Book:  Winter Longing
Author:  Tricia Mills
Published:  August 19, 2010 from Razorbill
My edition/number of pages:  ARC/256

Age group:  Young adult
Source:  Publisher
Series?:  Nope.

A plane crash in Alaska takes Winter’s first love away forever . . .

When Winter’s boyfriend is killed in a plane crash in the Alaskan wilderness, she’s robbed of the future she’d only just allowed herself to believe might be hers. Winter and Spencer had been destined for one another. And after his death, Spencer’s presence continues to haunt her.

But when her next-door neighbor becomes an unlikely friend, Winter begins to accept all that she can’t change. Can she open herself to a new future . . . and a possible new love?

Tricia Mill’s sophomore YA novel is just as good as her debut.  Since I first heard about it I have been dying to read it and I was not at all disappointed.

Winter Craig finally screwed up her courage and told Spencer her feelings.  She has been in love with him since second grade and it seems like maybe he has had feelings for her for a while too.  But the day after their first kiss Spencer is killed in a plane crash and Winter is devastated.  She doesn’t know how to move on with her life and she doesn’t really want to because that would mean leaving Spencer behind.  But what happens when the boy next door starts to be more than that?

Winter Longing was a sad book but an easy one to read.  I never felt overly depressed and I felt like it wasn’t all about Spencer’s death.  Winter had some problems getting on with her life but I felt it wasn’t overdone.  She was strong enough not to retreat into herself and just give up.  I felt that her family, her best friend Lindsay, and boy-next-door Jesse really helped with that.  Jesse did have the patience of a saint though.  Winter took a lot of time moving on but he was always there to help.

Sadly, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of plot to the book.  I’m not saying that it dragged but there just didn’t seem to be anything major going on.  That may have been used to lighten the mood but I wanted the story to go somewhere and it didn’t really.

Overall, Winter Longing is a great book if you are looking for romance and nothing more.  I honestly did enjoy it and Tricia Mills is still on my list of authors to read.  I can’t wait to see what she does next.  =]

First line:  The drone of a plane engine stopped me in my tracks, and adrenaline surged through my veins.

Writing:  5

Characters:  4

Plot:  4

Ending:  4

Originality:  4

Overall:  22=B+

Cover:  4=B-