ARC Review: The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

The Sin Eater's Daughter (#1) by Melinda Salisbury (Feb. 24, 2015)
320 pages
Genre: Young Adult/Fantasy
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Source: I grabbed a free ARC copy at ALA Midwinter 2015. This didn't affect my honest review.
Purchase: Barnes & Noble | Amazon | The Book Depository

Goodreads Review: 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?

MY REVIEW

My first thought: What is a Sin Eater? (I'm going let you read the book to find out the answer to that question.) It's kind of crazy and kind of awesome.

The Sin Eater's Daughter absorbed me into its pages. I started reading this book with the high hopes that it would be different/unique. It did turn out to be different, then kind of mundane, and then different again. There was a lot of cute moments and some dark ones too, even a few pretty shocking ones. Basically, I had a lot of mixed feelings while reading this book, but there was one area in which my feelings were constantly positive, the intriguing characters.

I liked Twylla from start to finish. I felt for her. I was curious about her life. I actually fancied every character, each interesting enough to keep me reading. I become smitten with Twylla's new guard and I became convinced that there is something more to the prince (and pretty much all the characters) than Twylla chooses to believe.

Surprisingly I felt like The Sin Eater's Daughter was in huge part a romance, which wasn't what I was expecting. The ending was really the only big part of the book (besides a few other small instances) that contained a good amount of action and suspense, the only time it didn't feel like it was prominently a romance to me. There was one other thing about this book that just didn't sit well with me, a small something that I just can't put my finger on, but it is why this book is only getting a 3.5 star rating from me. The Sin Eater's Daughter is a really good book and shouldn't be bypassed, it just didn't hit "great" status for me.

My Last Thought: Yes... I will continue to read this series.