Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Book one in Rebel of the Sands series

Publisher: Faber and Faber

Publication Date: February 4^th, 2016

Source: Paperback bought on Book Dep

Rating: 5 hearts

Synopsis

She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands.

Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. But there’s nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can’t wait to escape from.

Destined to wind up “wed or dead,” Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she’d gallop away on a mythical horse, fleeing the murderous Sultan’s army, with a fugitive who’s wanted for treason. And she’d never have predicted she’d fall in love with him… or that he’d help her unlock the powerful truth of who she really is.

“Tell me that and we’ll go. Right now. Save ourselves and leave this place to burn. Tell me that’s how you want your story to go and we’ll write it straight across the sand.”

Dustwalk is an unforgiving, dead-end town. It’s not the place to be poor or orphaned or female. And yet Amani Al’Hiza must call it ‘home’.

Amani wants to escape and see the world she’s heard about in campfire stories.

Then a foreigner with no name turns up, and with him she has the chance to run.

But the desert plains are full of dangerous magic. The Sultan’s army is on the rise and Amani is soon caught at the heart of a fearless rebellion…

An epic story of swirling desert sands, love, magic and revolution.

Review

This book is in my TBR VO since its release in February 2016 and now that I read it I regret that I don’t read it sooner. It took me the French version to decide finally to read this book in VO, I know I’m weird but what do you want.

Amani wants to flee her city in the desert for the capital because her uncle wants to marry her. As she knows how to shoot and defend herself she tries to earn money at shooting competitions, it’s to one of them that she meets Jin, a young stranger. They are pursued in the desert by the army of the Sultan and there follows an entire adventure.

Amani is a person that I appreciate very much, she is independent and she knows what she wants, at times I found her reactions quite infantile and a little nasty. Mainly when Jin saves her life and she drugs him to escape with his mount and half of his money, leaving him alone. After I can understand that in her situation she doesn’t trust a man. We are still in a world where men have several women and women aren’t supposed to do anything other than look after the house.

Jin is a rather mysterious character but he’s very interesting, I really liked him. He sees something in Amani that attracts him and makes him want to help her even if he knows that his path isn’t necessarily the one he would like her to follow.

I find that their relationship is based on trust, it is acquired as the adventure progresses and I like their way of interacting both together. They protect themselves and I find it very beautiful.

I also appreciate all the secondary characters we meet in the desert among the rebels. They are all very interesting and I hope that we will see them much more in the second volume.

I enjoyed traveling through the desert and discovering a world different from ours, with endearing characters and a story that transports you to a wonderful adventure. The romance although present is very light and I am a little afraid for the second volume but I keep hope that Jin and Amani pursue their adventure together.

Rebel of the sands is very well written, the story is a fast reading because we want to know what will happen to Amani, I still have some outstanding questions and hope that they will find an answer in The second volume.

Alwyn Hamilton makes her first book a nugget to have in your library and I’m looking forward to being in February to read Traitor to the throne in VO, and for this one I would not wait that long.

About the author

Alwyn Hamilton was born in Toronto and spent her childhood bouncing between Europe and Canada until her parents settled in France. She grew up in a small town there, which might have compelled her to burst randomly into the opening song from Beauty and the Beast were it not for her total tone-deafness. She instead attempted to read and write her way to new places and developed a weakness for fantasy and cross-dressing heroines. She left France for Cambridge University to study History of Art at King’s College, and then to London where she became indentured to an auction house. She has a bad habit of acquiring more hardcovers than is smart for someone who moves house quite so often.

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