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

I am the perfect weapon.
I kill with a single touch.

Twylla is blessed. The Gods have chosen her to marry a prince, and rule the kingdom. But the favour of the Gods has it's price. A deadly poison infuses her skin. Those who anger the queen must die under Twylla's fatal touch.

Only Lief, an outspoken new guard, can see past Twylla's chilling role to the girls she truly is.

Yet in a court as dangerous and the queen's, some truths should not be told...

Title: The Sin Eater's Daughter (The Sin Eater's Daughter #1)
Author: Melinda Salisbury
Publisher: Scholastic
Publication Date: February 24, 2015

Brooke's Review:

I want to thank Scholastic Press for providing me with a copy of this book to read and give an honest review. Receiving this book for free has in no way altered my opinion or review.

The first thing that drew me to this book is that cover! I mean, look at it. It's totally gorgeous. And then the blurb just made it sound like a must read for me.

Unfortunately, that was about as far as it went for me with this book. Once I got started, I just could not get into it and I really felt like nothing was happening for me.

Twylla kills with just her touch. Sounds great, right? I thought so. I loved Shatter Me. And now here's a book that sounds like Shatter Me but it's fantasy. And I've been on a fantasy kick as of late. So boo yah! But things are not what they seem, of course. I won't get into why, but suffice it to say, it wasn't hard for me to pretty much figure it out within the first few chapters, the twist didn't leave me flabbergasted when it actually happened because it really was no surprise.

I honestly had no connection with the characters in this book. I wanted to feel empathy for Twylla, I really did. But I just didn't. I wanted her to be so much stronger and full of hutzpah, instead she came across to me as weak and needing the assistance of any male she could find: her friend, the prince, her guards. Of course, she gets stuck in a love triangle, which I don't always love, but can appreciate. But I just didn't feel her pull to either guy, and she pretty much made her choice early on so there wasn't much of a competition.

And then there was the Prince. I didn't like him, nor did I trust him. I didn't understand how he could be betrothed to Twylla for so many years and yet not have a bit of correspondence with her. Then when he returns, BOOM, he expects her to be head over heels in love with him. Why?

And I didn't like Lief. He was so lifeless and boring. I wanted to like him. I wanted to see the true love and watch it grow, but it just didn't blossom the way I thought it would. He was truly one-dimensional, no substance at all. Like if you scratched his surface, you'd just find a robot or maybe some clay.

The evilness of this story is really what kept me going. The Queen is just pure evil. Everything and anything she wants to do, everything she touches, it's just sinful and downright evil. I wanted to strangle her on every occasion I saw her. She was only out for herself no matter what. She craved power. I wanted to read to the end to see just what would happen. Would she get it? or would good win out in the end.

As for Twylla being a weapon, meh, I didn't see it. I mean, I understand what they are using her for, but it's not as it seems in the blurb. I felt like she could have been so much more, done so much more, and had a much bigger impact in the story if she was actually used as the weapon she's proclaimed to be.

I was also taken aback by the incest references and the sin eating. It just all seemed so very wrong. I felt like there needed to be  more background to all of this, not just the simple explanation that was given.

The start of the book is strong. Lots of background to show you why Twylla came to the castle and why she has to stay. Plus we get some good background on her family. However, there are some areas of info-dump which did take me out of the story. I still read on. I was sure there would be action and fight scenes and I wanted to know it all.

But then there wasn't any of that. There was a lot of pining and a lot of worrying and a lot of "omgosh what could I possibly do now?" for the rest of the book. I was a little bored but I kept reading because I thought it could only get better. And I know that sometimes in first books, it's not until the final quarter of a book that you  really get into the nitty gritty, the down and dirty. But it just didn't happen for me

The writing is good. There's so much potential for this to be a great book. Unfortunately, I didn't find it great for me. I know there are a mix of reviews, so I really can't say if I would recommend it. I think people need to really read it and find out for themselves if it's for them. For me, as a lover of authors like Sarah J. Maas, it just didn't live up to my expectations.