There have been many attempts at a retelling of the classic revenge tale of Edmond Dantès, from Shawshank Redemption (and the Stephen King novella on which the movie is based) to a TV series simply called "Revenge", so this book is not exactly venturing into new territory. I measure the quality of a retelling by the uniqueness of the spin on the original while still honoring its spirit, and by this standard, For She Is Wrath has some merits. The setting of Pakistan and exchanging the gender of the main character and an extra romantic subplot updated the story. But where Alexandre Dumas' story concentrated on plotting and strategy of Dantès' revenge, it seems like Dania fell into convenient circumstances. While I definitely have a preference to the original, I found this story entertaining for a quick read. (3.5/5)
I received advanced digital access to this book thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, St. Martin's Press- Wednesday Books) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.

For She is Wrath is an amazing book! You fall in love with the characters and it makes you feel what they feels. Both the main characters want revenge, however, the way they do it is what makes the book! Being stuck in prison for years to getting the ultimate revenge!

Highly recommend reading this book! There are a few grammar errors, but they are not really noticeable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. I’ve read the count of monte cristo and granted I wouldn’t say this one was better, but it was good in its own right
The similarities are that it’s a girl that’s falsely imprisoned, escapes, and takes revenge.
Aside from that, you really shouldn’t compare it too much to monte cristo. That’d be really unfair to do.
I read some reviews saying it was annoying that she was imprisoned only a year compared to in monte cristo.. but c’mon
ANYBODY would complain about being falsely imprisoned whether it be one year or for over a decade. That’s a really unfair comparison to make. If anything, I think it makes sense for Dani to be seething with hate still as she escapes considering it’s still somewhat fresh. Hence all the blood and murder at first.
So for me if you just take it for the story it is, it was pretty good. The ending fell a little short for me but over all, I inhaled the book in three days

This book was just *chefs kiss*. Emily Varga created an incredible world filled with characters I absolutely adored. From the romance to the friendships, this book had me swooning. It was a wild ride from start to finish, and I loved every second of it.

Women will not be stopped. A pawn. A don't see her coming. Two young women mistaken for harmless and powerless.
I inhaled this book. INHALED.
A year of torture and wrongful imprisonment. A year of chanting the names of those who wronged her. Desperate to see her father. Dania and Noor accidently meet - joining their revenge and plans for retribution.
Not romance heavy - focusing on honor, retribution, balancing the scales. And my personal favorite - angry women.
A joy to read - thank you, Netgalley and Tor, for my early ARC.

This book satisfies my definition of book magic: an unforgettable setting, characters I can empathize with, and those magnificent heart flutters. It’s a book that will find a special place on my bookshelf, and I look forward to rereading it again someday.

The cover is gorgeous. I read the first two chapters and found myself not invested in the stakes. This felt surprisingly slow-paced to open for what I thought would be an intense story. I think traditional fantasy readers will give it a solid 3 to 4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC.

This was a great count of Monti Cristo retelling. The world building was very well done and I loved the romance and banter. I would highly recommend this book.

For She is Wrath is a Pakistani retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo. I really enjoyed this book! I liked Dani a lot and the first few chapters of the prison escape caught my attention right away. I was invested immediately and wanted to see Dani and Noor get their revenge!

So basically what happens is Dani takes some kind of polyjuice potion mix to change her appearance so she can go and destroy all of the people who led up to her being in prison. This includes Mazin who she was in a relationship and in love with. You don't really know anything except that he betrayed her and so I was wanting to see how this happened and how it would be resolved since I was reading a romantasy. Was it a misunderstanding, will there be forgiveness, what was the deal with their relationship?

I liked Dani and Maz, but I do wish that we got more 'before' because I wanted to really understand Dani's anger. And since we didn't get to the actual betrayal until towards the end of the book, I spent a lot of the book thinking well is Maz really that bad? Because he didn't feel like an enemy to me, and I was slightly annoyed that I liked him. Also why did his sister just disappear in the back half of the story?!

I also wish Noor was more fleshed out as a character. When you're introduced to her in the beginning, it felt like she was going to be super important to the story, but I don't think she was used to her full potential. And I would love if there was a book that followed Noor where we got to learn more about her life growing up, then with Souma, and then after their vengeance plot wraps up.

The imagery was beautiful, and I loved all of the descriptions we got throughout the story. It was seriously lovely. Overall I really enjoyed this story, it was a fun and quick read and I hope to get more from this world. Thanks to NetGalley and SMP for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

“A sweeping, Pakistani romantic fantasy retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo”…um, yes, please!!

My proverbial hat is off to Ms. Varga for originality! And that COVER! I was immediately drawn in from the first few pages. Varga switches back and forth between Dania’s past and present, slowly letting us know the backstory and why she is so bent on vengeance. The addition of djinn magic and an evil emperor is icing on the cake. Dania is a strong, intelligent female who knows how to defend herself, and I am HERE FOR IT.

This is a highly imaginative retelling, and I have no doubt that it will be a hit when it is released in late October 2024!

There’s also a shocking twist in here that I did not see coming in the slightest. I love being fooled!

4.25 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Wednesday Books for the complimentary eARC. All opinions are mine.

Thank you so much to the publishers and Netgalley for providing access! This is a stunning debut, and I’ll be elaborating further upon its release.

I was so looking forward to this book. Billed as a retelling of the Count of Monte Cristo from a female perspective, I knew I needed to read it. Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite books, so I had high hopes for this book. On paper, it has everything I love - standalone novel with a strong female protagonist, hints of magic, and the promise of revenge. However, I found this fell a little short.

The pacing of the book was fast, almost too fast. This could be down to the book being a standalone and only having so many pages to tell the story, but it often felt like it was trying to hit key points of the original novel without much in between. The world building was lacking and the villain's wrongdoings were only described, but you never really see why he is so hated from the perspective from the main character, Dania.

The love story was the only part I really enjoyed and Mazin's motivations and actions do make sense if you think of the wider political environment. I don't fault him for his decisions (and honestly, he was the only reason I kept reading).

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for an advanced copy of the book for review purposes. All thoughts expressed are my own.

I really enjoyed this YA retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo. It has the classic’s revenge plot while bringing a lot of new twists to the table.

The story is set in a beautifully described Pakistani inspired world where Djinn magic is wielded by a tyrannical emperor. In this empire two young women who have been falsely imprisoned escape their jail in order to seek revenge, with the help of a hidden treasure and dangerous magic. I love djinn stories so I was super excited for this!

I adored our main character Dania’s wit, swordsmanship and strong friendship with Noor. I was rooting for her from page one.

Whether you are a fan of the classic or just love a story full of adventure, betrayal and intrigue I definitely recommend this book!

Inspired by the Count of Monte Cristo (especially the movie version), Varga's book tells the story of two girls--Dania and Noor--as they escape from prison and gain revenge against the Emperor and assorted other people who betrayed them using the magic of djinn. I would have liked to understand the djinn a little better, within the world of the novel, especially given the significant role they ended up playing in both the worldbuilding and the plot. But overall, this was a fun, well-plotted novel that moved along at a good pace with lots of twists, turns, and surprises along the way.

This is your classic YA fantasy book, and it’s a standalone, a rarity in the genre. The setting is rich, and I found myself craving the food described in the book’s pages. However, the politics and magic system of the world feel undercooked, probably because this is a standalone and there can only be so many pages devoted to setting the story up. The writing is action-heavy.

Dani is a cool FMC. She’s tough and brash and no extraordinary beauty. Her friendship with Noor is so strong, though it is weird Noor is kept in a servant-like role for a lot of the story, and her existence is mainly to support Dani. The romance… it doesn’t work for me. Maz comes across cold af. You can understand his motivations, but still, there needs to be more groveling. I feel like Dani loved him way more than he loved her, and she always took the initiative with him. There’s this German movie called Phoenix, which has a somewhat similar plot but it’s set during the Holocaust and thereafter, and I kind of wish the book had a similar ending. I wanted a shock to Maz’s system and some retribution.

Omggggg

Omggggg

Omgggggggggg

BIG BIG THANKS to whichever book gods I pleased cause I honestly don’t even remember requesting this one.

THIS WAS GOOD. LIKE SO SO SO GOOD.

Djinn

Count of Monte Cristo retelling with big big vibes.

Rivals to friends to lovers to enemies to lovers

BE STILL MY FUCKING HEART

And MAZ.

FUCKING SWOON

Exhibit A

"Did you think I wouldn't know you? I'd know you with any face. Any skin. Any hair. A thousand djinn could disguise you from me and I'd still be able to find you just by the sound of your breath."

Exhibit B

"Because unless you tell me that, my foolish heart hopes and dreams and imagines. I can't make right what I did, I can't change it. But I can beg. I can promise that in all things, in all ways, I belong to you. And I will never let you feel as though I didn't fight for you again."

Exhibit fucking C

"Either like you want to kiss me or stab me. I can't always tell with you, but for some reason they are both equally as exciting."

I MEAN SERIOUSLY. CAN HE GET ANY BETTER?!?!

I’m so thankful for the eARC and I IMPLORE you to go read this book come its birthday.

WOW! This was an amazing read! The story was fantastic and the flow of it was great. There is no spice in this book but it does not need it. The characters are very relatable and well rounded.

I had high hopes for this. Especially when I saw that it was Pakistani-inspired. I liked how the culture was woven in and I adored Dania and Noor's friendship. I thought it had a great start, I felt Dania's bloodthirst and need for retribution. But that soon lost its steam. The plot became super predictable, I didn't feel the stakes. The romance and love interest fell flat in my opinion.

Thank you netgalley and publisher for the arc!

Currently this is sitting at a 3.5/5 for me. It might change the longer I sit on it, but it'll stay here for now.

I really enjoy any stories based on The Count of Monte Cristo, and I feel like this one somewhat hit the mark. The beginning and middle of this book were strong to me, but the ending sort of fell flat and had some plot diversions that kind of came out of nowhere. I feel like with a lot of twists, there tends to be some form of subtle hints toward it, but some of these kinda feel like they came out of left field. A lot of plot points of Dania and Noor's revenge also seemed very convenient for the plot. There is some scheming, but one of the things I enjoy about TCoMC is how long and thoroughly planned out Dantes's revenge is. Although there is some planning to Dania and Noor's revenge, I feel like a lot of it was just convenient and there wasn't a lot to the planning other than "this is what we are going to do". Things just resolved too conveniently and quickly for me. They were only imprisoned for a year and their revenge plans seemed to be wrapped up within the same amount of time as well, so it was all fairly quick. Dania was kinda wishy-washy on some of the plans too, which is understandable as she was derailed from plans because of her obvious love she still has for Maz. They were cute, and I thought it was sweet when it was revealed he could identify her by her hands alone. There was a lot that worked for me in this book, and there was a fair amount that didn't work for me, so I feel like I am fairly neutral on how I feel about this book. Nonetheless, it was still an enjoyable and quick rid that had me gripped until the end.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for sending me an advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review.

A debut romantasy set in a rich Pakistani inspired world with lush writing and beautiful descriptions of food and clothing, this would be perfect for fans of The Wrath and The Dawn.

I found the pacing in this book to be a bit off, the start was slow but then the middle really picked up for the ending to then be quite rushed and meh. I didn’t really understand the point in the ‘twist’ with the FMCs Nanu. Also I found the MMC to be annoying and didn’t like that Dani ended up with him in the end.

Overall I didn’t love or hate this book, I have quite neutral feelings.