First Impressions: A Winter’s Promise

This is one of the books I got for Christmas (list here!) and I started reading right away. My mum got me this book because the last time we went to the book store, we found an astonishing cover with a great story that turned out to be number two of this series called The Mirror Visitor – and she got me the first book and I love it. Here are my first thoughts!

It’s been a long time for me to read anything that’s not originally written in English (despite Faust for German class) and it’s been surprisingly good. Normally, I’m not the biggest fan to read books that are not written in their original language but this one’s really great. It was originally written in French titled Les fiancés de l’hiver ( the fiancés of winter, if my five years of French are not backstabbing me) by Christelle Dabos.

It’s set in a post apocalyptic world where there are not continents the people live on, but Arks. Every family of thousands live on one, and every family has a special talent. When Ophelia, who’s able to read objects and travel through mirrors, is forced to marry a man from a different Ark, she suddenly finds herself alone on a different Ark, surrounded by mysteries, secrets and intrigues…

I’m currently on page 165 (yes, I know it’s a little late to write a First Impressions post) and I love it. The reason why I’m only now writing this specific post is because the start dragged on and on. It really was super slow paced at first, but that’s not negative. Everything started slowly, but I loved every page of the ones I’ve read, despite the slow page.

I loved every page because the book introduces you to an unfamiliar world full of surprises, different circumstances, traditions and magical abilities. Everything about the world made up of Arks is fascinating to read because at first, I didn’t understand the world order at all and it was awesome to discover a new aspect on each page that made the book more complex and intruiging.

The plot is most certainly interesting, I love the aspect of this young girl being sent away to marry an anonymous man. She finds herself on another Ark living on the estate of her fiancé’s aunt where nothing is quite what it seems. Her new husband couldn’t be more disinterested in her and the marriage, she discovers many secret intentions and isn’t quite sure what game the others are plying and what her role will turn out to be.

The characters are great – I love the protagonist, Ophelia, as she isn’t concerned about looks and keeps her feelings and emotions to herself. Thorn, her future husband is ice cold and bears many secrets, but I have the feeling that they’ll end up happy together and am therefore super excited how the plot’ll turn out.

So, all in all, I can’t wait to know how the book develops because I have literally no idea how this story will unfold – anything could happen, there are just so many possibilities. The only negative aspect is that there are only two books translated into English and so I’ll probably have to wait a while for the last two books…. Normally I don’t like to read unfinished series because not knowing how it continues drives me crazy, but I didn’t know and now I have to live with it!