The Winter's Promise is a good book that suffers from two great curses. A very strange pace and a very typical main character. What it's excelling is the worldbuilding and the prose which makes it a more fun read than it should.
The plot is kind off a mess, it starts three times which makes it very confusing. It definitly more fantasy book than a romance so i might have come with the wrong expectasion still it takes a while to get started, lingering on the details of the world. Wich is why this book shouldn't be as fun as it's because it prose and worldbuilding are marvelous. With a few pages she manage to contruct places and their charmes. I might have forgoten some characters name but ClardeLune stayed on my mind long after with their magic them shine. Thorns office, the archives or even Ophelia's room i could picture in my mind with such clarity i felt i was there.
And with that i'l end in the luckwarm part of the review, the characters. The main cast is moslt woman but we mostly spend time in Ophelias head and how and what she thinks. She does have normal female protagonist traits like being shy, clumsy or bookish but the writer takes her time in explaing why and how she is. She get's a little carried around by the plot but grows some of a spine by the end wich she will be needing.
Over all is a nice summer read since it can invoque perfectly well the coldnss of winter in sunny day for a refreshing read. Thanks for reading i hope you have a good day.