title: First Lie Winsauthor: Ashley Elston
published: 2 January 2024
publisher: Pamela Dorman Books
genre(s): thrillers
pages: 338
source: Book of the Month
format: hardcover
buy/shelve it: Amazon | B&N | BookBub | BookHype | Goodreads
rating:
the blurb
REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK | INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“This fast-paced read has everything you could want in a thriller: secret identities, a mysterious boss and a cat & mouse game that kept me guessing the whole way through.”—Reese Witherspoon
Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.
The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.
Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes—especially after what happened last time.
Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to—her real identity—just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn't be higher—but then, Evie has always liked a challenge...
- a few notes
- review
content warning: ❗some graphic violence❗
POV: 1st person
keywords/phrases: secret identity, conspiracy
spice: 🔥
language: 🤬🤬🤬🤬
First Lie Wins is a deliciously twisty thriller, with so many threads that interweave throughout the story. There were so many twists and turns, and a lot of surprises that I didn’t anticipate.
One of the things I loved most about this book was that the reveals, rather than being saved for the end, were spaced throughout the book. That gives the reader lots of WOW moments along the way, which I adored.
I also loved that the lead was a morally gray heroine. There’s just something fun about that, and the author did an excellent job with creating that character. Morally gray is a hard balance. Too moral and there’s no gray. Too gray, and there is little room to empathise with the character. That balance was perfectly achieved here.
About Ashley Elston
Ashley Elston worked for many years as a wedding photographer before turning her hand to writing. She lives in Louisiana with her husband and three sons. Elston has written six young adult novels. FIRST LIE WINS, her adult debut, was a number one New York Times bestseller and was selected as a Reese’s Book Club pick.
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reading challenges:
- 2024 52 Books Reading Challenge
- 2024 Alphabet Soup: Author Edition Reading Challenge
- 2024 Book-Box Reading Challenge
- 2024 Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge
- 2024 Linz the Bookworm Reading Challenge
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