*Early Book Review* The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury

Series: The Sin Eater's Daughter # 1
Publisher: Scholastic Press
Released: February 24, 2015
Source: Edelweiss/Publisher
Format: E-Book, 320 pages
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Romance

*Book Blurb*

Seventeen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she’s engaged to the prince, Twylla isn’t exactly a member of the court.

She’s the executioner.

As the Goddess embodied, Twylla instantly kills anyone she touches. Each month she’s taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love a girl with murder in her veins. Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to Twylla’s fatal touch, avoids her company.

But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose easy 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 Twylla’s been promised to the prince, and knows what happens to people who cross the queen.

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

I went to sleep trying come to terms with what I read in The Sin Eater's Daughter. While the story was interesting enough, it was most mostly a romance novel intertwined with Fantasy, and mythical Gods. There were some pretty intense moments, but the main character, 17-year old Twylla, was a cardboard cutout figure with no emotions right out of the box. Reviewers talk about a characters growth. Does she get better? Or, does she continue to do stupid things? Does she eventually discover that she has choice and a backbone and finally stands up for herself? At times, Twylla is a hard nut for me to crack.

Brought to the Lormere castle 4 years ago by Queen Helewys, Twylla was made into an executioner and a weapon. She was set up to be the Daunen Embodied, a human born from Gods, who with a touch of her finger, can kill instantaneously. Then there is the fact that she freely walked away from her life as the Sin Eater's Daughter to become an entirely different person because she wanted a better life for herself. Can't blame her for that after you read what her mother's job really entails. Let's just say....EWWWWW

But, let's really cut through the fog and talk about the real Twylla. She genuinely cares about her little sister Maryl, so much so that she made sure that money and food was sent back to her. She became friendly with the alchemist son, only to watch him die by her own hand for treason. She is supposed to be betrothed to Prince Merek, but he's been away for the past 2 years in another land. She has no friends. Her guards and everyone else at the castle, are scared to death of touching her, and the one guard who has stood by her the longest, isn't around all that much thanks to a diabolical ploy.

So, like other reviewers, I waited for Twylla to start asking questions instead of taking everything she was told by the Evil Queen with a grain of salt. I do believe had she done so earlier, it would have saved her a whole lot of pain and heart break. You might be asking yourself, well, does Twylla experience any character growth? I would be hard pressed to say no, but we shall see if she really does make a choice to leave her life behind. We shall see if she truly does choose her own destiny, and not one set by someone else.

I realize that my festering hatred for love triangles is a bit on the strange side. But, in this case, I can't abide by those who cheat when supposedly intent on marrying someone else. It is hard for me to fully go negative over Twylla and Lief's romantic interlude, until I was slapped in the face and made to understand that nothing is what it seems. Think about what I've already talked about and the fact that Twylla truly is a pawn in a much larger game. So, if someone showed an inch of interest in your well being, what would you do? Who do you choose? A callous liar, or a broken Prince whose family is an absolute mess?

I have do have feelings and thoughts about THAT ending but won't spoil it for anyone. For the most part, I didn't see where Twylla was all that special. You may not like the Queen or her actions, but you have to admit that at least she sticks to her diabolical ways right until the very end. I can already guess who is knocking on Twylla's door at the end of the book. If you've read this book already, can't you?

**I received this book for free from (Scholastic Press) via (Edelweiss) in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!! This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.**

Early Review: Every Day by David Levithan

"I am a drifter, and as lonely as that can be, it is remarkably freeing. I will never define myself in terms of anyone else. I have learned how to observe. I am not blinded by the past or motivated by the future. I focus on the present, because that is where I am destined to live."

"A" is a drifter that is neither male nor female. “A” wakes up each and every day in the body of a different person and has to figure out where he/she is by the person’s own memories. A is sixteen years old and therefore can only inhabit the body of a teenager of the same age. A can never be older or younger than sixteen.

Every day A realizes a different culture, a different life, a different way of living and has been doing so since A was born. One day A might be a girl, and the next a boy. A has been straight, gay, transgendered, African-American, White, and Asian. A has been a popular athlete as well as the downtrodden and overweight. I noticed that it seemed as though A was thoughtful towards each and every character except the overweight boy and the obnoxious and nasty girl. Then his/her way of thinking abruptly changed.

When A borrows the life of Justin for the day, little does A realize it but A's whole existence will change. It will change because A has fallen hard for Justin's girlfriend Rhiannon. For nearly a month, A will continue to have feelings for Rhiannon while continuing his every day body jumping. A’s determination to be with Rhiannon consumes A’s every waking moment and drives the storyline right until the breathtaking ending which I will never spoil. I also had problems with the fact that A strung Rhiannon along for the ride and never had any real thoughts of what it was doing to her psyche of the fact that she had friends who relied upon her to be around.

For A, borrowing someone’s life for a day is hard. It’s hard because there are times you wake up in a person’s body you don’t care about. You are likely to wake up in the body of an absolute snob, instead of someone like Rhiannon who seems to actually be a nice person. You also run into situations where the body you are in tends to afflict pain and suffering on itself in order to survive the day.

Up until I saw Every Day on NetGalley, I had never read anything by David Levithan. The premise sounded intriguing to me as well as something that I truly believe in. It shouldn’t matter what a person believes in. It shouldn’t matter what their skin color is, or the way they look on the outside, or whether they are gay or straight, transgender, or so called normal. Like Levithan says, humans are 98 percent similar yet they allow the 2 percent in differences to drive their hatreds and the way they deal with others around them.

I think readers will like A because of his/her code of not doing any harm to the body that he/she inhabits at the moment. “A” even goes as far as saving a girl from committing suicide in keeping with his motto of doing no harm. A also realizes that love is not a something for the faint of heart. It is ever lasting and comes in all shapes and colors.

Once you start reading this book, you will find yourself deep into the story and unable to put it down. I actually read this book in one sitting, minus a nap, and it flew by. The chapters are unique in that they are the actual day since A was born/created into this world. I can only hope that Levithan will one day rediscover A’s world and write a sequel so that readers like me won’t be left off balance by the shocking ending.

*Recvd 06/29/2012 via Netgalley.com Expected publication: August 28th 2012 by Knopf Books for Young Readers

Title - Every Day
Author - David Levithan
Publisher - Random House
Release Date - August 28, 2012

Early Review - Pushing the Limits by Katie McCarry

As we meet Echo Emerson, she has been forced by the state of Kentucky (Child Protective Services) to go to regular therapy sessions with the school counselor. Echo continues to have excellent grades, but, she is socially withdrawn from all her friends and outside activities and has been for nearly 2 years. Echo used to be part of the so called popular crowd until a terrible incident left her with scars on her arms. Instead of allowing others in on her secret, she withdrew and rumors and innuendos abound about what really happened to her. She also lost her older brother Aires who was a Marine in Afghanistan at the time of his death. Thanks to the harping of her father, she also gave up the love of her live; being an artist.

Noah Hutchins is in a similar situation to Echo's. He lost his parents in a tragic fire, and has been in and out of Foster Care ever since. He has been trying hard to fight for his brothers Jacob and Tyler who are living with yet another foster family. Noah is forced into court mandated therapy sessions, and his visitations with his younger brothers are fleeting at best. Noah not only has to deal with his grief and his anger issues, but the fact that he's now got a bad reputation as a playboy, and a druggie which could cause him to lose his brothers forever.

Right off the bat, let me say that IF you have a tendency of crying at the drop of the hat, then I warn you in advance that you will go through a lot of tissues before you get to the end of this book. I found this story absolutely appealing and amazing which surprised me because I'm not usually one to read contemporary romances.

One of the things I loved about this story is that BOTH characters had severe emotional issues. They were far from perfect and had to discover a way to deal with their issues without losing themselves in the process. When they do get past their rough issues, their romance is very much likable and heart warming.

This book flip flops between Echo and Noah so that we get an equal opportunity to get inside each characters heads as they struggle to maintain their lives and grow closer in the process. This is one of the few times I can actually say that DUAL POV's absolutely works. We couldn't have watched as either character came to different realizations about their future and about themselves. In Echo's case, we finally get to see what the mystery behind her scars is all about, while Noah eventually grows up and realizes that he's been acting like a dipstick when it came to his brothers and his goals of becoming a family unit again.

Overall, I'll definitely be putting Katie McGarry on my watch list, and might consider buying, or borrowing her next installment once it hits the publishing route.

*ARC Recvd 05/27/2012 via Netgalley for Harlequin

Author - Katie McGarry
Title - Pushing the Limits
Publisher - Harlequin Teen
Releases - July 31, 2012

All These Things I've Done by Gabrielle Zevin

Imagine a world where chocolate is considered to be a contraband item and caffeine is illegal yet alcohol is freely consumed by nearly everyone. It’s a world where water is so scarce, that it is being rationed out to the general public and you need ration cards for a simple candle. It’s a world where minors are barred from using Facebook, Twitter and all other social networks without a license to publish.

It is a world where teenagers have no clue what OMG actually means and where minors under 18 aren’t allowed to have their own phones, and the phones they do have, cameras aren’t included in them. It’s a world where the Statue of Liberty is basically a prison camp for minors who have broken the law in one way or the other.

All These Things I've Done, the first book in the Birthright series, takes place in the year 2083 where sixteen year old Anyaschka (Anya/Annie) Balanchine, the daughter of a dead mob boss, lives in New York City with her older brother Leonyd, and younger sister Natalya.

To me, this was like an episode of the Mob Wives and not a dystopian fantasy novel. Our main character, Anya, is a Russian-American teenager who is forced into dealing with life’s lesson of survival and betrayal before she is even out of high school while finding love with someone that would be otherwise untouchable. Anya, in reality, is the head of her family even though she is the middle child. It's forced her into being a little more realistic about her situation and the world she lives in.

The one thing I am confused about is how this world turned out to be so awful. If I’m reading between the lines, it appears that some sort of infectious outbreak took place but it never is fully explained which absolutely boggles my mind and thus leaves me with a feeling of letdown and betrayal.

The male romance interest, Goodwin (Win) Delacroix, is the boy across the tracks on the good side of town. His father is an important person in the District Attorney’s office who basically goes out of his way to ensure that Win doesn’t end up with Anya who he considers to be nothing more than mob pond scum not worthy of mention or notice.

As a Catholic, there are times I really want to scream out loud that not all of us were brought up the same way and that our views on the world aren’t based on what the Vatican, the Church leadership, or even some fooked up Politician tells us.

In this story, Anya reserves herself from sex and goes to penance because of her promise to her father that she wouldn’t do the nasty until she was married. In all fairness, there is absolutely nothing wrong with this idea and I supported her decision until she nearly lost her marbles and did it anyway which seemed at the time to be out of spite rather than actual love for Win.

I'm most likely going to continue on with the next book in the series called "Because It Is In My Blood" which releases September 18th 2012 because I want to see how Zevin resolves several issues with Anya, her sister, and her brother who went into hiding at the end of the book.