The ​Missing of Clairdelune (The Mirror Visitor Quartet, #2) by Christelle Dabos Review

This is a spoiler-free review! You can read my review of A Winter's Promise on my blog, now!

I am currently on a TBR roll and this book has been staring at me from across my living room in my apartment for years, and with the fantasy kick that has taken over me, I knew I needed to knock this one out before I lost my steam. And with the common theme of me continuing on with series years after I read the prior book, I knew I would have to jog my memory with the events of A Winter's Promise. The quick reminder that our leading lady, Ophelia, is constantly being a pushover in my eyes - while she does work towards uncovering a number of mysteries, she seems to allow others to order her around up until the very end of the book. 

It became quite a hassle to power through her inner monologue and lack of ability to stand up for herself at opportune times. When she did finally gather the courage and stopped taking the all the pushback from everyone and their mother - especially from her mother - it was towards the end of the book, but I admired that she grew a backbone and put some things into motion after about five hundred pages. It was kind of a shock to me when I realized that Ophelia is twenty-one years old in this book - obviously she has to be of age in order to be engaged, but her character reads so immature and juvenile compared to other twenty-one year old main characters.

Thorn's characterization in this book felt sidelined until the last 150 pages or so - I was halfway through the book and it felt as though his character was being hidden away from the readers. Sure, build up the mystery about the enigma that is Ophelia's fiancé, but he was so absent that at points, I would forget who he was, which is a major issue considering he is quite literally the male lead. Once we did get to see him in a more shelled-out view, he quickly became a very interesting character and definitely grabbed my attention more than Ophelia ever had during these first two books.

Ophelia's family is just as annoying as I remembered them - sure, her siblings are not nearly as bad, just a lot to handle - but my word, her mother is on another stratosphere when it comes to being overbearing. Even through postcards and letters, you could feel her energy through the page and it was not an enjoyable experience. When it came to other side characters, there were few times where I felt like their presence did not push the story further. Overall, the side characters just simply were not doing enough in the story to make me care about their development, aside from two or three that had more prominent roles in Ophelia's journey. I wanted to be able to form connections with these characters, but rather felt like an observer more than anything else by the end of the book.

Plot-wise, this book still moved just as slow as the first installment, with maybe being at touch faster after going beyond the halfway point. I wanted to be drawn into the story, but rather felt like I was dragging myself through some chapters after numerous chapters of Ophelia complaining or not fighting back. There was one time where I literally could not keep my eyes open when trying to read this book before going to sleep because the book was literally sending me into REM sleep within ten pages of me picking it up. I would only hope that the author has picked up the pace in the next installments, and with the cliffhanger she left us on, there is certainly promise heading in that direction.

You can add The Missing of Clairdelune on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

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A Winter's Promise (The Mirror Visitor Quartet, #1) by Christelle Dabos Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

I really needed to get back into fantasy books to kickstart me into finally working through my TBR pile, but I fear this book has actually sent me right into a fantasy reading slump. I have heard so many good things about this series, so I was pretty excited to dive into this book on vacation. The synopsis definitely pulled me in and the world-building and general idea was very intriguing, but I kept finding myself wanting to throw the book into the ocean.

Ophelia, our leading lady, is not like other girls! She wears glasses! And has curly brown hair! Which means her life is hard and that she does not like anything that has to do with marriage or femininity or apparently, common sense. I swear I wanted to grab this girl by the shoulders and shake her to knock some sense into her, just for a second, so that maybe a loose thought would find its way inside her brain. She somehow trusts everyone but also no one, while at the same time becomes upset when her fiancé, Thorn, does not want to tell her things, in order to keep her safe. She would actually be an interesting character if she used the logical thinking she claimed to possess every other chapter.

The side characters were absolutely insufferable on numerous occasions, so much so that I would have to go back and read conversations they had between each other when they were not interacting with Ophelia. I consider myself a fast reader, yet reading this book felt like it took forty hours to get through, not five. Maybe I would have been better off reading the French version instead of the English translation, but the prose and pacing felt off. There were definitely certain points in the book that had my undivided attention, but I spent the majority of the book begging for something remotely interesting to happen. I understand how important world-building is, but that too felt abandoned in order to make room for what seemed to be never-ending scenes of Ophelia and her thoughts.

Ophelia's aunt and her constant hysterics had me banging my head against the wall -- she was definitely making some valid points considering the number of situations she and Ophelia were placed in, but oh my god I thought I would never hear the end of it. For a woman who is so vocal about her displeasure, she sure does not do a single thing to try and remedy it. Thorn, on the other hand, had barely any page presence, yet I found him to be the most intriguing out of the ensemble. He is cold and keeps to himself, but I kept finding myself hoping that when I flipped the page, his name would show up and the plot would get moving. Ophelia's distain for him does not help this matter, and she spends more time thinking about how annoyed she is at him than actually helping her and her aunt's situation.

It takes literally about 350 pages for something remotely interesting to happen in order to move the plot forward, which is an issue as the book comes in at just under 500 pages. The author was dedicated to world-building, but seemed to leave character development at the door. Learning about the world was intriguing and I loved those aspects of the book, but the characters really did not experience any form of growth during the story -- understanding that this is the first book in a series, they will definitely have time for development, but nothing in the book was making me like anyone in particular.

Things really do pick up in the last fifty pages or so of the book, but I personally found it all very predictable on what was happening. Maybe it's because Ophelia's so-called common sense that everyone was boasting about seemed to finally kick in for her, but I was not surprised at anything that took place towards the end. Some characters had a little bit of growth in the sense that their true character was revealed, but nothing groundbreaking. I still very much need to know what happens next though, and will be pushing forward to see Thorn and how the series moves forward.

I do own the second book and will be continuing on with the series, but I will probably need a break and will be reading some other books before diving back into The Mirror Visitor world. The concept is original and intriguing, yet I believe readers will have to power through the first book in order to really get into the plot.

You can add A Winter's Promise and the rest of the series on Goodreads now, and follow the author to stay up to date on releases and publications.

You can catch up with me and my current reads by friending me on Goodreads and following this blog, my Twitter, and my Instagram in order to stay up-to-date with any reviews, blog tours, and more!