Reviews with content warning for Animal death - A Winter's Promise

It's an easy read and the world building is also easy to follow, from the prologue till the next chapters, how the metaphors are used is essential and pleasing when it evokes a play to create the figment world. This is really more plot driven and if you're looking for romance it's basically just a sublot since Book One focuses on introducing how the system functions and the characters which serve a purpose throughout the story. I'm excited to read the second book and want to see more of Gail and Mother Hildegarde, even some of Ophelia's siblings.

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aseel_reads's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

pretty disappointed in this, only because I thought I would like it (I didn't know anything going into this but heard good reviews) and I definitely did not. the last 150 pages (of my 494 edition) was interesting but I hated the beginning part and I just hated all the characters and the world argh. also I don't know if the original french used fancy language but the translation used heaps of higher calibre words, in that I actually googled the definition of a word... and I've never done that before. probably won't continue with the series for a long time.

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izzyperez_7's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The world building and the plot really lured me in and kept me going throughout the book. I found I was more interested in how the world works and the political conversations than the main character, which is kinda sad.

Not gonna lie, she’s the absolute worst! The author really tried to emphasize how “quirky” she was and how much she wasn’t “like other girls”. It’s pretty gross. And what’s worse is that she doesn’t really develop.... like at all. She was annoying from start to finish. In the end, I preferred the “antagonists” over her.

Even though she annoys me to no end, I will most likely read the rest of the series. Wish me luck!

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morganphoenix's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

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bookspaperink's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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wayward_sara's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

For the first 100 pages or so I found this book a bit boring, then things got more intriguing. I personally think that the worldbuilding is the most interesting thing of this first book butI want to know how this story continues. In the end, it's a good book.

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spearly's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

It’s often said of old buildings that they have a soul. On Anima, the ark where objects come to life, old buildings tend mostly to become appallingly bad-tempered.

A Winter's Promise is the fantastical first novel in The Mirror Visitor series, and takes place in a magical, post-rupture society, where the world is split into Arks. Or MC Ophelia is from an ark called Anima, and has the power to read the history of objects through touch, as well as travel short distances through mirrors. The story begins with an unexpected arranged marriage between her and gentleman named Thorn, who is from another Ark called The Pole.

There are very few books I have read that read to me like poetry, and yet, I was absorbed in every word. Dabos does an incredible job with her world-building, without inundating the beginning of the story with detail after detail. Rather, she drops us into the middle of world and lets it share itself chapter after chapter.

Likewise, I was no less impressed with Dabos' characterization. Everyone felt so distinct, so complex, so real, and Ophelia was an incredible character to follow throughout this journey. A lot of YA fantasy series have some sort of 16 year-old Mary-Sue character who knows nothing and yet is still somehow the key to saving the world. Not Ophelia. I mean, yes, she's powerful, but she is so unremarkable in many ways. She even

Spoiler

spends half the book disguised as a mute servant so as not to arouse suspicion of her arrival at The Pole.

Thorn, Ophelia's fiancé is a puzzle, that's for certain. I couldn't get a read on him, even when it seemed his true intentions were revealed (

Spoiler

and, sap that I am, I will just say I might have enjoyed a bit of clarity in this relationship before the novel ended, but thankfully the series came out in 2013, so I am already onto the next book

) I don't know how a man so determined to stay stoic and cold at all costs could have made my heart flutter, but he did. Sue me.

Spoiler

Hopefully he doesn't turn out to be a disappointment. Because, once again, SAP THAT I AM, i need a bit of romance in my YA reading. Well, in all my reading, really. Hopefully it pans out!

That said,

Spoiler

Ophelia's inner dialogue when she speaks of love and romance is making me thing she might be aromantic. Possibly asexual, too. I haven't read enough of the series to know for certain, and while I'm always happy to read books with more representation, I will say I would be a bit disappointed if that were the case, and I feel Ophelia and Thorn are being set up for what could be a great, slow-burn love-story.

I guess we'll see!

The only reason this isn't a 5 star for me is the pacing. As quickly as it went by, I still felt like nothing much has happened in the first novel. By some other reviews I've read, it seems it picks up in book 2!

I can see why this series might have been one i passed over when it came out 8 years ago, but I feel like I'm appreciating it a lot more than my teenage self would have. I'm glad to know I still have 2.5 books (I'm halfway through [book:The Missing of Clairdelune|41953346]). It's truly unlike anything I've read before!

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