Rebel of the Sands

This series is arguably my best read of 2017, and is up there with some of my all-time favourites. It's rare to find a book void of tropes and themes that weigh heavy in young adult fiction and yet Alwyn Hamilton has created just that. Her debut is a whirlwind of magic and ancient mythology and you can't help but tumble headfirst into the magical lands she brings to life with vivid imagery that buries itself deep into the imagination and characters that steal the heart with their sense of restless adventure. You can't help but be swept away by the beautiful chaos that awakes from the very first page and which doesn't rest until long after the final page has been turned. It is one of those books that lingers long afterwards, with you itching to pick it up again and journey through the 500+ pages of a mysterious otherworld undone by a rebellion at the heart of the desert, knowing that you will love every second of it.

With its killer opening scene, led by a girl made of gunpowder and a boy created from trouble, who wreak havoc in their wake and light the spark to ignite a rebellion, Rebel of the Sands pulls you into a world rich with folklore and alive with a revolution that you almost become a part of. Because Amani's escapades through the desert, fuelled by a desperate desire for freedom and something more, become your own. Her little games in the dust with a foreign stranger as they flirt with traitor eyes, a crooked smile and the taste of death, sifting through secrets and truths that are scattered like grains of sand amid a desert rife with politics and at the brink of exploding in a mess of gunpowder and innocent lives, is just the beginning of a rebellion that spans desert and ocean and that could be the freedom she has always craved.

| And then came that grin. I might have traitor eyes, but Jin had the sort of smile that would turn over whole empires to the enemy - that made me feel like suddenly I understood him exactly, even though I knew nothing about him. The kind that made me feel like if I was on the right side of it, we could do anything together.

Amani, with her smart mouth and reckless death wish, is the warrior you want to be. Jin, with his natural affinity for danger and a restless energy to his step, is the one you hope shows you the world. The Rebel Prince, with his compassion and bravery and a desire to see a desert marked with equality and peace, is the leader you want to fight for. His rebels, with their ability to entwine magic with the dust at their fingertips, their sense of self-sacrifice for a greater, worthy cause, and their missions in the desert that blow you off your feet, are the family you want to be a part of. The Sultan, with his cunning, calculating, and morally corrupt tactics is the enemy you want to see destroyed. And the rebellion, steeped with betrayal and deceit, victories and losses, scheming and plotting, is one you want to see thrive.

Alwyn Hamilton has succeeded where others haven't. Rebel of the Sands is a beautifully spun tale of magic, myth and wild rebellion, weaving within its pages complex themes of power, freedom and sacrifice...it has everything from family, friendship and romance, to the blurred lines of right and wrong and broken moral compasses that can drive people to commit unspeakable crimes. It is a book that lives and breathes everything that makes fiction such an addictive, beautiful thing.

This isn't a girl leading a revolution. This is a girl at the heart of one, caught up in something so much bigger, part of something so much bigger, and that's what makes it such a stand-out read. It breaks free from the predictable "Chosen One" trope and creates the unpredicted. It is a breathtakingly refreshing read, with twists and turns that threw me off track and kept me invested in the wild ride that is this series. And where Rebel of the Sands was just the taster, Traitor to the Throne escalates the Rebellion to darker heights; it descends into utter chaos with dark and deceptive games played on a bigger chess board with more players as pawns - and it is a magical treat.