Title: Plague of Lies
Author: Marbeth Skwarczynski
Series: The Rose Collection, book 1
Major Themes: Abortion, Pro-Life, Church
Synopsis: Soon after she turned 18, Lauren had the chance to confront the dead-beat father who abandoned her as an infant—or did he?
I often end up requesting review copies of books just because more reviewers are needed, and often I find myself disappointed with them. Then, once in a while, I get one that makes me continue to take chances! Plague of Lies was one such book. I got started reading it—and didn’t want to stop! By the time I was about halfway through, I was thinking about the book when I had to be doing other things.
Publisher’s description:
The man who taught him how to live was living a lie.
Scott Andrews was content to be a rule-follower, happily attending church and youth group while planning his future with his beautiful girlfriend, Cindy. He and his friends would change the world and be blessed by doing it. But when his mentor is exposed as a fraud, Scott’s life turns upside down. He’s forced to grow up, but unlike the man who betrayed him, Scott is determined to live honestly.
Lauren is a mistake. She’s heard it her whole life. But, on her eighteenth birthday, she gets a letter from the father she’s never met. It seems out of character. From everything she’s heard about her deadbeat dad, he never wanted anything to do with her. Lauren suddenly has a purpose. She will sit down with the man who left her when she was a baby and demand that he tell her why.
It’s time for the truth to come out.
My thoughts:
Plague of Lies is a good book. (Now I wish I had signed up for the other book I saw available once from this series! Too late now.) This is a clear picture of what happens when people lie, when sin is covered up, and when people live a double life. The fall-out in the church and community after a trusted person did the opposite of what he taught the youth group, and did not suffer any consequences for his betrayal, sounded all too familiar.
This book is a split-time novel. Part of it is set in 2018, and there are frequent flashbacks to 1999. The parts from 2018 are in first-person, present tense; when Scott’s memories from 1999 are being shared, the point of view switches to third-person, past tense. That made it quite easy to know the setting and characters for each part. I couldn’t make up my mind which time period I liked better. Of course, I knew the outcome for the 1999 story, but the author did a great job of making it suspenseful. I didn’t know what would happen in 2018, and there was one situation that I completely misunderstood for a while, just as Lauren did—that was done well!
Scott’s church and youth group, in 2018, seemed almost too perfect to be real. He learned from his, his parents’, and church’s mistakes when he was a teenager, and seemed to be doing everything right in his own youth group. I liked the good example that was set, but it just didn’t seem quite real. Also, the changes that Lauren made in her life happened almost too fast for real life. Overall, though, this was a great book, and I would love to read more in the series.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author, and these are my honest thoughts about it.
WARNING: Potential triggers: Cutting, premarital sex (off page, but no doubt about it, and one time it was discussed openly between the couple, though not graphically), abortion (fairly graphic), verbal abuse.
Age levels:
Reading Independently— Adults
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle | Hardcover
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
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