See this picture? It's beautiful isn't it? You would think a book with such an amazing cover would have an equally amazing story, but no. I made the mistake to judge a book by its cover and I got very disappointed.
WARNING this review may contain spoilers
The Sin Eater's daughter had a good plot: A girl, Twylla, is gifted by the gods with a powerful gift that allows her to kill with a single touch. She's engaged to the prince, who can touch her since he is royalty, but she's more attracted to her new guard Lief.
See what I mean? It sounds good right? Some mystery with Twylla's gift, some romantic troubles with the little love triangle between the prince, Lief and Twylla? But nope! It's bad. It's a bad, bad book.
Firstly, I have to talk about the love triangle. I am a girl. A teenage girl. I obviously enjoy reading a books where there's a love triangle-or-whatever-shape-it-is that supports the plot. But in this case? It was more the plot that supported the love triangle. AND THIS IS NOT GOOD! I wouldn't complain if this was a romance book but that's exactly the problem! Twylla's power? It was merely an excuse to make her relationship with Lief more interesting, not a crucial part of the story, or of Twylla as a character!
And talking about characters, can we talk about Twylla? When you have a power like hers, you have in my opinion two choices. Either you embrace it, you accept the responsibilities and take control of it. Or, you're scared and you let your power control you. Basically, you are either a badass or you're a coward who is too afraid to do anything. Twylla was hands down part of the second category.
She has this incredible ability but she lets the Queen dictate her every move and make her a murderer. Then she goes and cry about how it's unfair and how she doesn't want to be a killer and blablabla. But in the years she's been at the castle, she never, ever tried to save herself or the ones she loved! (Didn't I mention she killed her best friend?)
Also, Twylla is incredibly naive. She falls for the first guy that ever pays attention to her. In a matter of weeks (I think), she has her first kiss and loses her V card with Lief. And how old is she again? 16? 17? I don't remember, but seriously, it's almost like she's unconsciously using him as her personal rebellion against the Queen. Because, and I'm sorry I forgot to mention it earlier, her powers are fake! And her amazing plan? To run away with Lief!
One thing the author did right was Lief's character arc. At first, he's all lovey-dovey with Twylla. We know he's very intense and he kind of has a temper. I personally was not his biggest fan, but whatever, he was okay. And then BAM! He's a traitor! Or more precisely, he betrays Twylla. Turns out he never loved her (hahaha!) and he was working for the Queen (HAHAHA! See what trusting someone too soon does to you Twylla?) Anyways, THAT I did not see coming! So I give Melinda credit for it. After that revelation, I hated his guts, which was the desired effect (I think).
This book had, like a lot of them recently, a good premise. But for a lot of reasons, it just didn't do it for me.
