A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

 

I decided to start a new series for my next read. I settled on A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos, the first book in a young adult fantasy series from France. I don't read many young adult works from other countries--not for any particular reason, just because I haven't come into contact with many of them. I heard good reviews for this one on YouTube though, so I wanted to give it a try.

The novel is set in a world where the earth has been rendered uninhabitable in some sort of environmental disaster long ago, and the remaining families live spread across several floating chunks of land called Arks. Each Ark is the home base of a different elite family, each of which have different magical gifts. The plot of the novel follows a young woman named Ophelia, who lives with her family on the Anima Ark. She is a reader, meaning that she can trace the history of an object by touching it. She also has the ability to travel through mirrors, a rare gift among her people. She spends her days working in her family's museum, in which she uses her skills to record the histories of various objects from the ancient world.

At the start of the story, Ophelia's quiet life is upended when the Doyennes, Anima's ruling body, arrange for her to be married to Thorn, a man from a distant Ark. It would bring disgrace to her family to refuse, so she complies, and soon finds herself carried away to Citaceleste. Her new fiancé couldn't be more different from her. She is clumsy, small, and quiet. He is tall, gruff, and abrasive. He barely shows an interest in her, and the home he brings her to is completely alien to her. Citaceleste is full of high society snobbery and endless political intrigue. She is completely out of her depth and struggles to adjust to her new life there. 

As her wedding to Thorn draws closer, Ophelia begins to realize that there is a lot more going on under the surface of things than she initially thought. Her betrothal to Thorn had ulterior motives, and many of the new nobles around her will do anything to prevent their union from taking place. To survive, Ophelia must keep her wits about her and learn how to function surrounded by vipers while staying true to herself.

I thought this novel was pretty special. Dabos' story was incredibly creative, and the world and magic system she created with the Arks was complex and fascinating to read about. This was definitely one of those novels that took me away to a different world, and I was consistently engaged trying to figure out all the little details of how this society functioned. Ophelia starts off the story knowing nothing about the place she is moving to, and as readers, we get to follow along with her as she tries to figure everything out. Dabos reveals information at a good pace, and the high society world of Citaceleste is full of enough danger and intrigue to keep things interesting. It's got everything from illusions to telepathy, to spatial distortions, to invisible claws, and I was basically hooked from page one.

The element of the story I enjoyed the most though were the characters, and especially Ophelia. I've read a lot of young adult fantasies where the protagonists were incredibly tough warrior women. That's great and all, but it's nice to see something different every once in awhile, and Ophelia was definitely that. She was quiet and clumsy, with a mop of wild hair, thick glasses, and absolutely no fashion sense. She's not great at a party and uncomfortable ordering others around. She's the last person you'd pick to succeed at political intrigues. What she does have going for her, however, is her sense of morals, her no-nonsense approach to problem solving, and her resilience. I loved her and could relate to her on many levels. It was nice to have a heroine that felt somewhat like a normal person, despite her magical powers. I liked watching her sort through her problems in her own way throughout the story.

Thorn was similarly interesting, albeit in a more moody, mysterious kind of way. He's more like a storm cloud than a person, but I still enjoyed him for his competence and intelligence. There's obviously a lot more to him than we learn in this book. The very beginnings of a slow-burn romance start in this story too, and I'm looking forwards to seeing how that develops as the books continue. The other characters were interesting as well. Dabos did a nice job making everyone unique and memorable, and the variety amongst them helped to make the setting of the novel feel more real.    

So clearly, I really enjoyed A Winter's Promise and I think it's a very promising start to the series. These books are a quartet, and I already have them all, so I'm going to start book two next. The ending of this one is a true cliffhanger, so I basically have to. I'm excited to see what comes next for Ophelia and Thorn. 

Challenge Tally

Finally in 2022 - Series Edition: 12/28

Total Books Read in 2022: 39