A Winter's Promise
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Our view
“A Winter’s Promise” is a strange, atmospheric fantasy that mixes whimsy with real darkness and puts an unusual heroine at its centre. Christelle Dabos gives Ophelia two gifts, sensing an object’s history and passing through mirrors, and sets her down in the world of the arks. Some readers find the people around her charming but close to caricature. It is the first of four volumes, and its mysteries stay open for the next.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
“A stunningly atmospheric fantasy that doubles as an exceptional character study . . . we can’t wait to see where Dabos takes it next.” —Entertainment Weekly (“The 10 Best YA Books of 2018”) One of Publishers Weekly’s Best YA Books of the Year A National Indie Bestseller Lose yourself in the fantastic world of the arks and in the company of unforgettable characters in this French runaway hit, Christelle Dabos’ The Mirror Visitor quartet. Plain-spoken, headstrong Ophelia cares little about appearances. Her ability to read the past of objects is unmatched in all of Anima and, what’s more, she possesses the ability to travel through mirrors, a skill passed down to her from previous generations. Her idyllic life is disrupted, however, when she is promised in marriage to Thorn, a taciturn and influential member of a distant clan. Ophelia must leave all she knows behind and follow her fiancé to Citaceleste, the capital of a cold, icy ark known as the Pole, where danger lurks around every corner and nobody can be trusted. There, in the presence of her inscrutable future husband, Ophelia slowly realizes that she is a pawn in a political game that will have far-reaching ramifications not only for her but for her entire world. The World of the Arks Long ago, following a cataclysm called the Rupture, the world was shattered into many floating celestial islands, now known as arks. Over each, the spirit of an omnipotent and immortal ancestor abides.
Reading order · The Mirror Visitor
Full order & progress →- A Winter's PromiseThis book
7.87.8 / 10 - The Missing of Clairdelune
8.28.2 / 10 - The Memory of Babel
8.18.1 / 10 - The Storm of Echoes
7.87.8 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.6 across 201 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 58% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Fantasy average of 8.0. That is how 7.8 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 7.6 | 201 | 100% |
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
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