What happened in The Sin Eater's Daughter - Recaptains

The basics

Title: The Sin Eater’s Daughter

Author: Melinda Salisbury

Series: The Sin Eater's Daughter #1

- The Sin Eater's Daughter (2015)
- The Sleeping Prince (2016)
- The Scarecrow Queen (2017)

Add it: Goodreads

Goodreads Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Twylla lives in the castle. But although she's engaged to the prince, no one speaks to her. No one even looks at her. Because Twylla isn't a member of the court. She's the executioner.As the goddess-embodied, Twylla kills with a single touch. So each week, she's taken to the prison and forced to lay her hands on those accused of treason. No one will ever love her. Who could care for a girl with murder in her veins? Even the prince, whose royal blood supposedly makes him immune to her touch, avoids her.But then a new guard arrives, a boy whose playful 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 a treasonous romance is the least of Twylla's problems. The queen has a plan to destroy her enemies-a plan that requires an unthinkable sacrifice. Will Twylla do what it takes to protect her kingdom? Or will she abandon her duty in favor of a doomed love?

Read a full summary of The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury below. If you can’t remember what happened in The Sin Eater’s Daughter and you need a refresher, then you’re in the right place.

in short

Twylla lives in the castle and is surrounded by guards 24/7. She’s betrothed to the prince. No one is allowed to touch her because she will kill them – she’s been told that her touch is poison. Her guard, Dorin, falls ill and she gets a new guard called Lief who she falls madly in love with. Twylla soon realises that she’s been lied to. Her touch isn’t poisonous, and this was just a way of keeping everyone under control. The king and queen weren’t able to conceive a daughter for the prince to marry (yes, it would have been incest) so they told everyone that Twylla was a goddess reincarnated. I don’t know why everyone bought it. Anyway,

what happened in The Sin Eater’s Daughter

• The Telling happens. Rulf cuts Twylla’s arm, gets blood, and adds Morningsbane to it and has her drink it. This is to prove that she is blessed.
• Twylla performs an execution by touching a guy.
• Twylla killed her friend Tyrek a little while ago. Tyrek was arrested for spying on the Crown and the queen made Twylla kill him.
• The queen calls a hunt.
• Twylla is betrothed to the prince. She won’t be Daunen Embodied once they marry because she’ll be impure.
• The king is the queen’s cousin, by the way. The family’s bloodline is like the Targaryens. The queen and her brother had a daughter, who died when she was young. A couple of months later, the queen’s brother (King #1) died, so the queen married her cousin (King #2) and made Twylla out to be a goddess in order to marry her into the family, since there’s no one else for the prince to marry.
• Lief joins Twylla’s private guard. He’s obviously about to become a love interest.
• Twylla received a mysterious folder full of sketches.
• Prince Merek keeps asking Twylla weird questions and it freaks her out.
• Lief apologises to Twylla in a letter, but since she can’t read it means nothing to her. They start to bond. It’s basically instalove.
• Merek and Twylla talk about the dead king.
• There’s a story about the Sleeping Prince from Tallith, a nearby kingdom.
• Dorin, Twylla’s guard, falls ill.
• Lady Lorelle is to be killed for “treason”. Her crime is falling pregnant when the queen has not. The king pardons her and the queen goes a bit mental.
• Twylla goes to see Dorin, who’s dying. The prince has sent for a physician to heal him but it’s probably not going to work.
• Twylla recalls a time when her sister was dying, and her mother was going to let it happen. Twylla got a healer when their mother was away. Twylla had to sacrifice a goat to balance things out. Lief tells her that it’s not a sin to heal people.
• Merek challenges Lief to a duel for permission for Twylla to leave her quarters with Lief as her guard. Merek yields.
• Lief takes Twylla to the gardens. He tells Twylla that his father is dead. He asks her if she loves Prince Merek. Dimia, the maid, sees them talking and Twylla threatens her into silence.
• Dorin dies.
• Everyone vacates the castle. Twylla realises this and thinks something is wrong. She is convinced that the queen is going to send people to kill Lief.
• Lief tells Twylla that The Telling is a lie and that she is not Daunen Embodied. Because your love interest should always make sure you know you’re not a goddess. He says the Gods aren’t real, and it’s only Lormere that still believes in them.
• Lief kisses Twylla to prove that she can touch people without killing them. Seems a bit drastic. He then asks her to marry him and suggests they run away together.
• Lief tells Twylla not to take the Morningsbane the next morning. Twylla takes the vial to him and he tells her it’s actually liquor.
• Twylla asks Merek to meet her at her temple. He tells her that the king has a fever. Twylla confronts him about the Morningsbane. Merek tells Twylla that Tyrek knew about this whole thing and he was planning on telling her. Merek also tells her that the kingdom was in crisis, and they had to keep the peasants happy, etc., etc.
• Twylla decides she can no longer marry Merek, partly because of the lies, and partly because she’s in love with Lief.
• Lief tells Twylla the story of the Sleeping Prince, who was apparently cursed.
• Merek takes Twylla to a maze. He gets super creepy. He says his mother isn’t a good queen. He wants to bring the wedding forward.
• Lief and Twylla plan to run away after the feast.
• The king falls ill in the middle of the feast. He collapses. Merek thinks his mother has poisoned the kind.
• Merek says he heard the queen say that she wanted to marry him to keep the bloodline pure.
• The king dies.
• Twylla decides that she can’t abandon Merek.

how did The Sin Eater’s Daughter end?

Twylla’s mother arrives to eat the king’s sins. She tells Twylla that her sister is dead. The queen walks in on Twylla and Lief after they’ve slept together. The queen blames Lief for killing the king. The queen tells Merek about the pair of them and he gets upset. Twylla is imprisoned. She realises that the queen summoned the Bringer from the Sleeping Prince story. The Bringer is the son of the Sleeping Prince, and he took Dimia. This means that the Sleeping Prince is awake. Merek offers to put all of this behind them and marry Twylla anyway. She refuses.

Twylla and Lief’s trial begins the next morning. Merek summons a physician to stand as witness. The physician says that it sounds like the king died from a stroke. The queen insists it was poison. Twylla tells everyone that the queen summoned the Bringer, and her necklace is his totem. She announces that Daunen Embodied is nothing more than a fairytale. The queen is taken away, but before she goes she tells Lief to tell Twylla why he came to the kingdom.

Lief says he was working for the queen. She hired Lief to seduce Twylla so that the prince couldn’t marry her. Merek asks Twylla to marry him again. She wants to think about it. She speaks to Lief. It’s very vague as to whether or not they get back together after his betrayal. Twylla goes back to her village and waits for word from Merek.

This is a full plot summary of what happened in The Sin Eater’s Daughter by Melinda Salisbury. Check out our recap list for more recaps. If you can’t find what you need, you can request a recap from us!