Review: Traitor to the Throne

Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The first book in this series, Rebel of the Sands, was a lot of fun. We got to know Amani and Jin, and learn a ton about all the myths and legends in this world. It was a good adventure story with fun characters.

This one is so much darker.

There's a lot of politics and death and slavery and torture and Jin and Amani are fighting but the reason is WEAK. Apparently during the story between the two we have, Amani got herself shot and Jin disappeared because he couldn't hack it. So there's this weird, lame tension that's never really tense because, duh, we already know they love each other so it's just ridiculous to believe they're mad at each other. So yeah, Jin is gone so no Jin really in the first chunk of this book.

Then Amani winds up in the Sultan's palace (it's only a spoiler if I tell you how - she's there for a decent chunk of this novel making it kind of the main story) and it's all intrigue and politics and 'oh, maybe the Sultan isn't such a bad guy' which, compared to Kadir, he's kind of not? But he still kills people whenever he feels like it so, um, yeah. Definitely a bad guy.

There's a ton of ladies in the Harem (go figure) so there's nastiness (though I would have been entertained by more) and not nearly enough eye candy (figuratively speaking, of course) but there's a tiny ray of hope in Rahim, who is the prince-who-is-more-of-a-soldier, typical-good-guy, selfless type. A reasonably familiar character, but I liked him all the same. I'm expecting a solid love triangle in the third book, but that could be wishful thinking. Just for the drama, though!! Jin will always be my fave <3

Amani's still pretty sassy which I truly appreciate because all of this drama needs some sass to lighten the load a little. Also Shazad hangs around a bit here and there which is a blessing coz she's totally badass. There's a new fellow, too, who is fun.

Guess who DOESN'T spend time at the palace? *eyeroll*

If you go into this book hoping for fun hijinks from the dashing Jin, you will be sorely disappointed. (I was.) There is NO JIN at the palace. Which, as mentioned, is most of the book. *tears*

So no, this book was not nearly as fun as the first one, but that being said I do think it was an important story to tell. We needed that insider glimpse of the Sultan so that we can properly understand our villain, and I think it's valuable that he's fleshed out with a bit of grey, too, because that creates a much more entertaining dynamic. It was good getting to know a few more characters, and build on the dynamic between the existing. I did get a little mixed up with all the rebels, though. I couldn't remember who did what and who was related to whom. (There's a handy little character chart at the front, though.)

It was a slightly disappointing read after how much I enjoyed the first one but mostly just because it felt half-baked. It was such a long novel compared to Rebel ... but it needed more depth; like the emotion was missing a bit and things were being told instead of felt. I love Amani as a protagonist (though not entirely sure I'll be backing her in the next one) and I love her and Jin as a team, so I'm kind of just clinging to that. I'll be really interested to see how the series concludes because this was such a change from the first one - things escalated really fast so will be interesting to see what kind of scale the conclusion is on.

Fingers crossed for a lot more Jin in the next one, too!


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