The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

The Sin Eater's Daughter is not a book I had heard anything about when I picked it up. It was almost a relief having heard nothing about it because it meant that this was a book I was going into with an open mind.

When I first picked up this book I was very intrigued about the story. It is about a girl who is taken to live in the palace under the persona of the reincarnated daughter of two Gods that are worshiped in this particular kingdom. Under this persona, which she herself believes to be true, she becomes the personal assassin of the Queen for those who commit treason. There is one twist to her assassinations though, she kills them simply by touching them... or so she believes. The book follows Twylla as she learns the truth about the Queen, her true intentions and the truth about herself and her abilities. 

Before being taken into the palace however, she was the Sin Eater's Daughter (hence the name of the book). The Sin Eater is a woman who comes to eat away all of the sins of a deceased person. The sins are represented by different foods that the Sin Eater must consume in order for the deceased to "move on to the next world". Being the Sin Eater's Daughter has some set backs for Twylla as she automatically associates certain foods with the sins they represent. 

The story also tells a love story. Throughout the book Twylla slowly falls in love with her new guard who knows secrets about Twylla that not even she knows. The love story is quite cliched in a way that Twylla does not seem to like her new guard at all until something happens and she begins to realise he is not as bad as he seems. That is until the concluding action when Twylla discovers the truth behind his actions and the betrayal of her trust. 

With their being almost two parts to this story it is quite difficult to understand and follow on occasion. The stories never truly seemed to merge until the last few chapters when the story began to pick up a bit. There also seemed to be a fair amount of information that wasn't all that necessary when it came to telling the story. That being said the book was incredibly well written and Melinda Salisbury did a really good job with the creation of this world and the characters in it. I will definitely be picking up the next book to this one just to find out where Melinda takes the story and the characters next.