Review: Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Okay so, lots and lots of fabulous opinions on this book series has had it on my TBR and to be bought list for a while now. I mean, with so many people talking about it, and the author being such a sweet person on her Twitter, who wouldn't want to read it?

Plus, I have a serious weakness for pretty covers, and the shiny gold foil on this book cover just drew me in straight away whenever I was in a book store.

Lucky for me, my sister was nice and told me she would buy me one book on our trip to London, and I chose this one (it was even a signed copy so how could I resist?!)

Here it is:

Tell me how you want your story to go, he says, 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.

As you can tell if you follow me on Twitter, I read this book in less than a day. Picked it up at 6pm one night, and finished it around 11am the next day (yes I did sleep, I slept for 9 hours inbetween!)

Now, I am quite a quick reader, but this was even quick for me, and just showed how much I loved it. I am just so glad that it lived up to the expectations that I had build up in my mind after seeing everyone talking about this series.

I just loved the main character Amani. She was a strong girl with ambitions, who just wanted out of her town where she was destined to just become someones wife. As you may tell from the blurb of this book, she did manage to get away from her town, but it took her on a non-stop adventure when she decided to run with Jin, a foreigner she met at a shooting competition.

I didn't just love the main character though, I loved all of Alwyn's characters, and I connected with them so easily. In fact, I just love this world Alwyn created. I mean, who wouldn't love a book about Djinni's and magical beings? I very rarely find a book that has Djinni's in it, and now I know I definitely love any books with them in! (granted we don't see one in this book, but we hear about them, and we see some other magical beings of the desert instead)

I could go on forever about this book, but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't got around to reading it yet. All I can say is that I love the way that Amani, although strong in herself at the beginning of the book, learns to grow and really comes into herself by the end of the book, while learning more about her heritage (and that's all I'll say on that point).

Just an amazing book from Alwyn Hamilton and I know I'll be reading the next in the series ASAP!

I give this book: 5 Cats!

So, do you agree with me? What do you think of this book? Comment below!