Book Review: The Sin Eater's Daughter (The Sin Eater’s Daughter #1)

Release Date: February 24, 2015
Author: Melinda Salisbury
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Length: 320 pages
Source: Purchased Book/Library Audio Book

A startling, seductive, deliciously dark debut that will shatter your definition of YA fantasy.

Seventeen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she's engaged to the prince, no one speaks to her. No one even looks at her. Because Twylla isn't a member of the court.

She's the executioner.

As the goddess-embodied, Twylla kills with a single touch. So each week, she's taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love her. Who could care for a girl with murder in her veins? Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to her touch, avoids her.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose playful smile belies his deadly swordsmanship. And unlike the others, he's able to look past Twylla's executioner robes and see the girl, not the goddess.

Yet a treasonous romance is the least of Twylla's problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies-a plan that requires an unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?

    

Review:

Protagonist: Ever since Twylla was young she's known that she is Daunen Embodied. Her destiny is to take a poison monthly that will seep through her skin and kill anyone she touches, and use that gift to kill traitors to her kingdom. However, being capable of killing with a single touch has made Twylla lonely, she's ostracized and seen as a monster for her gift. That is until a new guard sees past her monstrous gift, to the beauty underneath. Honestly, while I liked Twylla at the start of the book, and her character development isn't all that bad, some of the choices she makes in the end honestly rubbed me the wrong way. She's not a bad character on the whole and honestly, I do like a majority of her characterization, it's just that I felt she made some less than wise decisions near the end of the book.

Romance: So, much like Twylla, I really enjoyed the romance at the beginning of this book. It's a romance that stems from friendship and at first, it starts off rather slow and I was sort of getting into it. Heck, even when the dreaded "L" word pops up I almost believe that the two characters deserve to use that word to describe their romance. However, there's a shift when their romance is portrayed as this end all be all, soulmate type of romance, though the word soulmate was never brought up. I have a problem with "soulmate" types of romance, not really because I don't believe in soulmates, but more because it just feels like a lazy way to say that two people are meant to be together, and while the author didn't officially go into soulmate territory, with the way she was describing the love between these two characters, she might as well have.

World Building: So, I have a problem with the world building. The worst part of this problem is that I cannot describe it to you without spoiling a fairly large twist in the story, so I'll say this and hope that you won't be able to understand specifically what I'm talking about. So the world building for a fair bit of the story is really interesting, but then there's this game changing shift in the story that honestly kind of pissed me off. Don't get me wrong, had the author set it up a different way this would have been an amazing twist, but for some reason, it just rubbed me the wrong way and dragged down my feelings of this book's world building.

Predictability: So, for the most part, this story was really unpredictable, I mean, I had assumptions, going into this book, that were shattered, things happened with a bit of randomness, but there were still a few things I was able to grasp before they were revealed. One thing, in particular, was foreshadowed so much that I understood what was going to happen like a hundred pages before it was revealed. Okay, so maybe not that much, I'm not sure I mostly listened on audiobook at x1.25 speed, but it was quite a while before the reveal, and honestly there was another twist, that wasn't foreshadowed to death, that I figured out around the same time, but I digress, it's that first twist that I took issue with since there was just so much foreshadowing and it wasn't really that well-disguised foreshadowing which is probably what hurt the most.

Ending: There's a great deal of this ending that made me uncomfortable, but unfortunately, I cannot describe quite why just know that I felt as though I was supposed to have more emotional attachment to certain things and I just didn't care. As for the final climax though, that had me very excited. I won't spoil it, but it's really good and made me not really care that much about the uncomfortableness I felt earlier and was nearly worth it for the final climax alone. The story ends with an epilogue, but honestly, as much as I love epilogues I just felt like this one was tacked on in case this was never a series.

Rating:

So, I did really enjoy this story, but the romance, and the shift in the world building, put a huge damper on my overall enjoyment for the book. I'm still excited to read the next book in the series, though that may have more to do with it being more of a companion novel than a direct sequel.

Book Review: The Gray Wolf Throne (Seven Realms #3)

Release Date: August 30, 2011
Author: Cinda Williams Chima
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Length: 517 pages
Source: Library Book

Han Alister thought he had already lost everyone he loved. But when he finds his friend Rebecca Morley near death in the Spirit Mountains, Han knows that nothing matters more than saving her. The costs of his efforts are steep, but nothing can prepare him for what he soon discovers: the beautiful, mysterious girl he knew as Rebecca is none other than Raisa ana’Marianna, heir to the Queendom of the Fells. Han is hurt and betrayed. He knows he has no future with a blueblood. And, as far as he’s concerned, the princess’s family as good as killed his own mother and sister. But if Han is to fulfill his end of an old bargain, he must do everything in his power to see Raisa crowned queen.

Meanwhile, some people will stop at nothing to prevent Raisa from ascending. With each attempt on her life, she wonders how long it will be before her enemies succeed. Her heart tells her that the thief-turned-wizard Han Alister can be trusted. She wants to believe it—he’s saved her life more than once. But with danger coming at her from every direction, Raisa can only rely on her wits and her iron-hard will to survive—and even that might not be enough.

The Gray Wolf Throne is an epic tale of fierce loyalty, unbearable sacrifice, and the heartless hand of fate.

    

Review:

Protagonists: After being kidnapped by Micah Bayar and then nearly taken by Gerard Montaigne, Raisa is on the run for her life, hiding away from the High Wizard and his dastardly schemes. However it isn't long before she's pursued again and this time she may not get away so cleanly. Han Alister just wants to find the girl he knows as Rebecca Morley and make sure she's safe and sound, blaming himself for her disappearance. When he finds her near death in the mountains, he doesn't expect to soon find out that she's none other than Raisa ana'Marianna Princess Heir to the Fells, and the girl he begrudgingly agreed to protect. I honestly don't know how much more I can gush about how amazing these characters are. In other novels when a protagonist does something I've deemed stupid, even if I logically know they've done it because of a certain reason, I never quite believe it. In this book I believe it, and it's not just with stupid things. Everything these characters do, each hard choice and sudden outburst not only seem very realistic but very in line with the character this author has created. Each and every one of the characters in this book are so three-dimensional, no one is all black or white, just different shades of gray.

Romance: Man, does the romance in this book get super complicated and sometimes very aggravating, though since it's obvious the author intended to write it that way it's much easier to digest. First we have Amon and Raisa, a romance that just wasn't meant to be unfortunately. We don't get any progression in this book, only some much needed closure and a bit of pain. Then we have Han and Raisa, the romance that not only makes the most sense, but seems the most impossible. If Han and Raisa were to marry the whole country would be up in arms, possibly the whole continent. Raisa marry a street urchin wizard fostered by the Clans? That's just unspeakable. Not to mention the huge rift that grew between Raisa and Han after Han learns her true identity. There's a feeling of betrayal there and Han doesn't know how to sort out his feelings, so he lashes out. Honestly, while I'm very positive these characters will end up together, the "how" to that dilemma currently escapes me, unless Raisa can find a way to use Amon's ability to do nothing to hurt the line to somehow convince everyone that she and Han belong together. Then there are the romantic complications I kind of hope are eventually killed off. Ried Nightwalker and Micah Bayar attempt to reenter their hats in the ring for Raisa's hand. It's nothing to take seriously, just a constant, although semi-necessary, annoyance.

World Building: Even though I thought I knew what to expect going into this installment, I was not prepared for what went on in this book. There's a lot of preamble in this book. Things are steadily building up and what it's building up to is pretty fantastic. There's a turning point in this book, where the storytelling changes in a way, or the story itself changes, and the path I had expected it to go on, isn't the path anymore. As you can no doubt tell, I'm try to be vague and avoid spoilers. That being said, this book has the most political intrigue out of all of the books. Playing politics is a dangerous game, but these characters are smart, let's just hope they are smart enough to not only stay alive, but build a better Queendom. There's quite a bit of world building in this book. We see more of the clans, more of the Fellsian court, and learn some vital secrets that just may prove too dangerous to know. Honestly, there's so much I want to say, but I don't want to reveal more than I already have. Let me just say before I go, that when this book took a turn I wasn't expecting, it wasn't for the worse, but to catapult this story forward in an unexpectedly expected way.

Predictability: I'm pretty sure I've said it before, but I'll say it again, Chima has a fantastic way with foreshadowing. However, sometimes I just want the answer to my questions during the book in which they come up and that never seems to be the case. Take this book for example: In The Exiled Queen there was one mystery introduced, one I had felt I had pinpointed the answer to fairly early on, only to never get the satisfaction of saying that I called that twist during that second installment, however not fully two chapters in and it's revealed, I was right, but it was near torture to get there. That being said I'm not mad. There are plenty more twists and mysteries foreshadowed in this book that I am looking forward to finding out in the next installment, but that may just be because I'm reading the next and final installment after I finish this review.

Ending: This ending was weird, good weird, but still. There wasn't anything I could necessarily pinpoint as a final climax, save for some small climaxes in the final few chapters. The ending is very solid, full of hope as well as tension, and then there's the epilogue. I'm not sure why, probably because this is the book right before the end of the series, but I expected a gigantic twist at the end of this book. So going into the epilogue I had high expectations, but all I was left with was a puzzled look on my face and an intense desire to read the final installment of this series, yet not gigantic twist in sight.

Rating:

I mean, is this even a surprise at this point? It wasn't to me. I absolutely love this series and while didn't go into it planning on giving it five stars, it blew me away in it's slow paced and game changing story line. I have so many questions by the end of this book and I am about ready for some answers.