about the book
Eighteen-year-old Khalid rules the land of Khorasan. As Caliph, each night he takes a new bride, and by morning she is executed.
After the Caliph murders her best friend, sixteen-year-old Shahrzad has had enough. She volunteers to be Khalid’s next bride and has plans of revenge.
On the first night, she begins telling Khalid a story but leaves it on a cliff-hanger, leading her to survive the first night. But as the two spend more and more time together, a surprising bond forms, and Shahrzad soon finds herself falling in love.
She questions whether or not it’s really Khalid who is ordering the killings. If it’s not him, who could it be? And why? Shahrzad becomes determined to solve the mystery, but can she bring the horrible cycle to an end?
about the author
Author Renée Ahdieh lives in North Carolina with her husband and dog, where she enjoys activities such as salsa dancing, cooking, and wreaking havoc on her characters’ lives. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and a member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.
As the child of mixed race, she says she’s always been attracted to different worlds, and she writes in response to her desire to see more diverse books because all kids want to see themselves as heroines and heroes.
She loves food and says she travels to eat, so if she ever was ever given a room full of anything she’d like, she would ask for one full of food from all over the world. She says she’d be much happier than the person with a room full of gold! She doesn’t like exercise, and alpaca is definitely her least favorite way to travel. However, she does wish she could learn to fly. She also loves the sound of a loved one’s laughter.
Renée’s biggest piece of advice to anyone who asks is to always persist.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview: Huffington Post
Also by Renee Ahdieh:
The Rose and the Dagger. Putnam Publishing (Juvenile). May 2016.
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