Review – Traitor to the Throne (Rebel of the Sands, Book 2) by Alwyn Hamilton (4.5/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 528 pages
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Release Date: February 2, 2017
ISBN-13: 978-0571325412
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Rebel of the Sands series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4.5/5 stars

“Mere months ago, gunslinger Amani al’Hiza fled her dead-end hometown on the back of a mythical horse with the mysterious foreigner Jin, seeking only her own freedom. Now she’s fighting to liberate the entire desert nation of Miraji from a bloodthirsty sultan who slew his own father to capture the throne.

When Amani finds herself thrust into the epicenter of the regime—the Sultan’s palace—she’s determined to bring the tyrant down. Desperate to uncover the Sultan’s secrets by spying on his court, she tries to forget that Jin disappeared just as she was getting closest to him, and that she’s a prisoner of the enemy. But the longer she remains, the more she questions whether the Sultan is really the villain she’s been told he is, and who’s the real traitor to her sun-bleached, magic-filled homeland.”

This is the second book in the Rebel of the Sands trilogy. I absolutely loved it and really enjoyed some of the interesting turns the story took. The story was very engaging and hard to put down.

At first I was a bit worried that this was going to be your typical “female teen hero gets lost in a number of rebellion battles” kind of story. I was worried we were going to chase Amani around from one battle to the next. I was pleasantly please when that is not what happened.

The beginning of the story was a bit awkward; Amani is off saving captives from a town when we left her nearly dead at the end of the first book. However Hamilton quickly backtracks and we get filled in on what happened to Amani. I didn’t really like how this was done; it’s confusing to the reader at first. However, after this the story got much better.

Amani’s time in the harem was interesting, as were her many conversations with the Sultan. Jin isn’t in the story much at all until the end, which was a bit disappointing.

There are some really interesting things that happen with the Djinn and the half-Djinn. We get a lot of history on how the Djinn created humans and a lot of mythology behind them which I absolutely loved. I also continue to really enjoy the Middle East type backdrop to the book; it’s an interesting setting for a fantasy story.

Overall I was very impressed with this book, I loved it even more than the first book in the series. I continue to enjoy Amani as a character and love some of the twists and turns in the story. I would definitely recommend to fantasy fans.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– New Release Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
– YA Reading Challenge