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Ophelia has been quite content with a quiet, mostly solitary life. She loves spending time in the Archives and researching. Her family lives on Anima, the ark (one of a number of floating islands throughout the world) where objects come to life. Everyone is related and everyone knows Ophelia is particularly skilled at reading the pasts of objects. All she has to do is touch them. She also has a rarer skill: that of being able to travel short distances by entering mirrors.
After turning down a few betrothals within the family, Ophelia is informed in no uncertain terms that she is going to marry a complete stranger. What’s particularly unusual is that he lives on a different ark. And on top of that, it’s the Pole, the ark with the worst reputation of them all. It’s seen as verging on uncivilized. It’s frozen, cold and populated by not one family but a number of them. They have different magical abilities and are known for being violent.
But she has no choice. So all too soon, Ophelia finds herself on an airship accompanied by her godmother, her aunt. After the standard betrothal period passes, during which she can learn about the society she’ll be living in (and maybe get to know her fiancé), she will wed the tall, taciturn Thorn.
This man, who hardly speaks to her, parks Ophelia and her aunt at his aunt’s estate and abruptly leaves. What he does tell her is to only trust his aunt.
Of course, Ophelia has no desire to silently obey what amounts to house arrest. She ventures out into the city of Citaceleste and finds out for herself that it’s all just as dangerous as Thorn has hinted. As time goes by and dangers continue to make themselves known, Ophelia puts together that she is a pawn in a political game whose outcome won’t affect just the Pole but the rest of the world.
A Winter’s Promise was a curious reading experience for me. The rules of the magical world were slowly parceled out and the way magic works there was unusual. I wasn’t sure if I was really enjoying it or not for a while, but then as I continued to plow through, it started to pull me in. It’s a fairly long and detailed book, and when I finished, I felt I had read two books instead of just one. And there are four in the series! So as I make my way through the series, I’m going to take my time and read one here and one there as I intersperse them with other genres of reading. Maybe others will find the series one they barrel through and can’t resist, but not me.
Clever, interesting, unusual; sometimes exciting and sometimes a trifle slow.
Rated: Mild. Profanity includes no moderate language (though about a dozen times it uses the word that means illegitimate literally rather than as profanity), a few uses of mild language, one instance of the name of Deity in vain, and one use of British (bl-) profanity. Sexual content is frequent but mild; among the nobles, there are lots of parties and affairs, with onetime and more frequent couplings. But there’s no detail. There are also references to a lot of drinking and smoking opium. Violence is frequent, with life in the land harsh and the people casual about injuring and killing. It’s generally not too detailed or gory, but if anything, this element (and the frequent references to licentiousness) could make the rating lean toward a moderate.
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