading slump, and I was incredibly jet-lagged and I also read this super fast so the  emotions just kind of pummeled me and it took me for a ride, this book took me for an absolute ride.We Hunt the Flame follows Zafira who has been disguising herself as a male hunter so that she is  able to provide for her village because there used to be magic in this world and the magic is gone  and in its wake it has left all different parts of the kingdom in really weird environments like  her hometown used to be, it's a desert so it used to be sand, and now it is snow and  there's also this magical dark forest thing that is spreading which is not a good thing. If anybody  goes in it, they lose their minds - they do not come out or they come out and their brain is kind  of scrambled and for some reason Zafira is the only one that can go in and come out and so she  pretends to be this man hunter guy (because women aren't allowed to hunt) She goes in and hunts and  provides for her family and her village and she's fine with it. She lives in fear of being found out  but as long as the status quo stays. she's like \"I can keep doing this for as long as I need to, I'm  fine like this\" But of course that never happens and so one day she comes out of the woods and this  old woman approaches her and is like hi Zafira, I know you, you're not a dude, I also know that you  have something in you that is gonna help you find things so I would like you to go to this island  and find this thing that is going to bring all the magic back and only you can do it. And so Zafira  ends up embarking on this journey to try and bring the magic back and that is the adventure we follow.  But on the other hand, we have Nasir who is an assassin who gets hired to follow Zafira, find the  thing that she finds, kill her once she finds it, and brings it back bring it back to the sultan so  he is the one in control of magic. Typical enemies to lovers. There is a wonderful group of characters  that I love. The first one was not as strong to me compared to We Free the Stars so, again, this  is one where you have to kind of get through the first one because there is a lot of world building -  even the story construction is a little more complicated because the author actually said that  she was trying to emulate some of the epic poems of the past. It pulls a lot from different middle  eastern cultures and so that writing from long ago used to rely heavily on epic poetry, it just feels  different. Lots of stories within stories. You're meeting the characters, you're understanding  the world which is complicated and I'm still not 100% sure I know everything that happened.  For the second one then it's just action, the character arcs are wonderful, the growth, the  romance, I loved We Free the Stars so much that I had to make a separate video about it and you  can watch it up above. There's obviously spoilers. I enjoyed it immensely so if you are looking for  a YA fantasy duology that has something that you maybe haven't tasted in a while or you're just  feeling a little stale with what you're reading, please give it a shot, I really enjoyed it. It made  me cry a lot, it made me laugh a lot, I almost just said a really big spoiler so I'm going to  stop but yeah I hope that you enjoyed this - if you have any more duologies  please let me know! Please let me know if they are fake duologies because I cannot stand  any more heartbreak right now, I am dealing with a lot. The Inheritance Games and The Hawthorne Legacy  just - I was so mad, like I literally finished it and I just wanted to scream. I hope that you  are reading something fantastic. I've had a really good month. As I said in my August wrap-up  September and October - just a lot of series that I love they are coming out with the next book  in the series like the Hawthorne Legacy, so I'm just reading really great books. I just finishedThe Gilded Wolves trilogy. I think I'm gonna make a separate video about it because I'm so sad that  the world is done. So I'm going to leave you here, I'm going to drink my coffee, I'm going to try  and edit this in time to post it and I think my next video will be my September wrap up so I  will see you guys then and I hope you're all doing so well I love you always, let me know what you're  reading, give me some spooky books for October please, and I will see you guys later, okay okay,bye!\n"