A Winter's Promise Book One of the Mirror Visitor Quartet

This story takes place in such a unique world! I could already see after just a few sentences why so many people recommend this for fans of the Ghibli movies. The storyline took quite a different turn from what I expected, but I actually loved the unpredictability of this series and there are just so many things unfolding, that these books have a lot of potential for a reread. It's filled with so many dorky little oddball characters, and I especially enjoyed watching Ophelia grow as a character over the course of the series. It also features a (real!) slow-burn romance between two characters who are seemingly completely at odds with each other, but actually have quite similar character traits (just using them in different ways). A slowly unfolding mystery with the most whimsy magic system I have ever read!