General Winston’s Daughter By Sharon Shinn Release Date: Now Viking Juvenile Ratings Action Romance Characters Overall Order from Amazon Order from Powells Find independent bookstores near you.

Averie leave hers home to travel across the ocean and live with her father, a general in the Aebrian military. Her father is currently colonizing an “uncivilized” country important to foreign trade, and Averie is thrilled to start her own adventure, especially since she will be reunited with her career military fiancé. On the boat ride over though, she meets Lieutenant Du’kai, a rather intriguing man of foreign descent.

Soon, she is trapped between her love of her childhood friend and idealized fiancé and Du’kai, who challenges her intellectually and doesn’t treat her as a child. Averie becomes less and less sure of her place in the world as she discovers more and more about colonization and the people her country is “civilizing.” It’s through her friendship with Du’kai (whose people were colonized a hundred years ago by Aebria) and her new maid, a local woman whose people are oppressed by the invading army, that Averie questions whether it’s truly right to colonize, and she begins to immerse herself in the local culture. Danger and intrigue build to a dramatic conclusion, and Averie goes home a changed woman.

I was disappointed with this book. Usually, I love Sharon Shinn’s novels. They’re like a piece of cake: fluffy and blending together different flavors until you get something that fills your tummy and sweetness quota, without actually making you work for it. Her books are normally predictable in the overall plot (the ending is set up in the first chapter), but filled with lots of little twists and turns as you go on your way to that ending. General Winston’s Daughter on the other hand was entirely too predictable without any real surprises. There’s only one significant surprise, and that was only a surprise because I didn’t think the author would have the guts to go through with it (she did, and I’m glad for that).

The world at least was interesting, but again, not up to some of her previous standards. There was no unique or creative magic system like the Truth-Teller, Secret-Keeper, Dream-Maker books, and while she tried to make politics the focus of the story, that fell short as well. The moral seemed to be “Countries don’t like being taken over by other countries, even if that country is going to ‘improve’ them, and they will find a way to fight back.” Which can be a fine moral, but not a story in and of itself. It’s been told before, and I didn’t feel like Shinn brought much of a unique vision to it. The promises of political intrigue and romance also seemed like they fell short of what I expect from her books.

There were a few good touches when it came to world building at least, like a code of colors where every color meant something different about the person wearing it and a very interesting set of three gods, all injured, yet still fighting. In fact, the city Averie visits is called the city of the broken gods, because of these three. For example, there’s the hawk god, still flying despite having an arrow piercing it. This symbolizes the people as a whole as a society that will keep on fighting and surviving, whatever the odds. This also sets up the ending nicely as the oppressed people fight back in a surprising and shocking way. The method of driving the invaders out was really the best surprise in the book. I knew something was coming that would get rid of Averie’s people, but I really enjoyed the how.

Ratings Reasons:

Action 2– Not a lot happened action-wise, though the pacing was decent. Since she was living in an city in the process of being colonized, there were battles that happened offstage to the people she cared about.

Romance 3–It was extremely average romance. Shinn is one of those writers where the couple usually gets together in the last few pages. I’m fine with that, but the build-up just wasn’t that good. I didn’t really feel the connection between the characters.

Characters 3– The characters weren’t that distinct or noticeable and wandered little from their stock character base.

Overall 3– An okay read the first time through; the quality certainly wasn’t what I’ve come to expect from this writer. Maybe I expect too much from her, but I don’t think I’d feel very differently if it was from an unknown instead.

Extras:

Sharon Shinn has written many excellent books. My favorite title by her is Summers at Castle Auburn, and I read it about once a year. Her other YA trilogy, The Safe-Keeper’s Secret, The Truth-Teller’s Tale, and The Dream-Maker’s Magic, is also absolutely wonderful, and I’ve reread it a few times as well. I’ve not actually read her adult books, but I’ve heard lots of good things.

If you’re interested in different cultures and understanding why people would live differently than the life the character/reader is accustomed to, try Journey Between Worlds, a book about a girl’s journey to Mars and the understanding she gains about why people would bother to colonize a world so different from Earth. I feel like this book shares a lot of what Shinn is trying to put Averie through, but does it in a much more understandable and genuine way.

Another great political romance book is Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith. That book is one of the standards I was holding General Winston’s Daughter to.

For the adult reader, I’d also recommend Warprize by Elizabeth Vaughan, a romantic, political fantasy book about a young woman who’s given to an invading general as the “Warprize.” Bear in mind, it’s classified as a romance novel and therefore contains the sex that comes with that classification. Still, I felt it was much more of a political fantasy book than it was a romance. I really liked it for the fact that both kingdoms are so different, yet so very believable in their societies and backgrounds.

Parents: 13+ There wasn’t much objectionable material in this book, only some reference to sex because Averie and her maid discuss how in Averie’s country, you don’t sleep with your intended until after marriage, while they do in her maid’s country, in order to test full compatibility.

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