The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury | 1 Minute Reviews

This review is a rare thing because it also is partly a review of a re-read, and I have only re-read two other books before – To Kill a Mockingbird (about eight times) and Six of Crows (cannot keep away from that banter).

Twylla is the Sin Eater’s Daughter, or she was once, before she gave it all up for a life of glamour and royalty as Daunen Embodied, the reborn daughter of the Gods. But fleeing one life of duty has led her to be trapped in another, and she finds herself the weapon of the kingdom of Lormere, the executioner. A girl with poison in her skin that can kill just by a single touch.

These covers are so good it is frankly rude

The Sin Eater’s Daughter finds Twylla shortly after she has executed her only friend for treason, lost and alone. Twylla is naive, and knows only the world of Sin Eating or Daunen. She cannot read. She has no one. When her new guard Lief arrives from the country of Tregellan, Lormere’s longstanding rival, Twylla starts to question the world she knows.

The Sin Eater’s Daughter is a mesmerising high fantasy novel on battling duty and choice, as naive Twylla tries to keep her head afloat in a kingdom ruled over by the cruel Queen Helewys. Melinda’s writing is suffused with nature, flowers, passion and fury. It also has ripped out my heart more times than the Sleeping Prince (in-jokes for the Salisbury nerds).

The first time I read this book, I knew I loved it. Re-reading it has shown me so much more beneath the surface, as I read in anticipation for finishing the trilogy, with The Sleeping Prince to follow and The Scarecrow Queen closing the series this March.

You should definitely read this. Get it here, and then have the other two to hand so that you can finish it in one delicious feast.

What to read next:

• Maresi by Maria Turtschaninoff
• Shadow & Bone by Leigh Bardugo
• Sabriel by Garth Nix