I really enjoyed this book. I found it a little slow at the very beginning, but then it flowed great. It was well written and I really liked reading about a kick-ass lady like Dania! I also had a soft spot for her friend; Noor. She was loyal and had Dania's back. The premises was great and I kept rooting for Dania! Highly recommend for anybody who wants a great book with a lot of action set in south east Asia/middle east.
The audio was very well made, and the reader did a great job!

This was a great "lighter" fantasy book. The audiobook was fantastic, although the storyline drug around the middle a bit. I also had problems deciphering when it was a flashback or current day on audio. But the characters were so intriguing and special!

Read if you like:
Friends to Enemies
Rage and vengeance
Found family
Pakistani characters
Magical aspects

Recommended, especially if you enjoyed Divine Rivals.

“The ones closest to you betray you the most”
I really enjoyed the pacing and storyline in this book! It's a great revenge story, with the added trope of lovers to enemies. Also includes: prison break, djinn magic, and found family. It's great retelling that layers in more intrigue with the Pakistani twist. The FMC, Dania, was such a strong and vengeful character and I really enjoyed her friendship with Noor. The book could have been longer with more tension and world building, but overall I enjoyed and would recommend!
Narrator was a great choice for this book and I found her inflections very engaging. Thank you NetGalley for the advanced audio copy!

Submitted on Goodreads and Amazon. Amazon is currently pending.

“Who am I, without my revenge?” 😦 Such a great book that gave me many feelings and had me hooked from the start!!

Strong female protagonist, hidden identity, revenge upon revenge, dark magic, betrayals, AND MORE

You had me at Pakistani Count of Monte Cristo retelling! This was a Macmillan Audio pick I knew I needed! This book came on my radar months ago, and I was practically feral for it! The Count of Monte Cristo was a favorite book, and Guy Pearce movie, of mine growing up.

First of all, I love a gender swap—let's go FMC out for revenge! I love a woman’s wrongs, we do them right! I also love the subplot of two down and out prisoners, betrayed by the emperor, finding allyship and then friendship with each other. Noor is the voice of reason to Dania’s rage, and I really feel like that worked so well, as opposed to something like inner turmoil; Dania never questions her actions and instead has meaningful conversations with her friend.

I was waiting for Mazin’s actions to make sense and got a good amount of cookie crumb clues throughout that when we finally got the reveal, it felt so good, and rightly shook Dania!

I loved the romance, it wasn’t shy and had plenty of tension from the past through the present.

Also, the big twist in Dania’s betrayal story was absolutely perfect, I did not see that coming! And the end resolution was powerful with strong messaging. All I want now is a Noor story! In the end, this book was five stars!

I enjoyed Safiyya Ingar’s narration and was excited to see that I knew them from TV!

3.5⭐️s rounded up
Story - 3⭐️s
Narration -4⭐️s
A loosely based, gender bent, re-imagining of The Count of Monte Cristo.
Varga has created a tasty little appetizer of female rage and revenge, with a side of light romance. #girldinner
For She Is Wrath is easily digestible yet a little light in substance... particularly when you're comparing it to TCOMC. I feel like that comparison should be tossed out, and it would be easier to accept that it's truly a good young adult tale. #girlpower
I listened to the audiobook, and Safiyya Ingar does a beautiful narration. She kept me engaged and gave the characters more depth than I otherwise might have read into them.
Altogether, a satisfying read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio | Macmillan Young Listeners for the advanced audiobook!

PLSSSS THIS WAS SO INSANELY GOOD AND UNLIKE ANYTHING IVE READ 😩😩

the narrator was also amazing!! you could really tell she put her heart and emotions into this project and it was so good i couldnt put it down!!

For She Is Wrath by Emily Varga
5/5 Stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

•••Spoiler free review below•••

An amazing fantasy debut filled with vengeful characters, captivating landscapes, and compelling magic — this is a fantasy read you will not want to miss! I was hooked from the first chapter and holding my breath until the end. I loved the magic and the world, but mostly I loved the revenge. Our main characters have been wronged and they will let nothing stop them from obtaining the punishment they crave. I cannot wait to see what is to come from this author!

Read this book if you like:
-prison escapes
-strong female characters
-revenge
-well crafted plans

For She Is Wrath is out now and if it's not already on your tbr, it should be!
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Special thanks to Wednesday Books for sharing a free copy with me in exchange for my honest opinions. And to Macmillan Audio for an advanced listening copy.

In turns thrilling and heartbreaking, this Pakistani fantasy take on the ultimate revenge story of The Count of Monte Cristo kept me glued. I devoured the first 70% on a plane ride where I really needed some sleep but decided I was better served going one more chapter...

I just think we should all have some more bloody revenge stories for the girls 😌

For She is Wrath sounded like something I should love, a Pakistani romantic fantasy featuring female rage and revenge. While it does feature all of those things, everything just felt a little flat to me. If you are looking for a quick read with themes of female strength, you may still enjoy this.

In full disclosure, besides the name, I was not familiar with the story of The Count of Monte Cristo to start with to compare this retelling to. Dania is wrongfully imprisoned after being betrayed by the boy she loved and is out for revenge. The story doesn't develop much from there. The friend she meets and breaks out of prison with, Noor, was my favorite character, and I kept wishing her storyline would have been expanded a little further.

Overall, it’s an okay book with an interesting idea, but it doesn’t quite deliver the emotional impact I was hoping to get from the story. The plot is straightforward, and while there are a few twists, they’re somewhat predictable.

An extra star for the narrator of the audiobook, Safiyya Ingar. I enjoyed her narration and am looking forward to hearing more from her in the future.

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy in exchange for this honest review.

Rating: 4.5 ⭐️

"The ones closest to you will betray you the most,”

This is a Pakistani romantic fantasy reimagining of The Count of Monte Cristo and as someone unfamiliar with the story of The Count of Monte Cristo, I was very uncertain and nervous to start this BUT I enjoyed every moment of this!!

This is an incredibly well done rendition of a fierce FMC full of rage and the need for vengeance. The story is packed with betrayal, tension, magic, unexpected friendship and the longing of hope and love. There was never a moment I was bored reading this - this story pulled me in from the beginning and had me on the edge of my seat until the end.

The characters were complex, multi-dimensional and easy to love. Noor is the best friend we all need! (I am going to need another book where she is the FMC. I NEED MORE!)

The narrator did an amazing job bringing this story to life!

Thanks to @macmillian.audio @wednesdaybooks and @netgalley for the #gifted copies of this book.

Summary: A Pakistani romantic fantasy retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo. Dania has been in jail the last year for a crime she didn't commit. She is counting down the days until she can exact her revenge on the boy she used to love, the very one who framed her for the crime. When a fellow prisoner tells her of a treasure that could surely help with her revenge, they create a way to escape the prison together. Once free, they begin to exact their revenge despite many obstacles in their way, including the attraction still there between Mazin and Dania. Will she continue with her plans of revenge which will erase her very humanity or will she chose another path?

I had no idea what to expect with this one after glancing at the summary, and author Emily Varga exceeded all expectations. There was no time to slow down during this story. From the very beginning, it dug its hooks in me. I couldn't stop reading or listening often times bouncing back and forth between the audiobook and eARC to stay engrossed in the story. I loved how fierce and determined Dania was, which bled into her relationships. The comedic first meeting between Dania and Nora I just knew they were going to be friends through and through. I loved how we got glimpses of the past as we continued to follow Dania on her path of vengeance. It was so hard to put this one down when real life came calling. Safiyya Ingar was a spectacular narrator. The voices for the different characters giving them personality and life off the page. I would highly recommend the audiobook version on this book! Cannot wait to get my hands on my hard copy this week!

Read if you like:
💘Lovers to Enemies
🖤Revenge
🔥Fierce Female Friendships
👀Count of Monte Cristo Retelling
😊Swoony Moments
🗓️Dual Timelines

In this Western Asian inspired fantasy, the heroine has been wronged and is out for revenge against everyone who wronged her... but at what cost? This story has been told before, but this one has some fun twists. The main character is a little frustrating, but I think readers will still enjoy the story here as it is a bit different from others on the market.

Oh wow this was really well done! I found this to be a perfect mixture of YA and intense themes. I think sometimes YA novels shy away from dealing with intense political themes of corruption, but this novel did it amazingly. It portrayed how different people react to grief and pin in different ways and that one’s grief doesn’t define oneself. Instead the way one reacts to said grief defines a person. To revenge or not to revenge!!

I will say I think that the ending did Noor a bit dirty… While I generally loved this book, I wish we had stuck with more of a found family theme rather than enemies to lovers towards the end. Noir was by her side the whole book and then basically ditched for a man. I thought Noor could have been done a bit better in the end, but overall enjoyed the novel a ton other than that!

This narrator was the perfect choice for this book and I will be recommending it to every audiobook lover I know. The story was a brilliant balance of action and emotion as you followed the protagonist from her prison cell into the world as she seeks revenge and the narrator really brought it to life.

The author has a clear mastery of character and it is the kind of book you can’t put down. One of my favorite reads of the year.

This novel was well-written, with a storyline that kept me engaged throughout. However, I found parts of the character dynamics challenging to connect with—especially when it came to the love interest. There were moments that left me feeling frustrated, yet I could still understand the character’s perspective and emotional conflict. The author did a great job capturing the push and pull between desire, vengeance, and revenge, creating a tension that was both intense and compelling. The narration by Safiyya Ingar was fantastic; I loved their narration skills from the moment the audiobook started. Each character’s voice was distinct and easy to identify, adding another layer of enjoyment to the experience. Despite my mixed feelings about some character choices, I enjoyed the story overall and am curious to see how this author grows. I’ll definitely pick up another book by them in the future!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio | Macmillan Young Listeners for this ARC Audio Copy! 3.5 Stars

I have been looking to this book since the first day that I saw it. The adult female seeking revenge and showing her absolute female rage in the process was what I expected going into this book and it is probably my fault for expecting too much and ending up disappointed in the end. All in all it was a good story, I enjoyed the found family aspect, the betrayals were shocking and really drew you in, but then the FMC would make decisions that did not really fit into the earlier version of her when she was unapologetically seeking revenge. I understand why the things that happened happened.. I just would have enjoyed it more if the rage and fight that was so much a part of our characters personality in the beginning had carried through to the end of the story.

5 Stars

Phenomenal! I cannot stop raving about this book and begging others to pick it up.

A female led Count of Monte Cristo retelling that has everything a fantasy lover would adore. Romance, swords, bada** women taking down the trash that used them. UGH IT WAS PERFECTION. The magic was well thought out and made the retelling entirely believable. It moved so quickly and was fast paced and I could not put it down. EXCEPTIONAL!

Also, the audiobook was incredible and I highly recommend it if you enjoy listening to your books. The narrator brought the book to life!

As someone who is unfamiliar with The Count of Monte Cristo but loves YA fantasy, this was a fun book. There is so much feminine rage and revenge as the focus of the book. The magic system was unique. There’s friends to lovers to enemies to lovers going on. I also really enjoyed the friendship in this book.

I ended up listening to the audiobook of this one and felt that it was done very well. I really liked the narrator.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and for an ALC in exchange for my honest review!

This book was wonderfully fast paced with action from the get go. It’s a retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo, which I’m not going to lie, I’ve never read. Or don’t remember reading it. So every bit of this was new for me. I loved it. Dania is the definition of feminine rage. Thrown in jail for a crime she didn’t commit, betrayed by her lover, she now seeks revenge. Another prisoner stumbles upon her cell (well, breaks into accidentally) and they decided to team up to escape.

The magic in this was super fun, and I haven’t read many books that include any type of Djinn magic, especially in the sense of magic seeds giving people power. I kind of suspected why Mazin did what he did, and I’m glad I was right. I really enjoyed the flashbacks of Dania’s life with Mazin up to the incident that got her thrown in jail, and it really helped with the background of our characters. I listened to the audiobook for this, and I thought the narrator really fit the voice for Dania, and really helped me become immersed in the story. The descriptions and imagery were fantastic. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this story