First Lie Wins
Reese's Book Club Pick (A Novel)
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4.3 • 4.5K Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK | #1 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...
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
There’s no job security when your career is blackmail. Evie Porter meets the handsome, wealthy Ryan Sumner when he helps her change a flat tire. He has no idea that Evie works for an underground syndicate that targets rich people with something to hide—like Ryan’s illegal business fencing stolen luxury goods. But there’s something Evie doesn’t know as well: Ryan has connections to her boss. Already a titan of YA fiction, author Ashley Elston makes her grown-up debut with this entertaining, cutthroat game of cat and mouse and a protagonist with so many alter egos she’s like a hundred heroines in one. If you love puzzles—especially ones that are hard to crack—don’t pass up First Lie Wins.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The anonymous narrator of Elston's ingeniously plotted adult debut (after the YA novel 10 Truths and a Dare) has long relied on charm and physical strength to complete a string of lucrative, increasingly dangerous missions from her mysterious boss. For her latest assignment, as in the past, she's been given a fresh identity ("Evie"), a destination, and the name of her mark, about whom she's supposed to learn everything and await further instructions. But the closer Evie gets to hunky Louisiana financial adviser Ryan Sumner—before long, she's his full-time girlfriend—the more unusual this job seems. Things get especially bizarre when one of Ryan's oldest friends shows up with a date who looks nearly identical to Evie and introduces herself by Evie's actual name. Might Evie's boss be setting her up? Is Ryan in on it? With the clock ticking, Evie and her MIT dropout/computer whiz sidekick, Devon, scramble to unravel what's really going on. Though a few plot elements, particularly those concerning Devon's hacking feats, strain credibility, Elston whips up plenty of suspense and delivers a satisfyingly serpentine finale. This promises more good things from Elston to come.
Customer Reviews
Good book
Great book just hard to follow sometimes towards the end
Really bad
Not believable, really ridiculous and cheesy.
First Lie Wins
First Lie Wins is about a nondescript female con artist controlled by a phantom boss who materialises at the end of the novel. The relationship between boss and asset (con artist) becomes increasingly tense and threatening through each job she pulls off. Evie, Luca, Izzy, Mia,Wendy,Helen and Regina makeup the protagonist identities as we follow forward and backward in time on her con jobs. The key job lands her into the life of a not too honest hometown boy from
Louisiana. The town and its characters are slightly familiar if you happen to be from down South like I am. The characters and small town life are colourfully described especially during a lunch with the female friends of Ryan Sumner or at the derby party where we hope to learn more about what Evie looks like. The author just gives an outline on this character. I did not enjoy the book as much because of the lack of definition for the main character Evie. I preferred Devon, George and even Amy who was pivotal in Evie taking back her life after she finished her last job. Evie plans all along to usurp her boss Mr this Smith and take over in his place as Miss Smith. The ending leaves us uncertain if another book is coming.