Winter Longing

by Tricia Mills

[Joni Reads]

Such a touching book. This book handles the grief that comes from losing a loved one very well. Winter has loved Spencer for years and they share the first kiss the day before he dies in a plane crash while taking his pilot license test. She finds comfort in the new friendship with a boy who has lived next door to her for years, Jesse.
I loved Jesse. He was always there for Winter and he understood everything that she was going through. He is the sweet guy that all the girls dream of one day finding. When I first read the summary I thought that Jesse was a new boy in town and had just recently moved to the house next to her, but I was wrong. He has lived there for years, but they never really were friends until Spencer's death.
Winter also has another best friend, Lindsay, who is grieving for Spencer as well. And she is dealing with battles in her life that Winter doesn't seem to notice at first while she is dealing with the loss of Spencer. I am glad the novel touched on that fact. That sometimes when a person is dealing with tragedy they forget that their friends can be dealing with other problems. It was a real situation that has never been featured in any other book I have read before.
The only thing that I was confused about was the timing. It seemed as though six months had passed since Spencer's death at one point in the novel, but then it is mentioned that it has been two. So many things seemed to happen is such a short period of time. But this is the only negative I have for this book.
All in all, this is a good book. It teaches us about loss and moving on. I cried a few times while reading the book and I can't imagine going through what Winter went through. And the descriptions of Alaska were to beautiful that I actually wanted to go there, and I despise cold weather, so that is saying something.
Highly recommended.