Evan and Lucy have been best friends since birth. When Lucy's parents divorced, she moved away and now only visits once a year around Christmas. The book opens with the end of one of her visits and then continues one year later. When she comes back she has changed. Lucy cut and dyed her hair, has a nose ring, and won't open up to Evan. He tries to ask why she changed and what is going on with her and she refuses to answer him. 
 The book followers a dual third person POV. I'm not a big fan of third person but it did work well with this book. The first about 60% is in Evan's POV and then the last 40% tells Lucy's side. Evan has a lot of pressure on him from his parents to get into an Ivy League school and be a lawyer like his father, or a doctor, or some other prestigious career. His love has always been art and Lucy thinks he should pursue that even if only as a hobby. Evan is smart, ambitious, sweet, considerate, and a bit of a nerd. He is totally adorable and one of the good guys. He has had few girlfriends and focuses mostly on school. 
 Lucy slowly becomes the friend Evan remembers even though she stays closed about her life and the past year. It is easy to see the great chemistry between these two and they both take turns drawing comics. They pass the pictures back and forth and each continue the story. Art work is a huge part of the novel and all the drawings the author included really added to the story. There are setting pictures every chapter. Then throughout the novel there is also the comic Evan and Lucy are writing together. The comic is a fantasy about them going on an adventure but you can see some of their real feelings come out in the comic strips. 
 When it's Lucy turn to tell the story I was a bit annoyed with her. I liked her but she refused to tell Evan what was going on in her life. She was worried he would judge her or wouldn't love her anymore. I thought this was rather ridiculous. He is her best friend and will obviously support her in anyway he can. But holding out on all these things that she eventually will need to tell him will only make things worse. I didn't think she had really done anything that major that he wouldn't understand anyway. She makes mistakes but is going through a difficult time with her family. She lost sight of herself for a bit and needs to work on getting back on course. She wants to feel worthy of someone like Evan who she finds rather perfect. 
 Best Friends Romance 
 As the two hang out I definitely feel the chemistry growing. Evan's grandma, who is hilarious by the way, and mom tell Evan they think Lucy has had a thing for him for a long time. This does lead to some romance but these two have a lot to figure out before they can find happiness. Lucy has a lot of changes to make to fix her life and Evan has to figure out what he truly wants to do with his life. The ending isn't perfect but eventually shows that time and hard work can lead to happiness with yourself which means you can finally be happy with someone else. Really beautiful friendship, artwork, with a good family presence as well. Loved it! Not enough YA and adult books come with illustrations and I really enjoyed them. 
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 "The best music for her was always the stuff you could relate to, the stuff that spoke directly to you and twisted and knotted itself so far into your life you couldn't tell where art ended and reality began." 
 "I'm on the Internet. I stay informed. They let old people on the Internet, you know." 
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 Here are some pictures from Winter Town off the authors website http://www.stephenemond.com/