What threw me about General Winston’s Daughter was that I had no idea it was a young adult until after I picked it up. That might sound unusual, but when I need a new book to read, and have no certain book in mind, I’ll simply look for an author I like and pick up whichever book of theirs I haven’t read yet. As this wasn’t shelved in the YA section I figured it was of a similar vein as her Twelve Houses series. In that respect, at least, I wasn’t disappointed. Much like her Twelve Houses books, General Winston’s Daughter combines politics with a fantasy setting.
The story is a fairly simple one on the outset–Averie Winston is traveling with her chaperon to the foreign country of Chiarrin to meet with her father, the General, and her fiance, an up and coming soldier under her father’s supervision. Things become muddled the further that I progressed in the tale, however. For instance, though Averie has loved Morgan for countless years and recognizes that he is an ambitious fellow, she doesn’t feel a need to be the wife he needs. Her thought process seems to be that he loves her the way she is and will tolerate the fact she hasn’t become any more sophisticated or ladylike since he last saw her. While ordinarily I would have applauded her for wishing to stick to her principles and not knuckle under to pressure, it didn’t feel as if she wanted to be a strong independent support for his political career, but rather that she expected him to learn to live with her careless ways.
There was something almost childish and petty about the way that Averie viewed criticisms or attempts to make her more ladylike. The harder anyone pushed, the more she fought back, but with no real cause. It was in her best interests to want to be more ladylike so she could help the man she claimed to have loved all these years.
Much of the book is spent on the foreign invasion and conquering of the land of Chiarrin. Her father expounds on the subject quite often, as does her fiance and much of the rest of the cast. Everyone has an opinion on the matter, actually. In a longer book, or even a series, this may have made more sense so we could see the full weight of what the occupation caused, but in a YA novel it seemed out of place and jarring.
In the end I was disappointed by the book, having become so accustomed to the level of depth and intrigue Shinn’s other books exhibit. While I wouldn’t say this is unreadable, I think it’s best for those who just want a light read on some random afternoon. For Shinn fans, however, this book will only lead to confusion and comparisons to her lengthier and more interesting novels.
