Ponder: The Lying Woods

The Lying Woods by Ashley Elston ©2019 really made me think about embezzlement from another perspective, that of the family of the embezzler. Owen is in his senior year at a private posh boarding school when the news breaks that his dad has run off with the money from his fracking company as well as the funds in the retirement  accounts of all the employees. Subcontractors' companies go belly up and those employees are out of a job, too. Owen and his mother are viewed as complicit in the crime when really they were clueless and they themselves are victims. Their house and all their belongings are seized and put up for auction in an attempt to recoup some money. Owen needs to switch schools to a school in the town where he and his mother are hated, insulted, and shunned. No one will rent them a place to live and no one will hire his mother for a job.

It is difficult for me to summarize this book because it has so many spoilers and I would not want to give any of them away. Owen finds solace in working at a pecan orchard outside town for a man who is open enough to give him a chance. Apparently, many years ago, a young man in similar need was also accommodated at this orchard. A bit of romantic interest creeps in both for Owen in the present day and for Noah in the summer of 1999. The plot twists are very strategically revealed much to my enjoyment. The ending is satisfying and I was about 90% finished with the book before I had my suspicions and theories, some of which I can gleefully admit proved to be wrong.

In writing this post I noticed that I had read a novel by this author before. I rated First Lie Wins, also by Ashley Elson five stars, and I am rating The Lying Woods the same. I also learned that Ashley Elston has written six books for young adults. I am going to check out one of them and give it a whirl.

★★★★★ Great! Read it!