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...
Having heard non-stop brilliant things about this debut novel, I had to try it out for myself and I wasn't disappointed.
The world and plot for me was completely unique, it moved along at a good pace and I was left wanting a lot more- like with any series this is the outcome I look for...
The whole concept of the sin-eaters was interesting, although there wasn't a great deal of how this came about and why- pretty gruesome nonetheless and with our heroine Twylla being a Daunen Embodied someone from what I gathered to be a person to be worshipped and feared- like a God/Goddess. Under the instruction of the queen, it wasn't as empowering as it might first appear.
I thought Twylla was a great character and she developed throughout the book, at first with her relations with her new guard Lief- I felt her to become quite naive and quite quickly too. Taking this into consideration she's a young girl who is crying out for love and affection that she can't have, explains why this is. Having said that, Lief gave Twylla a new lease of life despite being merely a guard. He's spontaneous, mysterious and good looking so for a romantic relationship to be involved was inevitable but quite abrupt...something made me quite suspicious for sure.
Along with this there are a few snakes in the grass and it was beyond juicy as it all came to a climax, I'm not certain of Prince Merek's intentions and obviously not the queen's- she's a bit sticky! Merek seemed quite the ordinary Prince of following duties and attending to Twylla, his betrothed. However, I found him to be a bit too much of a push over at times but thankfully like Twylla his character developed tremendously and he overcomes his mother's demands and takes control of the complicated situation that arises later on in the book.
The queen is definitely someone to keep you eye on, the classic evil character of having total control over her son and all of Lormere, she has her fair share of secrets that start to peep through the cracks as the book progresses- I found her to be a great villain and again I'm intrigued to find out what other secrets she's held back.
Throughout the book we have snippets of a Sleeping Prince and the mythical tales that are attached, it definitely has me intrigued- particularly now the second installment of this series is it's title.
Very entertaining, good-paced and a whole new vibrant world to learn and get my teeth stuck into- bring on The Sleeping Prince!
