Books Time: A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

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A Winter's Promise (Les Fiancés de l'Hiver in original) is a fantasy book by French author Christelle Dabos. It is set in a world where, after a catastrophe, humanity lives on places called “arks”. They also developed special abilities, which differ according to the ark they were born into, and they are protected by their own “Spirit”, individual to each Ark.

Main character of the book is a girl called Ophelia, born on the Ark called “Anima” (soul). She is therefore an “animist”, and that not only means that she was born on Anima: that also mean that she has inherited the ability proper of her people, she can see the history of an object (and of the last person who touched it) when she touches any non animated item. She is a timid, quiet girl, she likes reading, and she manages a small museum. Also, she has another ability, this one non common to all inhabitants of Anima: she can travel through mirrors.

Her life proceeds quietly, until her mother arranges for her a marriage with a man living on another Ark, “Pole”. The girl is not really happy about that, because she doesn't know the man, and because she will be forced to go and live on that far away, cold Ark. Things don't get better when she finally meets her future fiancé, Thorn, who turns out to be a cold, introvert, grumpy person.

But rules are rules, and Ophelia leaves her beloved Anima to Pole. She is met here by a terrible, freezing weather, and by a bunch of people who more or less openly threaten her life.

Her future husband, in effect, is not very admired on Pole, on the contrary, everybody hates him. Therefore, they hate his future wife. Ophelia will need to keep her presence to the Pole hidden, and she will be instructed by Thorn to trust nobody at all, with the exception of his young, eccentric aunt, Berenilde. Problem is, Berenilde hides behind a lovely smile and angelic features a very spiteful, aggressive personality. And she is not the only one Ophelia will need to look her back from.

The first volume of what will be a total of four is more an introduction to the world and the main characters, so I have to admit, there are not massive events happening here. But the setting and the world created by the author are so so beautiful and enchanting, together with the special powers the inhabitants of the Arks posses (in the case of Pole, different clans have different abilities).

Ophelia is such a nice a nice girl, quiet and shy, and she is just overwhelmed by events that she can't really fully understands. As a character, she is consistent wit her personality all book long, but towards the end of it we can see that the change (which I am pretty sure, will happen in the next book) is arising; Ophelia doesn't accept that the consequences of other people choices have to fall on her shoulders, and she starts to react to events accordingly. She won't allow anybody to use her as a puppet anymore.

As for Thorne, he is a very mysterious man, and we discover very little of him in this volume. What is clear is that he is hiding something, first of all what he really thinks of Ophelia, this soon-to-be-bride so delicate and quiet, but also brave and fearless.

I am so curious to read the next book, The Missing of Clairdelune, as everybody's whose been lucky enough to read it already (the book has already been printed and published in France and Italy) say it is absolutely great, ten times better the first one (which I already loved!), full of actions, and so many questions find their answers. We will need to wait May 19^th in the UK, but the wait will be worthy, I am sure. Let me know if you read this book as well, and what you think about it: did you like it? Did you hate it? Would you have preferred a different type of heroine?

M.