Rating: 3.25* of five

The Publisher Says: Long ago, following a cataclysm called “The Rupture,” the world was shattered into many floating celestial islands. Known now as Arks, each has developed in distinct ways; each seems to possess its own unique relationship to time, such that nowadays vastly different worlds exist, together but apart. And over all of the Arks the spirit of an omnipotent ancestor abides.

Ophelia lives on Anima, an ark where objects have souls. Beneath her worn scarf and thick glasses, the young girl hides the ability to read and communicate with the souls of objects, and the power to travel through mirrors. Her peaceful existence on the Ark of Anima is disrupted when she is promised in marriage to Thorn, from the powerful Dragon clan. Ophelia must leave her family and follow her fiancée to the floating capital on the distant Ark of the Pole. Why has she been chosen? Why must she hide her true identity? Though she doesn’t know it yet, she has become a pawn in a deadly plot.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA AMAZON FIRST READS. THANK YOU.

My Review: Adolescent exceptionalism gets validated hard in this fun first-in-series fantasy. There are four in total, or so far at least.

I am deeply uninterested in how Unique and Special and Girl this character is. I enjoyed the animate-world parts, and found the worldbuilding deft. It was allowed to be part of the story not presented as A Revelation. As she moves through the steps of discovering *what* is happening, she also learns the whys of it.

Not at all a bad read...especially for someone who doesn't have decades and decades of possessing a "Y" chromosome. In fact, best for people who would say men are possessed by their "Y" chromosome. ( )

Ophelia is a "reader" who can touch an object with her bare hands and get a sense of all the past owners it has had. She works at the archives on the ark of Anima, but her life is about to change. She's been betrothed to a man from the Pole ark, and when she first meets Thorn he seems about as cold as his habitation. Thrust into a world much darker than her own, Ophelia must keep all her wits about her if she's to survive to the wedding.

I didn't really know anything about this series before plunging into it, so I set out learning about the arks (separate places that can only be reached by airship) and the various motivations of the characters we meet along with Ophelia. It's written in third person, but sticks close to Ophelia's thoughts and experiences. And like much fantasy, it's deliberately paced and unfolds rather slowly as Ophelia starts without having much agency. The ending isn't so much a cliffhanger as it is left dangling in the midst of the story, so now I find myself debating how long to wait before looking for book #2. ( )

finalmente un bel libro! ( )

135

Free copy received in exchange for an honest review.

The world has been broken down and what is left are its floating pieces. One of these is home to a family whose powers are related to objects. Ophelia has been chosen on account of her strong ability to read an object's past to be a bride to an unknown man living on the distant Ark of the Pole. She soon discovers that it's not just the weather on the Pole that's cold. Thrown into a never-ending battle for power between various families, she needs to find out who she can trust.

The most appealing part about this book was the world-building. The broken world setting is original and there are some hints about its mysterious origin. The magic isn't necessarily unique, but the system is. Each arc has its own type, which manifests in different ways in each individual/family.

There are not many likable characters. We mostly get to know characters from the Pole, where people grow up in a place where you either play the game or die. The author still made me at least sympathize with them, if not like them. Ophelia, as the main character, was very likable. She starts off being a bit weak-willed and naïve, but grows quite a bit through the book. Also, she is the first clumsy girl that I encountered in a book with a valid reason to be that way.

The romantic interest in this book was quite complex, as was his relationship with Ophelia. Don't expect much of a romance from the first book.

I enjoyed the beginning of the book a lot, and the ending was promising, but the middle was a big slog. I didn't hate it because it served its purpose, but it wasn't fun to read. Maybe it's on purpose to feel like the main character does because she was definitely not having a fun time.

I am certainly looking forward to the sequels. The first book mostly just established the environment and the goals of the characters, so I am hoping the second book will be more fast-paced. ( )

I love this book so much I will fight you ( )

Definitely not predictable, took some truly unexpected turns. ( )

Representation: N/A?
Trigger warnings: Forced marriage, physical assault and injury, blood depiction, sexist slur, cheating mentioned
Score: Seven points out of ten.
This review can also be found on The StoryGraph.

Well, first, what's wrong with BookTok? I briefly saw this novel on the BookTok shelf at one of the two libraries I go to but I put it off for a while until I finally picked it up and read it. When I finished it, I felt nothing but dissatisfaction as the story looked so promising, unique and original but when I read it, it was too tedious. It starts with a prologue explaining how the world was nothing out of the ordinary until 'The Rupture,' splitting the world into numerous floating islands called 'Arks.' Then it cuts to the main character Ophelia (whose last name I forgot) living on an ark called Anima but here's the catch: she can travel through mirrors (unfortunately I didn't see much of that, shame.) Here is where the flaws surface, well for a supposedly civilised society it's backward since one of the characters forced Ophelia to marry a predetermined partner (Come on. Really? She should have a choice. But she doesn't. Why?) Did I also mention that I wasn't a fan of how the author wrote the female characters to make them look bad? It sounds discriminatory. The issues don't end there, since the plot is slow (normally that wouldn't be a problem since that would let me explore the characters more, but since the author didn't write them well, it didn't help.) I had to push myself to finish the book, otherwise I would've given it a DNF, but it fizzled out anyway, and I won't finish the series. Shame. ( )

I glanced at a few reviews of this book, and they weren't too positive about the protagonist. I can sort of understand why. She's getting abused a lot and there are times she seems passive about that. Still, I like her tenacity, and I think the passive parts are for a large part due to the situation. She gets more expressive further along in the book, and more active. And somehow, whenever I was reading this, I got completely sunk into this world. On several occasions I didn't notice people talking to me, and that hasn't happened to me in a while. I like the arks, I like the mystery of the ancestors. Many, well, most of the characters are detestable, and I feel they are not getting the comeuppance they deserve. Yet they also seem to have their moments.
Overall, I really liked it, and I haven't been so entranced by a book in a while. ( )

While I find all of the characters unlikable in their own way, I still find myself drawn to them, especially Ophelia & Thorn. The overall story is very interesting and I’m excited to continue this story with the next book ( )

A Winter's Promise is a series intro into a deceptive world where illusions and reality verge on the idea of survival and betrayal while finding oneself. As the first book, the world building is panoramic, treacherous and dramatic by cooling your senses to the depth of hidden emotions and frustrations of the characters. Ophelia not only finds herself bound by ancestral duty but also forced to ensure her own survival in a foreign land where endurance and villainous suffering go hand in hand. ( )

Series Info/Source: This is the 1st book in The Mirror Visitor series. I borrowed this on audiobook from my library.

Thoughts: I ended up setting this aside 60% of the way through. I borrowed this on audiobook and the loan time expired, I decided not to renew it because it was fairly boring. It started out intriguing but nothing much happened as the story went on.

Ophelia can read the history of objects with her hands and travel through mirrors. She is plain and quiet and greatly enjoys helping to run the museum in Anima. Then she finds out she is being forced to marry a man from the north named Thorn. When he arrives he is taciturn and abrupt and doesn't seem to want Ophelia as his wife anymore than she wants him for a husband. However, when they arrive in the north, Thorn wants to keep Ophelia a secret and it seems there are dangerous political games in play.

I enjoyed the first few chapters of this book. Opehlia is quiet, yet practical and tough in her own way. Initially her trip to the North seems like it will be a grand adventure. However, once she gets there the pace of the story becomes truly glacial (to match the cold weather?). Ophelia finds herself locked away with Thorn's aunt, hidden from the world. She gets small glimpses of politics outside her seclusion and mostly she fights boredom. She was not along in her struggle with boredom, I was right there beside her wondering when something was going to happen.

I did enjoy the small glimpses I got of this world, but it continued to feel a bit underdeveloped to me (maybe because we were never part of it). I think Thorn has potential to be an interesting character (we do get a couple glimpses of something more to him), but you don't see enough of him to really make a judgement at all. Ophelia was frustrating as well. She shows a couple of glimpses of rebellion but mostly she just sits around with her chaperon waiting for something to happen.

In the end I just didn't have the patience for this. Since the audiobook was due to return, I just returned it. I didn't love this enough to try to crunch and put in time to finish it, or enough to buy a copy to finish it. The audiobook was well done and I enjoyed the narration.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this has promise but just moved so slowly. I think the world could be intriguing if we had gotten to see more of it. I think Ophelia and Thorn have potential to be interesting if they just did something. I just have more intriguing books to read on my shelf. I don't plan on picking this up again and don't plan on reading more books by this author. ( )

i’m convinced everyone who is rating this one star is looking for attention ( )

IJzig past wel goed bij dit boek. De sfeer is kil en onaangenaam, maar het verhaal, de wereld en de personages zijn interessant. Hier en daar was het wat traag, maar ik ga zeker de overige delen lezen, want ik wil graag weten hoe dit verder gaat. ( )

LOVED this!! I cannot wait for part II. ( )

This was very good. Read it and see why. ( )

Fantastic story world. ( )

This book rekindled my love for Fantasy. It reminds me a bit of The Golden Compass series, though I already like this book much more than that series.

Originally written in French, I can see an issue with the translation. Some things are phrased a bit awkwardly at times. There are also many spelling errors I ran into while reading, and this is many years after publication.

The story itself is of Ophelia, a young woman who is happy with her life as is, it is set to be married to a stranger from a different world, or Arc. Ophelia comes from a line of people that are able to manipulate objects. Ophelia has the ability to “read” objects, or go back in the history of all who have touched the object and feel what they felt at the time of the touch. She also has the ability to pass through mirrors, leading to the title of the series, The Mirror Visitor. Ophelia is to be married to Thorn, someone from a frozen world, who is harsh and cold himself. Ophelia leaves to this Arc to finish out the year long engagement, but almost immediately upon arrival finds there are constant threats to her as Thorn’s fiancée. This ends up being revealed to be the result of political factions vying for the favor and attention of the Arc’s family spirit, Farouk. Ophelia’s identity is kept secret and hidden from all except Thorn, his aunt Berenilde, his grandmother, and Ophelia’s own aunt who comes to serve as her chaperone. This story ends on a cliffhanger, with Ophelia’s identity set to be revealed and her seeking sanctuary with Farouk. This feels not so much as the culmination of the book, but more like how the Titanic VHS tapes came as a set, and you would have to swap out VHS tapes in the middle of the movie due to the length. In any case, I’m excited to get on with the next part of the story. ( )

I wanted to give this a 4, because of the magic system and promise. But it kinda fizzled in the middle end. ( )

This is amazing ( )

This story was slow moving and I don't feel the world-building was explained well enough. We read the story through the outlook of Ophelia, a young clumsy quiet girl who's promised in marriage to a stranger from the north. She's thrown into their world without much explanation and therefore, so is the reader. If it was meant to build suspense, I feel the author missed the mark. It was hard to connect to the characters or story. I wouldn't recommend it. ( )

DNF'ed got through 50% and wasn't happy so I read the reviews about it and they have just reinforced my feeling that the story wasn't going to get better. This had all the elements of a good story but the pacing is way off and the 'romance' is too reminiscent of every tropey YA novel. I will say the worldbuilding and magic system was great, it just fell apart with the plotline. ( )

Welp. That was not what I was expecting at all. I had a feeling that I was going to enjoy this book but gosh I just loved this story. The characters throughout, the overall story, and all of the twists and turns were just amazing. This lives up to all the hype x10, I can't wait to get my hands on the others in this series. ( )

everyone in this book was awful to each other. ( )

Too much like literary fiction in a fantasy to appeal to me. Got to page 131 and gave it up -- just not in the mood for forced marriages and intrigue and people behaving badly towards one another.