Author TJ Hapney

Description/Blurb:

For nine months of the year, the sands of the Sharani Desert are safe. The genesauri—giant, flying, serpentine monsters who hunt across the desert in enormous packs—lie dormant. The smallest of their kind is able to take down a single man with ease, and the largest is able to swallow entire clans. The people of the desert have always been able to predict the creatures’ appearance, but this year, the genesauri have stopped following the rules.

When the genesauri suddenly attack her clan, seventeen-year-old Lhaurel draws a sword in her people’s defense—a forbidden practice for women of any clan—and is sentenced to death by her own people. Chained to a rock and left to be eaten by the next wave of genesauri, Lhaurel is rescued by a mysterious, elusive clan said to curse children at a glance, work unexplainable terrors, and disappear into the sands without a trace.

With the fate of the clans hanging in the balance, Lhaurel discovers she possesses a rare and uncontrollable power—one that will be tested as the next deadly genesauri attack looms on the horizon and the clash between clans grows more inevitable by the hour.

Review 4 of 5 Stars

I’ve been pretty slack on reviewing and apologize. Sometimes I read more than I review when my schedule is busy because I can read for five minutes anywhere, but I need a bit more time than that to compose a review.  Such is life and all that.

This book was suggested to me by a friend so I bought it and settled in for a read. I’m not going into a lot of detail since I always post the description/blurb at the top of the page. I was so interested in this story that I’m now reading Book 2 – Storms. The story started out a little rough for me. In the beginning it seemed like a miss-mash of sci-fi shout-outs, like someone who had taken their favorite stories, put them in a bag to blend and dumped it out (Dune, Pern, Mad Max, etc.). I’m not sure at exactly what point it happened for me, but Sands became its own world and story somewhere along the way and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

There’s a lot going on in this story and it only gets better as it goes. I love to see a story develop into something that grabs my attention and somewhere along the way this story got its rhythm. The main character, Lhaurel, was pretty interesting right from the start. The others had to grow on me, but by the end of the book I was interested enough to buy the second one in the series, Storms, which I’m now reading.

I’ve enjoyed this series very much and more so as it has developed into a truly interesting story. Aside from the slow start and some proofing issues (misspelled words, typos, etc. – not too many) this was a good book and a fun read. It was good enough that I’ve almost finished the second book and am looking forward to seeing where the author takes us in the third book.

The review for Book 2 will be more in-depth. Unfortunately, given that I’m thoroughly involved in the second book and the story has all joined together in my head, I’m afraid I might spoil part of Book 2 if I start talking too much about what is going on.

If you’re up for a fun action-adventure story, then this might be the story for you. Happy reading.