Tags
author, book, book reviews, books, characters, fantasy, fiction, literature, Melinda Salisbury, novel, plot, read, reader, review, romance, romantic fantasy, stories, story, The Sin Eater's Daughter, The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury, write, writer, writing, young adult
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 336
Point of View: First (Twylla)
Released: February 5th, 2015
Series: The Sin Eater’s Daughter 1
Predictability: 3 out of 5 (Where 1 is totally unpredictable and 5 is I knew what was going to happen way ahead of time.)
Source: Edelweiss
My Rating: 7/10 Stars
My Summary:
Twylla was the Sin Eater’s Daughter. When someone dies the Sin Eater eats food off their coffin, each item representing a different sin they committed while alive. After seeing Twylla and her red hair and talent for singing at the king’s funeral the queen herself visits Twylla’s small cottage. The queen tells Twylla she’s the Daunen embodied, the daughter of the gods meant to bring hope to Lormere.
Now Twylla lives in the palace, is engaged to the prince, and lives a rich life, but she isn’t free. As the Daunen Embodied, every month Twylla drinks a poison, which makes her skin poisonous and her touch deadly. Her job is to execute traitors to the crown.
Because of this she has no friends for everyone in the castle fears her. She’s not surprised when yet another of her guards quits, but her new guard isn’t from Lormere, and he doesn’t seem to fear her. He asks her questions and actually talks with her.
My Review:
I feel I should apologize before this review. It’s such a mess. I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I wanted to love it. I mean look at that cover! And that blurb! It sounds so awesome! But the book I got wasn’t the book I expected. It’s good, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t as epically amazing as I wanted it to be.
The Sin Eater’s Daughter was more of a romance set in a made up medieval kingdom than a fantasy.
The Good:
The religion building. I would say world, but though we know about Lormere and it’s two closest neighbors and their recent history, it is really the religion and the customs behind their beliefs which are the most built upon.
Though the pacing was slow I wasn’t bored and there were enough dangling questions to keep me reading. I couldn’t put it down because I had to know what happened next. (Is it wrong that I’d rather all of my wild theories to have happened than what did?) In the end it was a good mystery though.
This book felt very dystopian to me. The seemingly nice little kingdom where things aren’t really so great. The heroine finds out the truth and the plan to set things right. Though Twylla did make some revelations in figuring out the evil plot, she had little to do with saving the day.
The supporting characters were good. The queen was appropriately evil and both of the men in Twylla’s life were interesting enough. (Yes there are two love interests)
Romance The Good and The Bad:
She was betrothed to one man, but she didn’t really care for him even though he cared for her. (I liked him the best out of the two. He wasn’t great, but the potential was there.) The one she did like… I can see where many people will enjoy this romance because it is slow and they become friends first and I liked when she realized she cared about him more than a friend.
But I would’ve rather they stayed as friends. I was starting to feel the friendship and then it turned into a romance, but I didn’t feel it. (As much as I like the friends first thing.) He was just okay for me, a bit too perfect and I didn’t like how he was always judging her and seemed to look down on her instead of trying to understand her. (Can you tell I didn’t like him?) I’m not saying she should’ve picked the other guy. I think she needs to become her own person before she worries about love.
Twylla The Good and the Bad:
I went back and forth with Twylla. She’s relatable and flawed. She’s survived a hard life and still managed to be a good person. She was a little boring though. She had a talent for singing, but I wish she had something else she cared about other than her gods. It’s mentioned that she wishes she could read, but it wasn’t explained why she never learned. I appreciated her character growth, she started to come into her own towards the end, but I wish that she had grown more and faster.
I wanted her take charge of her own story! My main problem is she never did anything for herself; made her own choices, decided her own destiny, come up with her own plans. I felt like she moped and waited for someone to save her. I had trouble feeling bad for her after she was so stupid! (I know that sounds awful.) She believes everything people tell her. After living in the castle for four years I’d have expected her to learn not to trust some of these people. By the end she does finally start to wise up, so there’s hope for the sequel. (Though I did think she’d learned her lesson once and then she proved me wrong.)
Verdict:
I hope this doesn’t sound like I didn’t like this book, because I did! There are many good things about this story. And just because I didn’t like the romance or Twylla (some of time) doesn’t mean you’ll feel the same way. I read it in two sittings, so that says something and I didn’t see the mystery coming, even though there were hints. (So Twylla turned out to be smarter than me.)
I like my fantasys with take charge heroines, magic and battles and political plots, but for a fantasy romance this was good. (and there was plenty of conniving by bad guys.) So all in all, a good book, but not a great one.
Woven Magic Books 
I love the mythology of the Sin Eater so I can say I would be interested in this too. I have a hard time seeing how they could use the traditional story of a sin eater with a love triangle but as you said – that was one of it’s problems.
I didn’t know that the Sin Eater was mythological! Unfortunately most of the Sin Eater stuff is in her past with her mother. She was training to be the Sin Eater, but four years before the story starts she was taken by the queen.
The love triangle was complicated. Most of what I didn’t like about it was she really didn’t know herself well enough to be focusing on romance. She needed to be strong first. If that makes sense. (and I didn’t like the guy she fell for)
There are quite a few books and movies about sin eaters and their relation to the Catholic and other Christian churches. It’s pretty fascinating – to me at least.
I’ve heard a little bit about The Sin Eater’s Daughter, but this is probably the first review I’ve read for it. It sounds… OK. Probably because you made the point that it’s more of a romance story in a medieval setting than a fantasy story with romance. I’d be more interested if it were the latter.
You have to the admit, though: The cover is GORGEOUS. I love all the bright colors and stark contrasts.
It just came out. Shannon at It Starts At Midnight wrote a glowing review for it. http://itstartsatmidnight.com/2015/02/review-sin-eaters-daughter-melinda-salisbury/
Yeah I’d rather a fantasy with some romance too unfortunately. It was still a good book, but I’m more of a fantasy girl than a romance one.
The cover is so beautiful!
This wasn’t quite what I was expecting either and you are right, it is very much based on the romance aspect of it just as much as anything else.
I am glad that even with that, you still liked this well enough.
Great review, I think you did a great job stating what you liked and disliked about it and why. 😉
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who thought this book would be different. I expected more fantasy and less romance, but yes it was still a good book. Seven stars is I’d even read it again.
Thank you! 🙂 This was a tricky review to write because I did like the book (and I’m happy that that shows) I was afraid the things I didn’t like would make it seem like I didn’t like it.
I only heard about this book recently…surprising, I’d have figured that striking cover would have caught my attention sooner than this. It doesn’t sound bad from the description and your review. Maybe I’ll wait until book two comes out to see if the character improves. That’s much more important to me than the romance.
I only found out about it when I was doing my top ten Tuesday 2015 books post, but I’ve really wanted to read it ever since. It wasn’t that the romance was annoying as much as I didn’t like the love interest, but most people did. I agree, I hope she continues to grow, so that next book she can take care of herself. She’s never going to be a kick butt kind of heroine though.
I love friends-to-lovers kind of stories so I’m really looking forward to reading this one. I just hope this won’t develop into love triangle.
Also yay for character development. And thanks for making it clear not to expect some epic high fantasy story but mainly romance instead.
Great review!
It could have been a love triangle, but it really wasn’t. I agree, I’d always rather they become friends first. It’s always nice to see a character come into their own.
You’re welcome! I find I enjoy a book much more if I know what to expect going in.
Thanks! 🙂
I think I like Mogsy’s comment – I do like the Sin Eater idea but maybe wait to see how it pans out!
Lynn 😀
I think that’s a good plan. I have a feeling Twylla’s going to continue to grow. I just hope she doesn’t keep making stupid mistakes by trusting the wrong people.
I fear I would get really annoyed at her and everyone else..and the world
Most people really liked this book, but yeah I was annoyed with Twylla quite a bit. Hopefully she’s learned not to trust the wrong people, so the sequel is better.
Hmmm… the story sounds intriguing, but I really can’t stand stupid heroines. Darn.
The cover is so pretty, though. I feel like I want to read it just because of that (and that’s not a good way to pick books)!
Most people considered her more naive than stupid. I just got annoyed because she kept trusting people who it was stupid to trust.
The cover and the blurb gave me such high expectations, but yeah a pretty cover doesn’t mean a good book, unfortunately.
Ahh my copy’s on order!! Can it just arrive already! It sounds like you had mixed feelings about it, which is kind of disappointing I’ve hyped this book up in my own head so much. I wanted the first review I read of it to be OHMYGOD IT WAS AMAZING!!! haha I’ll just have to read it for myself and see if I enjoy it.
I hope it comes soon! Yeah I might have over hyped the book for myself too. I liked it, and most of my issues were things I personally didn’t like, maybe you will. Here’s your ‘it was so good!’ review by my friend Shannon: http://itstartsatmidnight.com/2015/02/review-sin-eaters-daughter-melinda-salisbury/
Haha thanks I’ll check it out!
Well, I am sad that it didn’t go as well as you’d hoped 😦 For me, part of the charm WAS that Twylla was such a mess, but I think that is probably just a huge personal preference. I do see what you mean about the romance, and in hindsight, I agree with a lot of it, though I think there is a lot more going on than we know about with him too (because it is just that kind of series!). I think ultimately, Twylla almost HAD to be a little “damsel-in-distress”-ish, because otherwise it wouldn’t have made sense (with her pretty much in the dark about ALL the things, she had to rely on outside sources), so if you don’t like that type of main character, it makes sense that this wouldn’t work as much. Very nice review, I am so sorry though! (And thank you for sharing my review, you are too sweet!)
I agree there was a lot going on behind the scenes with Mr. love interest obviously does have issues too. Normally I like his kind of character, so I don’t know why he bothered me. Maybe because he was so wishy washy on what he wanted. She does something he thinks is a little mean and he’s back on board with the plot to kill her again. (essentially)
Yeah I understand what you mean about Twylla she almost had to be the way she was for the plot. I guess I just wanted her to take charge, maybe come up with the plot at the end herself somehow. I don’t know. haha
Don’t worry about it. I understand though I always feel terrible when someone doesn’t like a book I recommended, but I did like this book I just didn’t love it. 🙂 You’re welcome. I meant to share your review in the post but I forgot.
Oddly enough, I’m disappointed and curious in equal measure after reading your review. There are just way too many fascinating facets to this story that I’m way too curious about. Especially the sin eating thing.
haha I understand! It was a hard book to review because most of what I didn’t like was really personal preference. The Sin Eating thing was cool! I was surprised that it wasn’t used more!
That is an interesting premise. As in, wow, completely unique.
The premise is so why I wanted to read this book, which I think is why I was let down, because I didn’t get the book I thought I was getting.
I love the premise of this book. However, I don’t like characters who don’t take charge of their own lives, it’s one of my biggest pet peeves!
Aren’t these just the hardest books to review? I feel like every time I read a book that I enjoyed, but have substantial issues with I feel like I spend too much time on the bad parts in my review and not enough on the good.
Great review, Molly! =)
I agree with you, this cover is just gorgeous! I really love it as well. I saw another review a little like you, maybe less positive. So I confess I don’t really know. It’s great though that it had a really good mystery, I always love that. thanks for the review!
I bought this the second it came out, simply because of the cover!! It’s so stunning 🙂 I hate love triangles so I’m glad she doesn’t really like one of the men, it really puts me off a book if there is one. I’m still excited to read this because it does sound amazing!! Great review.
The world-building in this one draws me in, and yes, the cover as well. 🙂 I also like my heroines with a take-charge attitude, I think it gives the story more power behind it. They always say a passive protagonist is not something you want to aim for in a story, but I suppose there are exceptions. I’ll give this book a read at some point. Good review. 🙂
Great review Molly. I was going to buy this but I think I’ll borrow it from the library instead.
I’m going to be honest and admit that I only skimmed this. Both b/c I’ve had it preordered for months and intend to read it as soon as the kindle version is released (on the 24th instead of the 5th with the paperback for unfathomable reasons), but also b/c it was looking like you were seriously torn, and had very specific issues. And I’m interested in those issues. So I will be back after I read the book 😉 In the meantime, I’m glad you mostly enjoyed it 😉
I think this cover is amazing. Every time I see it I want to read the book. I liked reading your review and hearing your thoughts on the story and romance. It can be hard when we have strong expectations for a book and things are different than we expect them to be. Glad you did enjoy it overall! Thanks for sharing.
The cover is absolutely gorgeous and the blurb sounds interesting, but not at all like the story you described! I hate it when the blurb gets me all excited for a certain type of story and then it turns out to be something else entirely! My disappointment always interferes with my enjoyment of the book, which is such a shame.
I can understand why you didn’t like that love interest. I don’t think you should be friends with someone who looks down on you, let alone be in a romantic relationship with them!
Great review by the way 🙂
What a great post. Strong examples too. I like the friendship route too, but I still have major issues with the Ron and Hermoione coupling.
Hmmm I’m not very sure if I would like this one or not. I’ve read so many mixed reviews but the concept has me intrigued!
Lovely review, Molly <33
This is a really helpful review. I loved the cover but got scared away by the blurb actually, don’t know why, just bad vibes. So I didn’t request it and I’m kind of glad since I don’t think it’s a book I’d particular enjoy given your genre clarification 😉
I definitely want to give this book a try. It sounds like it’s my kind of book, and it deals with topics like religion (so fragile but interesting if well-written)! Great review! 🙂
You know Molly, you’re very good at writing critical reviews without being too harsh. That’s really tough to do sometimes, especially when a book presents some serious issues! Honestly, I haven’t been too keen to read this one – primarily because as you said, it seems like a historical dystopian more than a fantasy novel. And I’m generally not interested in those anymore (barring exceptions like Angelfall and Red Rising). I’m sorry this wasn’t great but hey, at least it was a quick and compelling read. On to the next one!
Sorry it wasn’t exactly what you wanted or expected, but glad I know more of what to expect now.
OMG! I love the cover! Even my expectations sky rocketed after seeing it… sorry, that the plot wasn’t that epic. I’ll give it a go though, now that I know not to expect a lot from the plot maybe it’ll helpmeet liking it 🙂
Thanks for such a wonderful review Molly! 🙂
I haven’t picked up this book yet, but that cover is definitely calling to me! After reading your review, I’m afraid I’ll be disappointed. I’m going to give it a go anyway, hopefully I’ll love it. Thanks for the review!