Review: The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

Title: The Sin Eater's Daughter

Author: Melinda Salisbury

Publisher: Scholastic Press

Release Date: February 24, 2015

Seventeen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she's engaged to the prince, Twylla isn't exactly a member of the court.

She's the executioner.

As the Goddess embodied, Twylla instantly kills anyone she touches. Each month, she's taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love a girl with murder in her veins. Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to Twylla's fatal touch, avoids her company.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose easy smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he's able to look past Twylla's executioner robes and see the girl, not the Goddess. Yet Twylla's been promised to the prince, and knows what happens to people who cross the queen.

However, a treasonous secret is the least of Twylla's problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies, a plan that requires a stomach-churning, unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?


This book had so much potential.  So much.  Instead, it was ruined by a wishy washy heroine that got tangled in an annoying love triangle, and didn't really do much.  DNF at 52%.

I feel like one of the things really truly lacking here is the world building.  We're told that the embodiment of Daunen has red hair and has an angelic singing voice.  Why?  We don't know anything about Daunen herself.  Was she a fantastic singer?  I want to know more about Daunen.  And what about this kingdom?  It's supposedly only a day's ride to anywhere in the kingdom.  A map showing Lormere and Tragellan would have really been nice.  And what about Sin Eating?  Okay I get that this is the whole thing with the religion in the book, but I don't quite understand it.  I think it needed to be gone into more.  Is Twylla's mother the only Sin Eater in the country?  How did she become such?

I just had way to many unanswered world building questions.

And as for the love triangle...

I don't even know.  I know that it was mention Lief is only 18 (one year older than Twylla), but the whole thing with him feels really awkward.  Like a kid having a huge crush on a hot teacher.  Maybe it's because he's her guard and I just think of him as older, but anything between them just seems forced and weird.

I did not like this book.