Review: Rebel of the Sands (Rebel of the Sands #1) by Alwyn Hamilton

Title: Rebel of the Sands
Author: Alwyn Hamilton
Series: Rebel of the Sands
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Publisher: Viking
Publication date: March 8th 2016
Pages: 314 (hardcover)
Source: Netgalley






Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mythical beasts still roam the wild and remote areas, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinn still perform their magic. For humans, it's can unforgiving place, especially if you're poor, orphaned, or female. 

Amani Al'Hiza is all three. She's a gifted gunslinger with perfect aim, but she can't shoot her way out of Dustwalk, the back-country town where she's destined to wind up wed or dead. 

Then she meets Jin, a rakish foreigner, in a shooting contest, and sees him as the perfect escape route. But though she's spent years dreaming of leaving Dustwalk, she never imagined she'd gallop away on a mythical horse - or that it would take a foreign fugitive to show her the heart of the desert she thought she knew.

Rebel of the Sands reveals what happens when a dream deferred explodes - in the fires of rebellion, of romantic passion, and the all-consuming inferno of a girl finally, at long last, embracing her power.

Goodreads

I had my eyes on this book ever since it got release. Did you look at the cover, it is so stunning, and the story line sounded so great as well.

Rebel of the Sands is set in a fantasy world with a lot of Middle Eastern influences. And it is one of the things that I liked the most about this book. When it comes to Middle Eastern influenced books I really cannot resist. And if you add some fantasy elements into it like spirits, djinni’s and ghouls well then I am completely sold.

Amani is a pretty great character to read about. I did get annoyed with her at some points, mostly because she was really selfish at some points. Actually she is probably one of the most selfish characters that I have ever read about. She always thought of what she wanted in life and she did not really care about how she got there even if it did put people in harm’s way. But at the same time I also liked her, yes she was selfish but by the end of the book she redeemed herself. And I liked that she was so sassy all the time. Jin is something different all together. I liked him from the start but I also knew that something had to be wrong with him since it was all too good to be true.  And he did have his secrets but I guess he had his reasons for.

There were other things that I loved about this book as well. Like I mentioned before the setting of this book is just great. Fantasy books are always a bit hard, a lot of the time the author gives too many details of this new world or they give to little information instead which leaves you confused. But Rebel of the Sands seems to have found the perfect combination.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. It was one of those books that was pretty hard to put down. There was so much action it in, which kept me on the edge of my seat. The world building was great and in general the characters were fun to read about too. I really cannot wait to read the next book in this series. 

Elien