Long ago, following a cataclysm called "The Tear," the world was shattered into many floating celestial islands. Known now as Arks, each has developed in distinct ways and at a different pace; each seems to possess its own unique relationship to time, such that nowadays vastly different worlds exist, together but apart. And over all of these Arks the spirit of an omnipotent and immortal ancestor abides.
Ophelia lives on Anima, an ark where objects have souls. Beneath her worn scarf and thick glasses, Ophelia hides two powers: the ability to extract the souls from objects, and the ability to travel through mirrors. Her peaceful existence on the Ark of Anima is disrupted when she is promised in marriage to Thorn, from the powerful Dragon clan. The young girl must leave her family and follow her fiancé to the Citacielle, the floating capital on the distant Ark of the Pole. Why has she been chosen? Why must she hide her true identity? Though she doesn't know it yet, she has become a pawn in a deadly plot.
An unforgettable heroine, a rich and bountiful universe, romance and inescapable intrigue, A Winter's Promise will appeal equally to readers of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy and the Harry Potter books.
