Rebel of the Sands #1 - Alwyn Hamilton

"Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mythical beasts still roam the wild and remote areas, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinn still perform their magic.  For humans, it’s an unforgiving place, especially if you’re poor, orphaned, or female.

Amani Al’Hiza is all three.  She’s a gifted gunslinger with perfect aim, but she can’t shoot her way out of Dustwalk, the back-country town where she’s destined to wind up wed or dead.

Then she meets Jin, a rakish foreigner, in a shooting contest, and sees him as the perfect escape route. But though she’s spent years dreaming of leaving Dustwalk, she never imagined she’d gallop away on mythical horse—or that it would take a foreign fugitive to show her the heart of the desert she thought she knew."

This is my second Arabian fantasy book in quite a short time. I must say I preferred this one to The Wrath and Dawn however I still had a few issues with it. Firstly, I just did not like the fusion of Arabian mythology with a Western setting. By "Western", I mean cowboys, shoot outs, saloons, etc. I didn't think it worked and, if you ask me, it succeeded in taking an area of the world that is oft-unexplored in modern fantasy and westernizing it. It’s not everyday that I read a book set in the desert. That makes for a bleak visual world-building, I’m not going to lie. I wasn’t impressed by the description of places, no shock there.

Secondly Jin is an easy-to-spot love interest as early as page seven, when he is introduced with a detailed description of his bone structure *rolls eyes*. 
The books starts with Amani who is dead on with a gun and she is desperately wanting to get out of her town and away from her despicable uncle and his many wives and children. It's not a very good living situation and she wants to get out before she is married off or married to her uncle. Hell to the no!

I loved the mystical creatures presented, if I dare use that word. Until we actually meet one of those creatures, they are talked about as if they were fairy-tale characters, like they may exist… somewhere. I had no idea this was the magic mentioned in the blurb.

For a debut, it’s pretty well done. For a first in a new series, it’s not bad at all. It starts with action and ends with action. In between, however, it’s less Formula 1 and more Dora the Explorer. The danger is not as present and the walking and riding and escaping seem to be a tad eternal.

So thank goodness for a strong, three-dimensional and witty heroine to keep us company during this uncertain period of cat and mouse chase. There’s talk of a war… that’s on the brink of combustion somewhere… but we have to wait a long time before being privy to any juicy detail concerning it. Talk about building suspense.

When I got to the end I couldn’t stop reading. The last 1/3 of the book is really something. It should have been like that all along in my opinion. Will be trying the second book with crossed fingers.

Age Rating 13+. Nothing much untoward but there is one scene where a girl is shot at close range.