These Books Among Us

Hey everyone! Welcome to the new year! This year I am going to try to incorporate themes into my weekly posts for every month. So let's see how well that goes, shall we? To get us started, let's get in the mindset of fairy tales.   If you are like me, you love fairy tales. They were told to you when you were growing up, turned into awesome animated films, and probably taught you lessons about right and wrong, right? Well, same with me. Most people grow up on the Disney versions of these stories. They are often filled with happily ever afters, the villains getting their just desserts (killed-they get killed), and some variant of the animal side kick being embarrassed at the new couple kissing at the end of the film. But the original tales were a lot darker. Most of them had very heavy themes throughout and very graphic violence for being something to share with children. And that was the point, back when these were first circulated. They were to scare children into...

The Wrath and the Dawn by Renee Ahdieh (404 pages) My Rating: 4.5 Stars Date Read: 6 April 2016 Synopsis: One Life to One Dawn. In a land ruled by a murderous boy-king, each dawn brings heartache to a new family. Khalid, the eighteen-year-old Caliph of Khorasan, is a monster. Each night he takes a new bride only to have a silk cord wrapped around her throat come morning. When sixteen-year-old Shahrzad's dearest friend falls victim to Khalid, Shahrzad vows vengeance and volunteers to be his next bride. Shahrzad is determined not only to stay alive, but to end the caliph's reign of terror once and for all. Night after night, Shahrzad beguiles Khalid, weaving stories that enchant, ensuring her survival, though she knows each dawn could be her last. But something she never expected begins to happen: Khalid is nothing like what she'd imagined him to be. This monster is a boy with a tormented heart. Incredibly, Shahrzad finds herself falling in love. How is this pos...