Title: The Sin Eater’s Daughter
(The Sin Eater’s Daughter #1)
Author: Melinda Salisbury
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance
First published: February 24th 2015
Finished reading: January 2nd 2016
Pages: 336
“When I peered into the looking glass after he’d left, I saw the look in my eye. It was the look of wanting: lust, bright strawberry-flavoured lust. And I can’t allow myself to want, because I am betrothed to the prince and if I touch anyone else I will kill them.”
I am not going to deny it: I mostly got a copy of this book because of the gorgeous cover. I’ve seen a lot of mixed reviews since, and now I’ve read it I can definitely understand why. I really enjoyed reading the first part of The Sin Eater’s Daughter. The worldbuilding and fear around Twylla’s character are very well executed and I was eager to find out more about her fate. Then, about halfway into the story, Melinda Salisbury did the unthinkable and destroyed this potential gem with one of the most cringeworthy love triangles I’ve read about to this date. Not only was this love triangle very much a cliche (a girl engaged to a prince falling in love with her guard!!!), but the romantic scenes were almost painful to read. Take the quote above; I guess the ‘lust’ is somewhat original, but after too many pages of bad love triangle dialogue I was almost ready to DNF this book. Of course it didn’t really help I couldn’t feel a connection to the characters… And while I liked the prose in the first part, things went downhill as soon as the love triangle was introduced. So I guess I would only recommend The Sin Eater’s Daughter to those who don’t mind a cliche love triangle and cheesy love scenes…
Twylla used to be just the daughter of the Sin Eater, but as soon as the queen visits her house her destiny has changed. The Gods have chosen her to be the Daunen Embodied, blessing her and giving her a future where she will marry the prince and rule the kingdom one day. But all things come at a cost, and Twylla has to prove herself worthy every moon by drinking a deadly poison that only spares those blessed by the Gods. Twylla wears the deadly poison on her skin and anyone who treatens the kingdom will die under her fatal touch. Only the royal family can touch her, and Twylla feels quite lonely growing up in the big castle. She was forced to kill her only friend and the prince has been away for ages… What will happen when he returns and will they finally find a guard for Twylla that isn’t scared away by her deadly touch?
The summary of The Sin Eater’s Daughter sounds really promising and the first part of the book is actually really good. Unfortunately, the introduction of a love triangle just about destroys this story. The cringeworthy romantic scenes and dialogues made it really hard for me to actually finish this read and I don’t think I will continue this series any time soon (even though the cover of the sequel is just as gorgeous). I still feel disappointed, because I was really looking forward to this read!
I got a copy because of the cover as well. Unfortunately, it fell flat as a pancake. I got nothing from this book. The writing was a little amateurish for me.
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The first part was good enough, but I definitely agree that the second part (especially the romance scenes/dialogues) weren’t very well written.
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Oh no! I totally cringed when I read that quote at the beginning of your review. I also bought this book based on the cover. This one may be destined for the DNF pile.
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That quote is the exact point where I knew the potential of this story was ‘destroyed’… Such a shame because the first part was actually really good.
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Such a bummer! I was really looking forward to this one. Oh well, I guess they all can’t be perfect lol.
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Oh crap! I guess covers can be deceiving….
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I agree, sometimes the stories just don’t live up to them.
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That’s too bad. It sounds like it has such potential.
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The potential is was had me disappointed most I guess, especially since I really enjoyed the first part.
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Yup, the love triangle killed it. Utterly destroyed it. RIP original-ish YA…
Nice review btw 🙂
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Haha definitely! 😀
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That quote about lust has made me very determined not to pick up this book haha. Also I literally cringed at the mention of the love triangle. Why do YA authors nowadays feel like they HAVE to include a love triangle in their books?
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I know! Every time I see a love triangle in a book I now want to throw it against the wall; which is not good since I mostly read on my kindle. xD The one in this book is particularly bad so I definitely wouldn’t suggest reading it.
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You definitely shouldn’t throw your kindle against the wall! XD Yeah I’m going to stay away from this one 🙂
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