Audiobook Book Review – The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury, Narrated by Amy Shiels (2/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 9 hours and 3 minutes (320 pages)
Publisher: Scholastic Audio
Release Date: March 1, 2015
ASIN: B00SX3F7QI
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Sin Eater’s Daughter series
Source: Audiobook from Audible.com
Rating: 2/5 stars

“Twylla is blessed. The Gods have chosen her to marry a prince and rule the kingdom. But the favour of the Gods has it’s price. A deadly poison infuses her skin. Those who anger the queen must die under Twylla’s fatal touch.

Only Lief, an outspoken new guard, can see past Twylla’s chilling role to the girl she truly is.

Yet in a court as dangerous as the queen’s, some truths should not be told…”

I have had this book for some time to read. I thought the premise sounded intriguing but I ended up not being a huge fan of this book. The story is very predictable and the heroine’s denseness and blindness bothered me.

I did listen to this on audiobook and the narrator had a very nice voice for the main heroine. In general she did the women’s voices very well but sometimes the men’s voices sounded very similar to women’s voices. The scenes where Twylla and Leaf would banter were especially confusing because sometimes they had the same voice and it was hard to tell who was talking.

Initially I thought this was an interesting premise, Twylla is a blessed sign of hope but also the death by which justice is delivered. I liked the irony of that. However, shortly into the story I started wondering why our heroine constantly ignored the inconsistencies surrounding her.

Not a lot happens in this book and at first I thought the deliberate pace was leading up to something, but it wasn’t. The whole story takes place in the castle and the majority of it in one room of the castle. There is some intrigue here but it is so transparent, and are heroine is so blind to it, that it was just continually frustrating for me.

Some of scenarios in the book were especially improbable. For example that fact that the Queen/King were just fine with Twylla constantly being alone with a single male guard when they were generally so protective of her. Or the fact that when Twylla is caught touching someone and they don’t die that no one questions this much….just very frustrating.

The ending was completely unsatisfying and made me want to throw my hands in the air and shout “Why?!, Why, did I read this book!?”

Overall I did not enjoy this book. The heroine was too dense, the scenarios inconsistent and improbable, the plot was transparent, and ending completely unsatisfying. I wouldn’t recommend.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge
– Mount TBR Reading Challenge
– Flights of Fantasy Reading Challenge
– Audiobook Reading Challenge