The Fall of Grace by Amy Fellner Dominy (review)

Grace has never questioned her mother's success as the manager of the Family Fund, which continues to garner record profits despite economic downturns. She's completely taken aback, then, when the FBI shows up at her mother's office, triggering a stroke that puts her mother in a coma. She's certain that her mother will explain everything when she wakes up, but as the case unfolds, it becomes clear that all of the money her friends and neighbors have invested has disappeared in her mother's Ponzi scheme. Now a social pariah, Grace searches desperately for answers. Her search puts her on a bus to Colorado, where she is unpleasantly surprised to find Sam Rivers, a boy who's lost all his college savings to her mother's malfeasance, following her. From here the story takes a familiar teen survival story turn—the two climb a mountain, get lost and attacked by a bear, survive a storm and injuries, all while falling in love. Meanwhile, though, they frankly explore the limits of guilt and responsibility, and what they can and can't do in terms of restitution for past sins and moving forward. The unusual and timely premise and the refusal of an unqualified happy ending makes up for the more predictable plot moves, so readers who enjoy romance stories with a little something extra to think about are the audience for this. KC