Welcome to the blog tour for
Traitor to the Throne by Alwyn Hamilton!

I’m so excited to share today’s blog post which is my blog tour stop for TRAITOR TO THE THRONE by Alwyn Hamilton! Thanks to the amazing team at Penguin Random House for having me be a part of the tour and share some of my favorite parts of any book… the scents! Being a candle-maker, I’m obsessed with the different scents described in books and there were a few lovely aromas in TRAITOR TO THE THRONE that caught my eye. On today’s stop, I’m sharing some of those and have a special candle giveaway too!

Before we jump into the tour, let’s take a second to check out some details about the book:

Title: Traitor to the Throne (Rebel of the Sands #2) by Alwyn Hamilton
Publishing Info: March 7, 2017 by Penguin
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Parallel Universe
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // GoodreadsDate Completed: March 17, 2017
Related Posts: Rebel of the Sands (Rebel of the Sands #1), Traitor to the Throne (Rebel of the Sands #2)

The sizzling, un-put-downable sequel to the bestselling Rebel of the Sands!

Mere months ago, 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 djinni and Jin and the Blue-Eyed Bandit. In Traitor to the Throne, the only certainty is that everything will change.

ABOUT ALWYN HAMILTON

Alwyn Hamilton was born in Toronto and spent her childhood bouncing between Europe and Canada until her parents settled in France. She grew up in a small town there, which might have compelled her to burst randomly into the opening song from Beauty and the Beast were it not for her total tone-deafness. She instead attempted to read and write her way to new places and developed a weakness for fantasy and cross-dressing heroines. She left France for Cambridge University to study History of Art at King’s College, and then to London where she became indentured to an auction house. She has a bad habit of acquiring more hardcovers than is smart for someone who moves house quite so often. Follow her at @AlwynFJH.

BOOK SCENTS: TRAITOR TO THE THRONE

Ever since I started making candles, I’ve been so much more in tune with the sensory notes in the books that I read. I feel like aromas in a book are easily skipped over and forgotten once a reader has finished because noticing and committing a smell to memory is such a unique experience that it’s harder hang onto if you haven’t experienced it first hand. I know at least for me, when a book draws on a familiar smell, I’m instantly hit with memories and nostalgia that have the potential to tie me to a book more than any other scenic description so I feel like those smells that add to the atmosphere are not to be overlooked!

Drawing upon my newly heightened awareness, I’ve started keeping tracking of specific scents described in book and how they really paint an even more vivid picture for a reader! Today on Book Scents, I’m sharing some of my favorite aromas from THE VALIANT! They immediately had me thinking back on what fragrances I would use to mimic each experience and I’ve included each one below. (Now how do we make these posts scratch and sniff?)

I knew which tents were slightly lopsided, and what the birds sounded like in late afternoon from the bathing pools, an that the smell of fresh-baked bread meant Lubna was on cooking duty for the day.

Inspiration: The rebel camp
Fragrances: Freshly-baked bread, outdoors, fresh air

Even down in Dustwalk, we’d heard stories about the celebrations. Of fountains full of water flecked with gold, dancers who leapt through fire as entertainment, and food made of sugar that was sculpted so fine the folks who made it went blind. 

Inspiration: Aureanzeb celebrations
Fragrances: Rain water, fire, sugar

I felt steam in the air before we’d gone much faster, the cloying scent of flowers and spices already winding their way to my body.

Inspiration: The harem
Fragrances: Jasmine, gardenia, spice market, cinnamon, sandalwood

There were a hundred more gardens that bloomed so thick with flowers I could barely get the doors open, or where music speed to drift through the walls along with a breeze that smelled of sale and bright air.

Inspiration: The harem
Fragrances: Sea mist, ocean, jasmine, fresh air

He smelled of mint mostly, but there was an undercurrent of desert dust and gunpowder when he kissed me that made me desperately homesick.

Inspiration: Jin
Fragrances: Earthy mint, fire & smoke, outdoors, sandalwood

So what do you think?! Which scents do you think are the strongest sensory inspirations? Which are your favorites?

Don’t miss the rest of the blog tour stops for TRAITOR TO THE THRONE!

GIVEAWAY

There are TWO exciting giveaways for my stop on the blog tour today! The first is through Penguin for a chance to win a copy of the book! See rules and details below and enter the first Rafflecopter form for you chance to win!

Enter for a chance to win one (1) grand prize set of Alwyn Hamilton’s books, including a paperback copy of Rebel of the Sands and a hardcover of Traitor to the Throne, or to win one (1) of five (5) paperback copies of Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton (ARV: $10.99 each).

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Enter between 12:00 AM Eastern Time on March 6, 2017 and 12:00 AM on March 27, 2017.  Open to residents of the fifty United States and the District of Columbia who are 13 and older. Winners will be selected at random on or about March 29, 2017. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The second giveaway is my own personal contribution to this blog tour stop because I turned one of these book scents into a TRAITOR-inspired candle! The candle giveaway is for one 8oz tin called “Desert Kisses”, inspired by Jin, with scents of mint, gunpowder, and sand. Open to US entries only. Must be 13 years of age or older to win. Candle giveaway open from 3/21/17 through 3/28/17. Use the Rafflecopter form below to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway