Review of The Lying Woods by Ashley Elston
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Review copy provided by Disney-Hyperion via NetGalley and Storygram Tours in exchange for an honest review
I’m teaming up with the publisher and Storygram Tours as a tour host for The Lying Woods’ release! Check my bookstagram on November 13th for more information!
DESCRIPTION
Owen Foster has never wanted for anything. Then his mother shows up at his elite New Orleans boarding school cradling a bombshell: his privileged life has been funded by stolen money. After using the family business, the single largest employer in his small Louisiana town, to embezzle millions and drain the employees’ retirement accounts, Owen’s father vanished without a trace, leaving Owen and his mother to deal with the fallout.
Owen returns to Lake Cane to finish his senior year, where people he can barely remember despise him for his father’s crimes. It’s bad enough dealing with muttered insults and glares, but when Owen and his mother receive increasingly frightening threats from someone out for revenge, he knows he must get to the bottom of what really happened at Louisiana Frac–and the cryptic note his father sent him at his boarding school days before disappearing.
Owen’s only refuge is the sprawling, isolated pecan orchard he works at after school, owned by a man named Gus who has his own secrets–and in some ways seems to know Owen better than he knows himself. As Owen uncovers a terrible injustice that looms over the same Preacher Woods he’s claimed as his own, he must face a shocking truth about his own past–and write a better future.
REVIEW
Guys. I rarely read anything outside of fantasy and science fiction but I loved this book. It was absolutely riveting and had me feeling all sorts of emotional and questioning everything. Despite being a mystery, this was a totally atmospheric book that had me feeling some serious Raven Cycle vibes. You don’t want to skip this one!
This story follows Owen Foster, who discovers his father has vanished and embezzled millions from his company and its employees. After Owen is pulled from his boarding school, he is thrust back into small town life and must face the people whose lives his father ruined.
The Lying Woods has so many captivating elements but most of all is the alternating timeline. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the story shifts from present day Owen to the summer of 1999, when Owen’s parents meet. I found myself questioning every little bit of information we gather between timelines – most of all, how could the young man we see falling in love with Owen’s mother become so terrible in present day? Don’t worry folks, you’ll get your answer and you will not see it coming. I was shook! Seriously, all I wanted to do was get home from work so I could finish this, it had me that enthralled!
Additionally, I really appreciated the growth we see in Owen and his characterization throughout the book. From his fierce protectiveness of his mother, to his growing relationship with Pippa, to his compassion for those his father harmed. Owen just wants to fit in again and find answers to his father’s actions, but to do so he must let down his own barriers and accept the truth of what has happened.
There were so many emotional scenes for me in this book. Namely: Gus’ grief, Noah’s love for Maggie and selflessness, Owen and Pippa after the auction and the whole diner scene was just SO MUCH.
The Lying Woods is delightful and mysterious. As someone who tends to stick within her SFF bubble, this was a pleasant derailment from the norm for me and I hope everyone will read and enjoy it as much as I did!
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Release Date: November 13, 2018
Library in the Country 
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