Traitor to the Throne

As it turns out, this book is better than what I expected. After finishing the first book, I thought I'd give this series a second chance, because for me the romance is a little bit off. I can't convince myself to belive the attraction between Amani & Jin. Their first encounter is good, but I don't know, I don't feel the connection between them, no spark, no tension, no everything else I can't quite put my finger on.
Surprusingly this book is good, minus the romance. The planning, the maneuver, and the plot twist, enough to make me finish the 500ish pages. Now I definitely will read the last installment.

WOW! I loved this book so much, more than the first one. This sequel to the amazing “Rebel of The Sands” has exceeded my expectations. I didn't know that I was in for such a bumpy ride, but I loved every single part of it.

This book has everything: love, betrayal, sacrifices, friendships, family drama, amazing plot twists.
There were a lot of things that I didn't expect and that's what made me love the book so much more. I loved the writing style, the pace and the action. This is a book that keeps you wanting to read more and more, I just couldn't put it down.

I haven't even finished yet and already I want to reread the series.

Traitor to the Throne is a book I've had sitting on my TBR shelf for a little while now. I read Rebel of the Sands, the first book in the trilogy, earlier this year and whilst it was okay it hadn't left a lasting impression and I wasn't feeling pulled back to the series as quickly as I had expected to be. Having renewed and renewed this book with my local library I only had a week left to read it before I had to return it so with that pressure upon me I eventually picked it up.

Boy was this a different book from Rebel of the Sands, whilst Rebel of the Sands was quite a short read focusing mainly on Amani the desert girl running away from an arranged marriage and Jin the prince who is helping his brother to lead a rebellion against his father the Sultan. It was a book focused very much on setting up the world and didn't give us as much action as perhaps I'd been expecting. Traitor to the Throne is a much meatier book in all possible ways. It's a good 200 pages longer than Rebel of the Sands and each of those 200 pages are used to their full potential as we develop the world building of Book 1 into a more politically charged and high stakes story.

We pick up just after Rebel of the Sands with Amani and Jin working with the Rebellion to try and overthrow the Sultan. Soon we find Amani captured and taken to the Sultan's palace where she is imprisoned in the harem. From within the palace, she uses her position to find out important political information that she can use to help the rebellion. As a result of this shift in the setting we are introduced to a whole host of new characters, the sultan, his sons and wives in the harem, we see the return of some underused characters from book one like Tamid. This gives the book more depth as we get to know more about what the Rebellion are fighting against and the political situation across the country and the history of how we got there.

That is one of the main reasons I fell in love with this book so much, those deep political conversations between Amani and the Sultan, the context we gain about the history of the country and the role of the Demdji and how they can be used for political gain. The life within the Harem makes for fascinating reading as well as we see how the women use every advantage they can scrape to ensure they don't become usurped by a new potential wife.

The book is my favourite type of fantasy, it was driven by changing alliances and character actions rather than big battles and fighting. The endings twists and turns leave us with a really good draw to pull us back into the final book of the series with a really good OMG reveal in the last pages. We have all the players on the board now, we know them all and we really are set for the closing rounds to play out in the last book.

Really really good book, if you didn't love Rebel of the Sands and like me aren't sure of returning for book 2 please please do, it pays you back dividends with a more mature, developed and engaging book.

This is the sequel to Rebel of the Sands, which I read several weeks ago. The conclusion to the trilogy, Hero at the Fall, came out in March, and I'm waiting patiently for a copy from the library. (Okay, so maybe it's impatiently, but I'm waiting!)

I love so much about this book. I always love non-western style fantasy, and this one is definitely middle-east inspired, with its djinni and deserts and fancy khalats. (A khalat is a loose, long-sleeved silk or cotton robe worn over the rest of your clothing.) The Demdji - the children of djinni and humans - are all fascinating, with interesting powers. And fantasy politics, at the highest of possible levels!

Amani is a fascinating main character, with her control over sand, her personal ethics, and her personal conflicts. She's the daughter of a djinni, and we actually meet djinni for the first time in this book! I liked her love story better in Rebel of the Sands - it seemed very muted in this book, but they did spend most of the book apart. I am eager to see where that part of the plot goes in HatF.

There were a couple of twists that surprised me - who the titular traitor was, for one. The book was full of traitors of one kind or another. I also really liked seeing palace and harem life; the first book focused on desert backwaters and outlaws, so this was quite a change, and I liked it. I'm still half in love with Prince Ahmed, though we meet his half-brother Rahim in the palace, and he's growing on me. The Sultan himself also surprised me; I expected a villainous, power-mad ruler, and he is not that. He seemed to surprise Amani, too.

I was excited to see the djinni actually make an appearance; I'd expected them to stay an abstract idea for the entire trilogy! They certainly never showed up in the first book. I mean, it was obvious they still came to humans, or Demdji couldn't exist, but no one, even the mothers, ever spoke about seeing or interacting with them. Even to their half-djinni children. I'm hoping this means they'll play a bigger role in the third book, because after the small glimpse we get here, I really want to know more about them!

Like most of the other reviews I've read, I agree that this wasn't as strong as the first one, but middle books in trilogies rarely are. It is a solid volume, though, with lots of plot advancement and world-building and politicking. Can't wait to get the concluding book!

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

content warnings for: major character death

I LOVED Rebel Of The Sands so I couldn't wait to read this one. Whilst I didn't enjoy it as much (some people may disagree with me on that), I still really liked it.
If you liked the first book, obviously you should like this one, but the tone is slightly different than the first, with different settings from the first book, and a focus on different characters.

Without giving too much away, Traitor To The Throne follows on from Rebel Of The Sands, with the rebellion ever growing and gaining traction. Amani ends up infiltrating actually being kidnapped, but trying to take advantage of it the palace and inserting herself into life there, becoming an aid to the Sultan. The book follows her balancing staying on the Sultan's good side whilst also trying to gain information and helping the rebellion in overthrowing him.

I actually liked the Sultan as a character, which may be an unpopular opinion, but I did think he was incredibly clever and resourceful and I look forward to seeing more of him in the next installment. We are re-introduced to characters from the first book (although I think the hints at their reappearances were a little heavy handed) and introduced to brand new ones that come with the new setting. With the exception of the Sultan, and possibly Sam and Rahim, none of the secondary characters were fleshed out enough for me to care about them. Ones who were set up as major players for the third book didn't have a lot on time on the page here so I wasn't exactly caring about them or their motivations for their actions. Like I said, as we got to see Amani interacting with the Sultan a lot, and then with the end reveal, I was incredibly satisfied with his character because he was given the time to develop. I hope the last book does have more of a focus on necessary characters

Pacing is still a problem with these books. Nothing really happened for the first 25% of Traitor To The Throne, but then so much happened in the last 10%. Hamilton's books are definitely enjoyable but I would like to see more plot and twists throughout the book rather than most of this being left until the ending.

There definitely were twists though, and some of the events that transpired early on in the book did have pay off at the end. Chapter 49 genuinely made me gasp, and the fact that it was sprung on us added to the suspense. The fact that there was a further twist on this was so much fun to read even if it did stress me out a little bit.
I did like that multiple events and actions that could have been written off did serve a purpose, but these could have possibly been revealed or hinted at earlier on in the book.

One of the things I absolutely love about Hamilton's writing, is the old tales that she weaves throughout the book. It might be an idea for her to release a spin off book of some of these tales and flesh them out a little bit more, because they truly would be magical.

Whilst I didn't enjoy this book as much as Rebel Of The Sands, it still definitely had enjoyable moments, and the action scenes are always a delight to read. I'm absolutely looking forward to the final book to see how everything turns out for Amani and the rebellion.