Evan walks Lucy home on New Years Eve, before the ball drops and before she leaves for Georgia to live with her mom. They've been friends forever, and being apart is not something they are looking forward to.
Flash forward about one year, Evan is celebrating Christmas with his family when he gets a text from Lucy. Desperate to see her, he sneaks away from his family celebration to see her, surprised that the Lucy he knew has been replaced with someone new. Lucy now has choppy short black hair, complete with heavy eye makeup and pierced nose. A typically easy walk ends with a fight when Lucy starts to smoke, and Evan starts to lecture.
Winter break is going slowly to say the least, Evan has no clue what happened to his old Lucy, and the new Lucy isn't giving any hints beyone the new look and attitude. Things can't be okay, but Lucy won't tell him what is wrong.
Lucy's life has never been easy, even when her parents were together, and now things are worse. She doesn't want to tell Evan what has happened over the past year because she is sure he will hate her, and that will ruin whatever they are. But then again, is Evan's perfect life really that perfect? With college applications due, and his father gunning for an Ivy League school, Evan's art has taken a backseat to more academic pursuits.
Told through both Evan and Lucy's point a view, and including Evan's illustrations and the graphic novel the two of them are writing, Winter Town is a realistic look at the friendship between a boy and a girl. Both Lucy and Evan have a little bit of growing up to do, and while they are "just friends" each of them wanting something more.
Fans of Emond's first book HappyFace will want to take note, as well as if you enjoy books like Pete Hautman's the Big Crunch, or John Green's Looking for Alaska. Realistic romance isn't always easy to read, but trust me when I say that Winter Town is worth it.
I'll see you @ the library!
Katie (Um, still reading Rotters...but it's getting good, and I think this time I'll finish it for real!)
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