The Sin Eater's Daughter

The Sin Eater’s Daughter is a YA fantasy novel by Melinda Salisbury.

Seventeen year-old Twylla is the Goddess embodied. This means she is impervious to poison but by simply touching another, she kills them.

When she was brought to the castle as a young girl, at the time an apprentice to her mother, the Sin Eater, she did not realize that being the Goddess embodied meant being the royal executioner.

She knows now.

Under constant guard to protect others from her divine, lethal touch, Twylla is avoided as much as she is tentatively revered. Even the royal family, including the prince she is betrothed to, shuns her company despite being the only ones immune to her poison.

Her loneliness is permeated only by her guard who has been with her since the beginning. It’s a professional relationship, but she feels that he actually cares for her.

But when he falls ill, Twylla is given a new, young guard. He throws her off balance with easy smiles, a lack of understanding of the boundaries meant to be established with them and a desire to be sociable. Somehow, he sees her as a girl – not a goddess. Not a blunt instrument of death.

It’s intoxicating.

Yet, Twylla knows that entertaining such ideas as friendship breach into treasonous activity in the eyes of the queen. The queen is not one to be trifled with – as someone who not only uses Twylla’s poisonous gift for execution but even crueler, nauseating means.

Is Twylla still up to doing what she must for the kingdom? Or is she falling into a doomed, hopeless love?

This cannot end well…

Wow – I *loved* The Sin Eater’s Daughter.

I mean - I really, really did.

Swiftly, the author creates a world that is twisted, disturbing and fascinating – with the worrying madness of royalty rivaling that of Game of Thrones.

Twylla is in the midst of it, whether she wants to be or not. And her situation is one that is terribly sad – yet she is wonderfully stoic about it. She doesn’t sit around and cry. She knows what she is and has accepted it as much as she can.

Yet she doesn’t like killing. She doesn’t like to be the weapon.

With a good deal of character development, Twylla’s first person narration is absorbing and compelling. I loved her and I loved where the plot went.

And the plot goes crazy!

I won’t say much here because I want it to all be a surprise for you. But I will say this: The Sin Eater’s Daughter is one of the most breathless, suspenseful, intriguing, romantic novels I have read this year.

It weaves together classic fairytales such as The Magic Flute, The Pied Piper and The White Bride and the Black Bride to create an entirely new tale that is epic in emotional scope.

It sounds like there is to be another book – and I am so very relieved!

Truly memorable.