Winter Town

**somewhat spoilerish, so tread carefully. :)
I noticed today that I give books 3 stars a lot. I think there are, in my mind, about 5 different levels of 3-star-books. This was on a higher level of 3 stars. Maybe level 2 (with level 1 being the highest level of 3-star-books, and level 5 being the lowest. My mind is a very jumbled place. Ha.)

Anyway. I liked Wintertown. It was far from being a favorite, but it was an enjoyable story. The two main characters were great, together. I love the idea of best friends since childhood. I guess because that's not something I ever had. Separately, I identified more with Evan, and Lucy mostly annoyed the heck outta me. :) But they were very well-written characters & very convincingly angsty teenagers.

What held me back from completely loving the book, is that I resented the implication that Evan was too “perfect” and he had it too good, or that he was too focused on academics and getting into college. I know you learn lots of life lessons by making mistakes, but Evan was making all kinds of mistakes, just not the ones that Lucy thought he should be making.

I guess that was part of the point, though, that Lucy and Evan both had unrealistic expectations of each other. They were both in a weird place, and they needed the time apart to make their own choices & mistakes before they could work together, as best friends or otherwise. In that sense, I liked the ending, although I like to think that Evan eventually ended up going to college, maybe at NYU. But that's my nerdy, I-love-school side coming out. I can't stand that idea of someone like him not going to college.