Paperback, 336 Pages
YA/ Fantasy
By: Alwyn Hamilton
Rating: 🌟🌟🌟 3⁄4
“You know, I never believed in fate until I met you… then I started thinking coincidence didn’t have near so cruel a sense of humor”
🌟 This year has been weird for me reading wise! I ended up disappointed by most of the books I expected to love and vice versa! Expectations are apparently a dangerous thing.
🌟 This book is a GR choice winner for the year of 2016, and I expected it to be a copy of all the other books in this genre and the beginning even gave me that and I was ready to get bored! However, the more I read, the more I enjoyed it and the more creative I thought it is.
🌟 I was afraid of the settings because I thought the Middle Eastern settings would mean some Arabic that does not make sense would be thrown in, it never happened and the writing was good. The setting is quite tricky because it is a mix between Eastern and Western and I would have preferred only one but it was not such a huge problem for me.
🌟 The characters are well written, I thought that Amani would be the typical YA girl, dead parents and is sneaking as a man because of the oppression but that was just the beginning and her character started to get unique after that! She’s not the greatest character but def not the worst! And I finally found a character with my name!!!
🌟 But the plot was what I enjoyed most, because I liked the magic system and I loved the mythology that was told through many short stories between the characters and then things started to make sense and fall into its place and I was happy with the outcome! I wanted to re-read it again just to see the things I missed the first time!
🌟 Summary: Rebel of the Sands was an enjoyable read and I don’t know if it was because of my lower expectations or it was really good! I know one thing for sure that it is slightly different to the other YA books and I can see why it won an award. I would recommend this for YA lovers and will continue the series for sure now 😀
The book prescription 
Honestly I loved it! And Alwyn Hamilton is the sweetest person you can imagine 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
aaah That is amazing!
LikeLike
Great review! Good that this was enjoyable overall and the characters worked.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, and yeah a pleasant surprise!
LikeLike
I’m so glad this was a pleasant surprise for you, Hamad! I remember diving into this one with fairly low expectations as well, but I was shocked by how much I enjoyed it! The trilogy only gets better and better from here! The mythology and exciting plot were definitely my favorite parts of this first installment! ❤
LikeLiked by 1 person
aaaah this is so exciting to hear! I need to get book 2 now 😀
LikeLike
honestly, the rebel of the sands trilogy is one of my favorites of all times. i think it’s so unique and fast-paced. i pretty much flew through each book and it was a true page turner.
i am glad you were comfortable with the setting! i’ve heard mixed reviews about it, but obviously not being familiar enough with middle eastern and arabic culture in general, i wouldn’t be able to say whether or not it was a good rep.
i really like that amani is not what i expected of her at first. and the rest of the characters are also really great and the friendships in this are the best.
i hope you enjoy the rest of the trilogy as much as you enjoyed this one!
LikeLike