REVIEW: Rebel of the Sands (#1) - Alwyn Hamilton

Title: Rebel of the Sands (#1)
Author: Alwyn Hamilton
Series:  Rebel of the Sands
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Format: Paperback
Pages: 358 Pages
Rating: ⭐⭐

Goodreads Blurb

Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mythical beasts still roam the wild and remote areas, and rumour 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.

REVIEW: Darkthaw (#2) - Kate A. Boorman

Darkthaw (#2) - Kate A. Boorman

Series: Winterkill
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Format: Paperback
Pages: 345 Pages
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Goodreads Blurb

Council has fallen. The Thaw is here. The world outside Emmeline’s fortification awaits. Urged on by her dreams, Emmeline sets out with her new friend Matisa and her beloved Kane, venturing into the exhilarating wilderness, into freedom, into the unknown.

Into Danger.

The secret that has secured peace for Matisa’s people for generations has been compromised. Newcomers are arriving, laying claim to the land and bringing unimagined horrors. Emmeline vows to help Matisa warn her people, but with new perils at every turn and the enemy closing in, she finds herself faced with an impossible choice: Forsake the friend who saved her life or abandon the boy she loves.

REVIEW: Winterkill (#1) - Kate A. Boorman

Winterkill (#1) - Kate A. Boorman

Series: Winterkill
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Format: Paperback
Pages: 304 Pages
Rating: ⭐⭐

Goodreads Blurb

Where Emmeline lives, you cannot love and you cannot leave...

The Council's rules are strict, but they're for the good of the settlement in which Emmeline lives. Everyone knows there is nothing but danger the other side of the Wall, and the community must prepare for the freezing winterkill that comes every year.

But Emmeline struggles to be obedient under the Council's suffocating embrace - especially when she discovers that a Council leader intends to snatch her hand in marriage.

Then Emmeline begins to hear the call of the trees beyond the Wall...