Two years ago I reviewed the first book I read by Ashley Elston titled This is Our Story.. I named it as my favorite book I read in 2017. Ashley Elston is able to create in depth, young adult characters and make you sympathize with those characters. When I found out that in November of 2018 she released The Lying Woods, I immediately pushed it to the top of my TBR pile. It also helps having $100 of spending money in Barnes & Noble gift cards thanks to the holiday season. The Lying Woods isn’t as good as This is Our Story, but it might depend on your book reading preference to determine which book you will enjoy more.

Owen Foster is the stereotypical rich kid: He goes to an elite private school, he has gone on amazing trips with his family and basically has a life any kid would dream of. Until his mother shows up to his school to inform him that his father stole money from the very people who work for his company, Louisiana Frac. Owen is forced to leave his private school and return to his home town where people despise him. Owen’s mother has been receiving death threats as many believe she knows where his father has gone. Where is Owen’s father and why did he steal the money?

The Lying Woods is more of a contemporary young adult story versus a mystery thriller like This is Our Story was. I’m not a huge romance novel fan, but I liked the balance between the romance and the mystery in this book. Owen was someone I originally couldn’t connect with based on his background and how he viewed his up state lifestyle. However, once Owen becomes more situated in his small town in Louisiana, I started to feel for him and what he has been going through. My biggest complaint with this book is it took me a little while to truly get into the story. I read This is Our Story in a day where it took me about a week to read The Lying Woods. Although, once I had 150 pages left in The Lying Woods, I did read it all in a day.

I don’t want to spoil this one because I truly believe all of Ashley Elston’s books are worth purchasing and reading through, but if you want to know what happens in the end, I did include spoilers in my good reads review. If we aren’t friends on goodreads, we should be! I will link my goodreads profile in this post. I also started following Books on the Book Shelf and they had a nice review of The Lying Woods in case you aren’t convinced on reading it yet. The Lying Woods is a great blend between contemporary young adult fiction and mystery. Ashley Elston’s books make me want to visit Louisiana, so who knows maybe I’ll take a road trip to New Orleans someday.