Rebel of the Sands

March 10, 2016 ARC, Book Review 2

I received this ARC from Publisher for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Rebel of the SandsRebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
Published by Penguin on March 8th 2016
Pages: 320
Goodreads

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.

My Thoughts:

Wow. I liked the cover of this one and thought the summary sounded interesting. Still, I didn’t really know what to expect so I didn’t expect much. Imagine my surprise when I finally started it and ended up not being able to put it down!

Rebel of the Sands caught my attention right away. Each scene drew me further and further in to the story. I simply couldn’t stop reading. I was in love with the setting, the characters, the mythology… every little thing.

First and foremost, Amani is something special. I love that she refuses to accept the hand that is seemingly being dealt to her. Her life has been hard and she knows it won’t be any easier to leave but she has to try. She has a fire inside her that makes her an incredibly compelling character. I totally love Jin and the other characters as well. But, as I said, Amani is just special.

And the magic! The idea of First Beings and Djinn and ghouls… it was so interesting to learn about all the different magical beings and to hear the stories associated with them. I loved that we got to see how different kingdoms in the book felt about them and how stories changed from place to place. I really hope we get even more of this in future books (or short stories!)

The time just flew by as I was reading Rebel of the Sands. It’s the first series I’ve fallen this hard for in quite some time!

2 Responses to “Rebel of the Sands”

  1. Audrey Greathouse

    She meets Jin? When the d*JIN*ni are the powerful magical creatures? Is it just me, or is that either heavy-handed foreshadowing or just a super awkward coincidence? Sounds like there’s a lot of mystery in this one though…

  2. Alexa S.

    I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed Rebel of the Sands (though I was hoping to like it)! It was such a clever combination of Western/Middle Eastern in setting and culture, and I really liked the characters as well. Glad you enjoyed this too!

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