This book really surprised me. I thought it would be an engaging love story that *might* make me cry. But I was so wrong!
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight starts with Hadley, the protagonist, being four minutes late for her flight to the UK for her dad's wedding, that she doesn't even want to go to. Because of those four minutes, Hadley has to reschedule her flight and be rushed to get to the wedding on time. While waiting for this next flight, she meets Oliver, a British boy that goes to Yale. They start talking, and end up sitting together on the plane for the seven hour journey 'across the pond'. With the third person POV, the reader can tell that they really like each other.
During the flight, Hadley keeps agonizing over not wanting to go to her dad's wedding. She has unresolved anger with her father for having an affair and leaving her. The whole time Hadley thinks that Oliver is flying out for a wedding also. She later learns that he is actually going to his dad's funeral. Hadley ditches the wedding party when she finds out one of her dad's guests is going to the funeral, and somehow manages to find the church and find Oliver.
As I was reading the first hundred or so pages, mostly the flight, I was thinking "this is an OK book". It felt like one's fantasy on how they wanted to meet their husband/wife. But once Hadley got to Oliver at the funeral, things changed. I started seeing the book not as what many others see or what the title displays, a love story. But, a story about forgiving and moving on. I feel it was not about Hadley and Oliver solely, but on Hadley realizing that her dad's marriage is actually something good. She moves past her resentment towards her dad and his new wife, and is able to see that they really do love each other. That she isn't angry anymore. She forgave him. This book opens the eyes to a different perspective on divorce and remarrying. Although, I think the title could have portrayed that idea, it still does make sense.
I give this book a 4/5 star rating.
Saturday, March 21, 2015
Friday, March 20, 2015
The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury
So... I'm new at this.. I've been wanting to create a blog for awhile for book reviews, and I was pulled to create one after reading The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury.
Here goes:
The Sin Eater's Daughter follows the story of Twylla, her mother is a literal "eater of sins". When someone dies, she goes to their funeral, and eats a bunch of food to cleanse them from their sins so they can get into the Eternal Kingdom. Twylla was prone to this destiny until the queen came to her when she was young and told her that the 'Gods' have claimed she is what's called Daunen Embodied and is to marry the prince. So Twylla is told that she must drink poison during the Telling, the poison doesn't kill her, but instead goes to her skin; so whomever she touches will die instantly. To get this penalty, one must commit treason against Lormere (the nation) or the royal family. Because of this, Twylla has no friends, everyone is terrified of her. The one friend she had, 'committed treason' and she had to kill him.
So, as the story goes on, Twylla gets a new guard (she always has two guards with her). This guard, Lief, tries to befriend her. Twylla's second guard is stung by a bee and dies after weeks in an infirmary.
**SPOILER**
Lief ends up being the sole guard of Twylla, and he earns her trust. Once her trust has been earned, he starts telling her that the poison she is being told to drink, isn't even poison at all, and he proves it at the next Telling. He convinces her that she is not a murderer by touching her, then kissing her, and he never died. So they fall in love. In the end, they plan to run away together to Lief's home country.
This plan of theirs unravels when the prince, Merek, moves up the wedding date. During the feast to celebrate this announcement, the King loses control of his limbs and ends up dying, from poison. Merek tells Twylla his mom, the Queen, was the one to poison him, so she could marry Merek. Yes, the Queen wanted to marry her son. (There's a lot of incest in the royal family.) So Twylla agrees to marry Merek the next night secretly, so Merek and Twylla could rule. That night, Lief visits Twylla, to sleep with her as they do every night, and the Queen comes and finds them in bed together and arrests them. Twylla and Lief are sent to the prison cells to await a trial. While waiting, Twylla discovers the Queen's motive, to start a war with another country, and she calls for Merek to reveal this to him.
During the trial, Merek calls his mother out and they sentence her to death for treason. Before she leaves the room she yells at Lief to tell Twylla who he was. He eventually has to tell Twylla and Merek that he was paid by the Queen to seduce Twylla, so she could die without an uprising, and the Queen could marry Merek. Twylla's heartbroken, Merek still wants to marry her, and they banish Lief from Lormere. It basically ends with Twylla in solitude continuing life.
To me, this book was very unoriginal. In fact, I felt that the plot was the same as the Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. The story was very dull until the last one hundred pages. The whole book was predictable. Girl forced to marry prince, girl falls in love, girl gets betrayed, the queen is the bad guy. There was no surprise element for me at all. Even the most creative minds will question "How is it that the royal family can touch a girl with poisonous skin, yet no one else can?" Everything that happened was foreshadowed.
Normally, I would feel as if I needed to read the second book to see if the series got better. But, with this book, I don't think I will. While Salisbury writes very well, I just can't get over how overused this plot is in the Young Adult world right now.
I would give this book a 2/5 stars.
Here goes:
The Sin Eater's Daughter follows the story of Twylla, her mother is a literal "eater of sins". When someone dies, she goes to their funeral, and eats a bunch of food to cleanse them from their sins so they can get into the Eternal Kingdom. Twylla was prone to this destiny until the queen came to her when she was young and told her that the 'Gods' have claimed she is what's called Daunen Embodied and is to marry the prince. So Twylla is told that she must drink poison during the Telling, the poison doesn't kill her, but instead goes to her skin; so whomever she touches will die instantly. To get this penalty, one must commit treason against Lormere (the nation) or the royal family. Because of this, Twylla has no friends, everyone is terrified of her. The one friend she had, 'committed treason' and she had to kill him.
So, as the story goes on, Twylla gets a new guard (she always has two guards with her). This guard, Lief, tries to befriend her. Twylla's second guard is stung by a bee and dies after weeks in an infirmary.
**SPOILER**
Lief ends up being the sole guard of Twylla, and he earns her trust. Once her trust has been earned, he starts telling her that the poison she is being told to drink, isn't even poison at all, and he proves it at the next Telling. He convinces her that she is not a murderer by touching her, then kissing her, and he never died. So they fall in love. In the end, they plan to run away together to Lief's home country.
This plan of theirs unravels when the prince, Merek, moves up the wedding date. During the feast to celebrate this announcement, the King loses control of his limbs and ends up dying, from poison. Merek tells Twylla his mom, the Queen, was the one to poison him, so she could marry Merek. Yes, the Queen wanted to marry her son. (There's a lot of incest in the royal family.) So Twylla agrees to marry Merek the next night secretly, so Merek and Twylla could rule. That night, Lief visits Twylla, to sleep with her as they do every night, and the Queen comes and finds them in bed together and arrests them. Twylla and Lief are sent to the prison cells to await a trial. While waiting, Twylla discovers the Queen's motive, to start a war with another country, and she calls for Merek to reveal this to him.
During the trial, Merek calls his mother out and they sentence her to death for treason. Before she leaves the room she yells at Lief to tell Twylla who he was. He eventually has to tell Twylla and Merek that he was paid by the Queen to seduce Twylla, so she could die without an uprising, and the Queen could marry Merek. Twylla's heartbroken, Merek still wants to marry her, and they banish Lief from Lormere. It basically ends with Twylla in solitude continuing life.
To me, this book was very unoriginal. In fact, I felt that the plot was the same as the Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. The story was very dull until the last one hundred pages. The whole book was predictable. Girl forced to marry prince, girl falls in love, girl gets betrayed, the queen is the bad guy. There was no surprise element for me at all. Even the most creative minds will question "How is it that the royal family can touch a girl with poisonous skin, yet no one else can?" Everything that happened was foreshadowed.
Normally, I would feel as if I needed to read the second book to see if the series got better. But, with this book, I don't think I will. While Salisbury writes very well, I just can't get over how overused this plot is in the Young Adult world right now.
I would give this book a 2/5 stars.
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