REVIEW Rebel of the Sands.

TITLE. Rebel of the Sands
AUTHOR. Alwyn Hamilton
PUBLISHER. Penguin
RELEASE DATE. 8th of March 2016
PAGES. 320
FORMAT. Ebook (NetGalley)
GENRE. Young-Adult, Fantasy
Thanks to NetGalley for granting my wish for this book in exchange for an honest review.

SUMMARY.
She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands.

Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. But there's nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can't wait to escape from.

Destined to wind up "wed or dead," Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she'd gallop away on a mythical horse, fleeing the murderous Sultan's army, with a fugitive who's wanted for treason. And she'd never have predicted she'd fall in love with him...or that he'd help her unlock the powerful truth of who she really is.


STANDALONE or SERIES.
This is the first book in the Rebel of the Sands series, from a debut author !

WHY this BOOK.
The plot sounded very intriguing, with desert magic, Djinni’s and guns. So when I came across it on NetGalley I had to have it. Only, just my luck, I could not request it any longer… But fortunately I could wish for it.. and my wish came true ! As thanks, I wanted to read and review this book as soon as possible !

FIRST THOUGHTS.
Wow ! Just wow. This is everything a young-adult fantasy should be. It was PERFECT ! It had the right amount of everything that is needed for a good book, just perfectly in balance. And one of the greatest parts ? It had no cliff-hanger at the ending, but I still wanted to beg for more.

WORLD-BUILDING.
I loved how this one took place in de desert, I’ve not read a lot of books about that, so original ! We start of in the main characters small home town, but while the plot progressed we started to learn more and more about this world. How it all came to be with the First Beings, the Destroyer of Worlds, all information not thrown at you randomly, but packed up by storytellers hurdled around the fire in the dark and creepy desert full of evil surrounding them. We got to know more and more about the world they live in and the creatures that be. I cannot emphasize enough how great the author has done this. Even though this is a completely new world, I never felt overwhelmed with too much information or not understanding because had too little information. It was just enough, and new things kept coming up that surprised me or expanded the world just a little bit more for me.

SETTING.
The story takes place in the desert, and she really made it real to me. Like when they were with the caravan, going from town to town, hoping that they have enough rations to survive. And wow, how thrilling that they had to fight of Nightmares in the dark ! 

Not only that though, but also the whole system of hierarchy was very convincing. How woman are seen as less, just because they are woman. How a man can have as many wives and children as they want. How you should be ashamed to have been born a woman, as a burden for man. How woman, who are raped by intruders, are being hanged or stoned for sleeping with the enemy. I hate how unfair it all is. And, even though here in the Netherlands we women are not treated that way, it hurts to think that in some countries we are.

PLOT.
I don't want to spoil to much, so I will keep it basic. The story starts with Amani’s life how it currently it, awful. She lives with her aunt and uncle, after her mother killed her father and was hanged for it. When her uncle starts taking an interest in marrying her (yes I know.. how sick is that) she knows she only has one choice: run away. But in order to do that she needs money, so she enters disguised as a boy a local shooting contest to get more money.. but things don’t really go the right way and she ends up without any money. On the plus side, she does meets Jin, who, on the downside, turns out to be a traitor searched for by the army of the Sultan. When a wild magical horse turns up, she captures it, but being a woman it instantly goes to the man in her family, her uncle. Some bad stuff happens, Jin grabs the pony and she goes with him while being shot at. On the run from the army they travel a long way that ends up at the Prince Rebel doorsteps and reveals some important stuff that cannot be ignored. From there the adventure continues into stopping the Sultan and saving mankind…

 I was really surprised with some of the plot twists in this book.. I seriously did not see them coming ! Not at all ! That does not happen a lot..
The plot had a very active pace, with a lot of action and stuff happening, but still having the time to build the world and develop the characters. Respect !

MAIN CHARACTERS.
I really liked our main character Amani. She is a very strong and independent woman ! Ha, how I loved that she just drugged Jin and left him behind. She had learned from childhood how to survive on your own and not rely on others. Of course she made some mistakes at the beginning, but she learned from those and did not make them again. She grew and became even stronger. Loved that.

Jin stayed very mysterious at the beginning.. I did not really know who he was, except that he was suspicious.. It kept me intrigued in him.

Mainly, I just loved how they not depended on each other the entire time like some other books do, but they made their own mistakes and came out stronger. Of course they helped each other and saved each other when necessary , but not in a needy kind of way and they stayed themselves. And, most of all, no unnecessary self-sacrificing. 

ROMANCE.
It was not the most romantic read ever, but it did have some hot and sizzling scenes in there ! I liked how we not had to wait until the ending for they finally gave in, but kept in exciting anyway… But, most of all, they stayed true to their mission and not let any affections ruin things. And I appreciate that.

FAVORITE QUOTES.
“You son of a bitch!’ The heckler had a piece of glass sticking out from his thumb. ‘You shot me!’
‘No I shot your glass. Don’t worry, the liquor ‘ll wash the blood off.’ I holstered my pistol, hoping I wasn’t about to get shot back. ‘Like I was about to say before I got interrupted, it’s a modern age. I don’t need a lot of muscle to pull a trigger.”
.
“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 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. I had the next six weeks to find out if that was true.”
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FINAL THOUGHTS.
Just read it, it is full of action and romance and I loved it.. It kept me excited and intrigued the entire way and I could not put it down. The entire story was just perfectly in harmony, and I can’t wait for the next instalment. So there is nothing else for me to do but to sincerely recommend reading this book and give it 5 Freyja’s. And I’ve got to mention, for a debut writer, hell of any writer, this is just amazing and beyond expectations. She really is someone to look out for in the future ! Just wow ! Greatly done.