Ice Angel Characters
Matt • Ally • Maddy • Tante Maryse • Elise • Monsieur Laurent • Te’a • Dr. Klara Keller • Rusty
Character Spotlight: Matt Ravanel
With a gorgeous condominium overlooking the Bossons Glacier and a thriving medical career, Matt Ravanel certainly looks like a man who has it all figured out. Engaged to the wealthy Elise Laurent and working as a traumatologist in his father’s hometown of Chamonix, the Canadian-born doctor is officially living the dream. While his twin sister, Maddy, chases wild horizons, Matt chases precision—and now, that dedication is paying off. He’s just been selected to trial a prototype Nanobot Repair Unit that could completely revolutionize trauma medicine.
A bit of a rebel with a stubborn streak a mile wide, Matt is intensely proud of the life he’s built from scratch. He and Maddy have spent their whole lives trying to one-up each other, but beneath the medical jargon and professional drive beats the heart of a fiercely loyal family man. He spends his days putting people back together—but as his perfect life in Chamonix begins to unravel, he’s about to find out how hard it is to fix himself.
Character Spotlight: Ally Alavro
A trained physiotherapist by trade, Ally Alvaro is used to restoring balance—a skill that comes in handy when you’re the mother of Matt and Maddy. During her undergraduate years, a vacation to Chamonix introduced her to Joseph Ravanel, a local painter and mountaineer. It was love at first sight, but Ally being Ally, she packed her bags, returned to Canada, and put romance on the back burner for her studies. Imagine her no-nonsense surprise when Joseph showed up on her Ontario doorstep, having crossed an ocean to win her back.
Confident, and practical, Ally is not a woman who is easily intimidated. Devoted to her family, she possesses a quiet resilience that serves as the anchor for the Ravanel household. Though she chose the shores of Georgian Bay over the peaks of the French Alps, she still holds Chamonix close to her heart—binding two countries and two very different worlds together.
Character Spotlight: Maddy Ravanel
Artist, adventurer, and unapologetically herself, Maddy Ravanel is Matt’s twin sister. A free spirit who refuses to play it safe, Maddy is constantly one step ahead of her brother. Whereas Matt is cautious, Maddy jumps in with both feet.
Fearless to a fault, she followed in her father’s footsteps and took up art at a young age. Though she made her home in the city of Vancouver, the mountains still course through her blood. She chases exotic horizons and fast aerocars—not only does it feed her artistic inspiration, but she secretly loves that it makes her brother wildly jealous.
Bold, brilliant, and impossible to pin down, Maddy sees the world as a canvas—and she paints it entirely on her own terms.
Character Spotlight: Maryse Payot
French from the tips of her toes to the top of her chestnut bob, Maryse Payot is the fiercely independent aunt to Matt and Maddy, and sister-in-law to Ally. Widowed many years ago, her true loves are now the canvas and paint. Like her younger brother, Joseph Ravanel, she found worldwide fame with her stunning alpine watercolours. But the canvas isn’t her only medium; in Barbizon, Tante Maryse tends a magnificent garden filled with colour, texture, and taste.
Formidable, Tante Maryse can cut through red tape with the arch of an eyebrow and a Gallic shrug. She doesn’t know the meaning of the word “non,” loves her family as fiercely as she loves fine French cuisine, and never backs down from a challenge. To Maryse, life—whether captured in watercolours, grown in the earth, or defended against fools—is an art form, where she is the undisputed master.
Character Spotlight: Elise Laurent
Only daughter of Bertrand and Nadine Laurent, Elise has everything a woman could want—intelligence, beauty, money, a charming young son, and a handsome doctor for a fiancé. When she met Matt Ravanel, Elise knew exactly what she wanted. Fortunately, she usually gets it.
Heiress to a multibillion-dollar luxury health spa perched in the mountains above Chamonix, Elise divides her time between the spa, her young son, and shopping trips to Paris, Milan, and London. She has impeccable taste, an enviable wardrobe, and very definite opinions about almost everything—particularly food. You won’t find Elise eating at anything less than a three-star Michelin restaurant. Then again, why would she when her father keeps two Michelin-starred chefs on staff?
Beneath the designer clothes and polished exterior, Elise is deeply caring and compassionate. But don’t bother looking for her unless you’re happy reviewing couture gowns, tasting her chefs’ new seasonal menus, or bringing an invitation to Milan Fashion Week—otherwise, she probably won’t let you pull up a chair.
Character Spotlight: Monsieur Laurent
Starting with nothing more than a dream and a pocketful of euros, Elise’s father built the ultra-luxurious spa, L’Essence du Mont Blanc, from the ground up. Well into his sixties, Bertrand Laurent has the vigour and stamina of a man half his age, though he knows time is marching on. He loves his daughter more than anything—actually, there is no price too high to pay for her happiness—and intends to provide for her when he and his much younger wife, Nadine, finally hand over the business to Elise.
Tripping over his wealth, M. Laurent surrounds himself with nothing but the best and is a total snob. His philosophy on life is simple: your feelings are your problem, and if they don’t add to his bottom line, you’d better get over them. Bertrand knows what he wants, what it costs, and exactly whom he needs to persuade—or steamroll—to get it.
At the end of the day, you can find him in Le Pavillon du Bain Bien-Être, ridding himself of wrinkles and worries—but without a billion euros to your name, he probably won’t let you in.
Character Spotlight: Te'a
She died seven thousand years ago, but her story is just beginning.
When Matt discovered a perfectly preserved body encased in ice on a scree slope high in the Mont Blanc Massif, the media quickly dubbed her the Ice Princess—a moniker for a woman who was anything but a delicate royal. Readers of Shelter of Stones know the truth: this is Te’a of the Izokina.
Over seven millennia ago, Te’a left her home on the shores of Lake Geneva to build a life with Eder, the love of her life. As co-leaders of the Izokina, they were the strength behind their people. Te’a was a fierce, skilled hunter, but her true edge was her mind. She carried healing knowledge passed down through generations, capable of mending wounds and curing ailments in a brutal, unforgiving world. Those days have long since faded away. Forgotten? Only while the mountains guarded the secret of her existence. But now, no more.
Her perfectly preserved body now rests in the local hospital, slated for research at the University of Geneva. But for Matt, the find has become something deeper—an intuition whispering that there is far more to this mysterious woman than anyone realizes. Matt needs to know more about the woman in the ice.
And Te’a? She’s about to unleash a storm.
Character Spotlight: Meet Dr. Klara Keller
Klara Keller loves dogs and cats and, honestly, anything with fur and four legs. She’s a postdoctoral archaeologist at the University of Geneva who has always dreamed of time travel. But since it’s 2161 CE and the technology is still strictly rumor-mill gossip, Klara did the next best thing: she specialized in the Mesolithic era of the Alps and dragged herself to every high-altitude European dig until her boots gave out. (It was actually her plantar fasciitis, but she keeps that pretty quiet.)
Klara can knap a microlith with her eyes closed, but don’t ask her to sew a button on her lab coat—she’s also the only person in the Archaeology Department who still wears glasses, a quirk resulting from her body treating retinal augmentation like an invading virus back in high school. When she isn’t in the dirt, Klara is the devoted owner of an almost hairless, rabbit-sized dog that can walk both forward and backward on its hind legs.
Character Spotlight: Rusty
Rusty had a bit of a tough go in life. He used to belong to a family, but one day he got loose chasing a deer that led him on a merry romp through the forest. Nightfall came, but Rusty was far too busy listening to crickets and howling at the moon to worry about finding his way home.
Days turned into weeks, with this fearless big red dog getting into all sorts of scrapes. Living by cunning and wit—and whatever he could scrounge for dinner—Rusty discovered that he rather liked the freedom to roam the forested slopes of the Alps. Thin, scruffy, and a little worse for wear, he still has bright brown eyes, a waggly tail, and enough charm to win over almost anyone. He’s going to need an owner with the patience of a saint to tame his wild streak. Then again, perhaps Rusty will be the one doing the taming.
