Traitor to the Throne

Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton is the second book of the Rebel of the Sands series.

Rebel by chance. Traitor by choice.

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.

Forget everything you thought you knew about Miraji, about the rebellion, about Djinn and Jin and the Blue-Eyed Bandit. In Traitor to the Throne, the only certainty is that everything will change.

The Breakdown:
1.  I loved Hamilton's sophomore book just as much if not more than Rebel of the Sands. She takes an interesting route in this book, allowing us to get up close and personal with the Sultan.  Plus she introduces some exciting new characters, along with bring back some that I did not expect to see.  Plus lots of palace intrigue and scheming to keep things really exciting.

2. I loved Amani's growth as a character in this book.  She struggles with the choices she made and what it may have cost her.  Then there is the questioning she has about the rebellion once meeting the Sultan.  She really becomes a leader in her own right in this book.

3. I loved the new characters of Sam and Rahim. Sam is an interesting character in both his motives and loyalties with quite the handy talent.  I cannot wait to see where Hamilton takes his character in the next book. Then there is Rahim, once of the Sultan's many sons.  He makes for an unique wrench in Amani's plans, plus I liked seeing aspect of both Ahmed and Jin in character. I am interested to see where he will fall into the story in the next book given what happened at the end.

4.  Speaking of  ending, that one was quite the shock.  It literally left me with my mouth hanging open, and dying to the next book.

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