I badly wanted to August Into Winter five stars because it was impeccably written. I loved the thoroughness of characterizations, scene and relationships and the deep themes. But maybe this book was a little too thorough? It's over four hundred pages long and the print is tiny! But ugh, I shouldn't say the book was too thorough, because that was it's beauty. Perhaps this story could've been about fewer things... then I could've savoured it more.