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A Winter's Promise

A Winter's Promise

By&
High FantasyRomantasy
Pages
491
Published
2013
Language
English

Synopsis

Ophelia, a quiet archivist with the rare ability to read the past of objects and travel through mirrors, lives a sheltered life on her ancestral Ark. Her world is upended when she is betrothed to Thorn, a powerful and enigmatic figure from the distant, icy Ark of the Pole. Forced to leave everything she knows, Ophelia must navigate a treacherous court filled with illusions and dangerous secrets, all while trying to understand her mysterious fiancé and her own burgeoning destiny.

Prose complexity
4/10

Vibe

MysteriousRomanticAdventurous
Slow BurnMarriage of ConvenienceCourt Intrigue

Genres

High Fantasy Romantasy Fantasy YA Fantasy Young Adult

About the author

C
Christelle Dabos

Christelle Dabos is a French fantasy author, born in 1980 on the Côte d'Azur and living in Wallonia, Belgium since 2005. Her debut novel, Les Fiancés de l'hiver (A Winter's Promise), won the 2013 Gallimard-RTL-Télérama First Novel competition and began La Passe-miroir (The Mirror Visitor), a four-book fantasy cycle set across a world of floating arks and following Ophelia, who can read the history of objects and travel through mirrors. The series has sold over a million copies and been translate...

Characters

Ophelia (The Mirror Visitor)Protagonist

A quiet, myopic archivist from Anima who can read the history of objects and travel through mirrors, betrothed against her will to a stranger from a distant ark.

Thorn (The Mirror Visitor)Supporting

A taciturn, formidable official of the Pole's Dragon clan to whom Ophelia is diplomatically betrothed, and whose reputation precedes him.

BerenildeSupporting

Thorn's elegant, powerful aunt, an illusionist who presides over an ever-autumn park at the Pole's court and takes a close interest in guiding Ophelia.

Archibald (The Mirror Visitor)Supporting

The charming, manipulative head of the Pole's Mirage Clan, an ambassador and one of Thorn's rivals at court.

Farouk (The Mirror Visitor)Supporting

The reclusive, immensely powerful family spirit who rules the Pole ark from behind its constant court intrigue.

All characters in A Winter's Promise

Frequently asked questions

  • Is A Winter's Promise a standalone book or part of a series?

    It's the first volume of Christelle Dabos's four-book Mirror Visitor Quartet (La Passe-Miroir), followed by The Missing of Clairdelune, The Memory of Babel, and The Storm of Echoes.

  • Who translated A Winter's Promise into English?

    Hildegarde Serle translated the English edition from the original French, published by Europa Editions in 2018.

  • Has A Winter's Promise won any awards?

    Yes. It won the Prix Elbakin.net for best French-language youth novel in 2014, and Christelle Dabos received the Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire in the Francophone Youth Novel category in 2016 for this book together with its sequel, The Missing of Clairdelune.

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