Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Every Friday from now on, I will share my tips for a good weekend read. Sometimes a new book release, sometimes an oldie but goodie. Starting off with the wonderful Rebel of the Sands-series by Alwyn Hamilton.

The Rebel-series is to be a YA trilogy, but so far only the first and the second instalments have been released. If you haven’t yet read the first book in the series, Rebel of the Sands, you’re up for a real treat!

When I bought The Rebel of the Sands because of the beautiful cover and intriguing blurb, I had not heard about this series before and was so pleasantly surprised by it. This story just drew me in and I couldn’t put it down until I’d reached the end. It’s really a YA master piece – it’s fun, fast paced and with lovable characters.

I adore the main character Amani and what a fierce tomboy she was. Known as the ‘Blue-Eyed Bandit’, Amani has always been “more gunpowder than girl”. Her whole life, she’s been trying to leave Dustwalk, the unforgiving dead-end dessert town she’s grown up in, without success. Until she meets a stranger, Jin, in a sharpshooting competition. Taking her chance, she follows him on a dangerous journey through the deserts.

What’s special in this series is the mythology that Alwyn Hamilton weaves into the tale. The story is spiced with fairytale animals, like the ‘Buraqi’, a sand horse that can be turned into a real steed by a girl, ‘Nightmares’ that remains in the sands, coming out only at night to inject humans with venom that infects the mind and body, ‘Skinwalkers’ that shift their form from one victim to another, ‘Djinns’; men made of out of smokeless fir and others.

During the journey, Amani’s and Jin’s banter grows into love, but after rescuing a wounded Jin to a safe haven he’s pointed out, Amani finds out that Jin is not just an ordinary boy, but the brother of the rebelling Prince fighting to overthrow the Sultan. When Amani gets over the betrayal, she soon also finds out that she is a ‘Demdjii’ with supernatural powers and gets pulled into the uprising.

There is also a slow-paced love story that leaves you desperate to know that there will be a HEA after all strains.
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Find out more about the book and the author here: Alwyn Hamilton