I haven't read One Thousand and One Nights, so other than knowing the general idea, that a bride doomed to die, as all her predecessors did, after one night of marriage, gets her husband to keep her alive by telling him a story that ends on a cliffhanger. The Wrath and the Dawn starts off with the virgin bride, the ogre husband, and the bedtime tale, but Ahdieh has added a backstory that she slowly reveals that provides a possible justification for the murderous caliph's actions. Sharzad enters the palace with every intention of killing her husband at the first opportunity, and she's not alone in that. Khalid sees something in Sharzad beyond the storytelling that compels him.
The story drew me in, plot-wise, but I found it slow-going now and again. The romance angle is troubling, but not entirely implausible. There are more books in the series, and as much as I enjoyed The Wrath, I'm not sure I'll read the rest.