jadef00 's review for:

A Winter's Promise by Christelle Dabos

4.0

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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very whimsical and i could just envision this story being adapted as an animated film, almost something ghibli-like (

especially the scene where ophelia leaves with thorn and her family waves her off in the rain

). the way the characters were sometimes described just added to this whimsy and animation-like quality, as they were described with very exaggerated features, something you would see in an animated film or cartoon. i quite liked the main character, ophelia, she was a bit different from the typical "girl boss" main character we often see in fantasy and i found that quite refreshing and made me want to root for her! as for thorn,

  i was warming up to him and then the ending made me feel so bad for ophelia! it seems no one is in her corner apart from us, the readers and maybe fox and her mechanic friend (i forget her name)

. i quite liked that, even though she is quite adventurous, she never lost her ophelia-ness. a solid fantasy novel and i immediately need to read the sequel after that ending!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage

Minor: Violence

warnings regarding violence include multiple instances of ophelia being slapped, being severely beaten by police after being falsely accused of murder and the mental violence inflicted on her by berenilde using her powers. warnings regarding miscarriage include multiple mentions where people talk about people going to attempt to kill berenilde's baby and cover it up as a miscarriage and people actively trying to kill the baby and cover it up as a miscarriage.