Es war durchgehend so heftig gut, NOCH besser als Band 1 und einfach unfassbar dynamisch mit gleich bleibend hohem Erzählstandard. Ich liebe die Charaktere, das Setting, den Plot, die überraschenden Wendungen, die Dynamik, die starke Protagonistin, die mit neuen Gesichtern anwachsende Rebellion, die kleinen Romance Einschübe...und vor allem auch die fließend in den Erzähltext eingewebten orientalischen Sagen! Diese Reihe wird zu meinem unerwartetsten Jahreshighlight!!! Ich habe selten eine Story so unterschätzt. Wie konnte ich diese Bücher nur so lange im hintersten Eck des Bücherregals liegen lassen

okay first - I am really sorry for giving only 3 stars, because I really loved the first book so much. Second - the book wasn't bad. The story was actually pretty good but there were parts who were unnecessary. The book was too long for the way the author decided to continue the story, I guess I would've liked it better if it weren't that big and filled with some boring parts. It felt like they weren't actually planned and were only written to make it look big, which is why it took me so long to finish it. But beside that it was really good! I will definitely read the third book.

I finally have time to sit down and write this review, after several weeks of writing exams and research papers. Only one more week until Easter break though, so that’s something, right? Not that I actually WILL have a break because I have a thousand papers to write, and a thousand things to do, BUT OKAY. Back to the book at hand. Traitor to the throne. This book was one of my most anticipated releases of the year, but I kind of missed its release date, (Uni taking over me again. Thanks.) so when my preorder arrived I was surprised, but so so happy. I needed to know how the story would progress, (especially Ahmed’s story; He is B-A-E.) so I picked it up ASAP. I immediately started reading it, and from the first sentence on, it captivated me again. Usually it takes me a few chapters to get into a book, but not with this one, which I really appreciated. When I was reading some of the reviews of this book, I noticed that some people were not pleased with the sudden change of setting that is happening in this book. When the camp was destroyed, I do have to say that I felt really sad. It has been a home to Amani (and to me) for a good portion of the first book, and a little bit of the second, and I fell in love with it. Who wouldn’t want to live in a rebel’s hideout? Well I definitely would. Yes please. I do, however, see why this change in setting was made, and honestly, I loved it! The majority of the book takes place in the Sultan’s palace, which I LOVED! I mean the Sultan himself, as kind of like an older version of Ahmed, I was like YES PLEASE, but the setting, the palace, the characters, the atmosphere in the Harem, everything was so on point and felt so authentic. I felt like it had a more Arabian Nights feel to it than the first book, which I really enjoyed a lot. Although the plot might have been moving a little slow towards the middle of the book, I wouldn’t want to miss any of these chapters. There were so many plot-twists I didn’t see coming, so many surprises lurking around every corner. And THAT ENDING THOUGH. WOW. WHAT. (It slightly depressed me, but okay.) I loved the way the plot developed when Amani was at the palace. The Sultan is such an interesting character, or villain, and I never seemed to be able to quite figure him out, which was amazing! At one point I was like: “Yeah, I mean, he has a point. He seems rather nice.” And at other parts I was just like: “Excuse me sir? No?” THIS is exactly how a villain should be portrayed. It often happens that I can see what the villain’s intentions are from miles away, but not with the Sultan. I really appreciated that. What he did to diminish Amani’s powers was brilliant as well. I mean, not that I would want that for anyone, but implanting iron under her skin so that she can’t use her powers anymore, that’s real villain-thinking right there, a real villain plan. Do you know what I mean? It was great! And honestly, call me naïve, but I did NOT see it coming that all he did all of this just to set up a trap for Amani. I honestly, at some point towards the middle at least, thought that he was not such a bad guy. Well, guess I was wrong. But how he was portrayed, his character features, the way he spoke, everything was so on point. I actually just now, while reading this review realize how much I loved this guy as a villain. Next to a lot of interesting new characters (I loved all of them, especially the Blue Eyed Bandit ;) ), it was so good to see some old faces as well. I missed them all so much, and being reunited with the squad was just amazing. However, a lot of people also complained that there was too less Jinn in the book, which is true, but Amani is such an interesting character on her own, and we met so many great new characters along the way, that half the time I didn’t even notice that he wasn’t there. (Whoops. My bad.) What I’d rather complain about is the lack of Ahmed. Yeah, it might be pretty clear by now that he is my favorite character, and I practically haven’t seen him at all in this book, which did make me sad. (Alwyn, if you ever consider writing a whole book about Ahmed alone, yes please, I would read that and I need that.) SPEAKING OF AHMED THOUGH, that ending? Honestly? “Six people who would never tell the story of what took place on the day that would be known forever as the day the Rebel Prince died.” (p. 557) How about NO?? That sentence just broke my heart. No, shattered it into pieces. And then, a chapter later, even better: “His eyes met mine. The low rays of the sun struck the iron of the axe, turning it into a blazing light as t reached its pinnacle. But the sun didn’t stop. Time didn’t stop. The world didn’t show any sympathy for my grief. The axe fell. It turned from sunlight to iron. To blood.” (p. 563) After reading these two chapters I had to put the book down and just process this information (while trying VERY HARD not to cry). I probably stared into the void for like what, half an hour, until I had the courage to pick the book up again. And then? It was Imin all along? What? How? Why? Why let me suffer for so long?! I mean of course, losing Imin is tragic, BUT AHMED OMG DO YOU FEEL ME IT WAS PURE TORTURE. The ending just left me kind of like -> :O. Talk about a cliffhanger right there. BUT, another thing that I totally forgot about but have to add now: There were a lot of fairytales and stories woven into the story, which made it even better. The stories were so interesting and they fitted the plot so nicely. I loved it when people tell a story within a story, and it was done so well in this book too! SO, all in all I think you can tell that I really, really liked this book. I even liked it more than the first one, for that matter. The characters were great, the setting was so on point. Honestly, I loved it so much that this review probably doesn’t even do it justice. It never could, because I can’t describe in words how much I liked it. I just can’t wait until the last book in the trilogy comes out and I will be reunited with those amazing characters once again, as their journey comes to an end. (Also, apparently my mom called for me three times while I wrote this review, and I didn’t hear it once. So now you know how captivating it was.)