First Lie Wins: Reese's Book Club Pick (A Novel)

This was an enjoyable story. The only issue I had was the pronunciation of “Panama City” by a character that is supposed to be southern and that Cape san Blas absolutely does not have a bustling farmers market filled with loads of people.

Love love love! Grabbed me from the first chapter and since it’s the weekend, I practically listened all the way through!

Love this book! Great characters and story line. One of the best reads this year.

Great book! Keeps you guessing until the very end! Loved it.

It wasn’t that good I didn’t like it that much

Amazing!!! Could not put this one down!! Loved it and all the twist and turns. Ending was totally shocking!!

This was chosen in my local mystery book club as April’s read for this year. I honestly am still trying to figure out why. No murder and no mystery. First Lie Wins is about a woman who lives with her fiancé and works for a shady guy she doesn’t know doing odd and illegal activities, mainly theft. She is on her current assignment with her fiancé when she pieces out who her boss is and how to take him down…sort of.
Overall this story was okay because it was an easy read and the writing style was simplistic. The main character is okay and the characters are likeable. In the end this book wasn’t a murder mystery more like a mystery of who’s behind the mask. I think it was a little overrated and wasn’t worth all the recommendations it got.
Majority of the book is going backwards in times, going over the different identities and jobs that the main character has had with the current employer. The flashbacks were designed to help you learn the characters, explain how she got to where she is, and help you figure out who the boss is. However I found it took away too much from the main storyline in present time. It was too much of the past. Maybe 1-2 past jobs would’ve been fine but it ended up being 4-5 and currently overpowered the present storyline. It took away the main goal of the storyline so by the time you got there, you really didn’t care. The ending was also thrown together like an afterthought.

★★★ Okay to skip

At the start of First Lie Wins, I had some trepidation: "Oh oh", I thought, "is this just going to be one of those unreliable narrator novels?"
But it turned into so much more: I got MULTIPLE deceptions, NC rep, Mission Impossible heist vibes, and a cool twisty ending.
It was a pretty quick and satisfying read for me.

Finally! A female main character who is not an idiot! Well, unless you count getting stuck in this lifetime situation in the first place as stupid. None of the "I knew something wasn't right . . ." or "That can't be what I think it is . . ." and "I was so stupid!" when she goes ahead and makes a wrong turn anyway.

I did figure some of it out, but there were plenty of refreshingly surprising reveals.

Completely unbelievable, but a fun ride. Definitely six stars.

I've seen a lot of buzz about FIRST LIE WINS, and I'm happy to say that it lived up to the hype. It's a cleverly plotted and fast-paced cat-and-mouse thriller that was impossible to put down. In fact, I read the whole thing during a snow day home from work.

Evie Porter (or whoever she really is) was a fantastic unreliable narrator who was fun to try and figure out. She was flawed yet quite likable, and it was interesting to see how she handled each of her sticky situations. If you're looking for a unique and exciting thriller, I highly recommend this smart and twisty read.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me a copy of this book. Opinions are my own.

Evie is a sympathetic character despite the fact that she is occupying a morally grey place. The twists and turns in the story are entertaining and it is only at the end that the full picture emerges.

Evie Poter quickly realizes her latest job has become more personal and dangerous than planned. Evie Porter is not even her real name and conning folks is indeed her game. Ryan Sumner is the mark she's got her eye on and making him fall for her in a whirlwind romance is her game this time. Ryan isn't a saint by any means. Ryan has a trucking business on the side that moves black-market goods. All seems to be going well for Evie until she meets a woman who is dating one of Ryan’s friends and introduces herself as Lucca Marino...which is Evie’s actual name. When imposter Lucca dies in a car wreck and the police question Evie and Ryan since they were the last to see her, an old outstanding warrant shows itself for Evelyn Porter's arrest. This is more than strange since there should be no history to produce this. At this point Evie begins to suspect that her job is actually a test from her employer, Mr. Smith, who was unhappy after she failed her last assignment, and this time the stakes are much higher. To keep herself from going to jail, Evie must pull in every favor she has accumulated during her career to outwit Mr. Smith, but she will have to first decide if she can trust Ryan or if she has to run if she wants any hope for a future. Mixed in with the current happenings are flashbacks that go back ten-years earlier in which Evie remembers committing a petty theft at the country club because she was desperate for cash to pay for her mother’s cancer treatments. This happened while she was still in high school. This is where I became a bit confused, and the story began to bog down slightly. Seems that she was at this time, somehow connected with a Mr. Smith, and now a plethora of side characters are introduced. This book is advertised as "a savvy thriller with intrigue and momentum from the first twist of Lucca’s arrival right up until the final showdowns". Evie is an engaging character and anything but predictable and the story was good, but I didn't especially find it to be a page-turner.

This book had me hooked from the very beginning - filled with false identities, cat-and-mouse games, intricate plotting, fascinating characters, the mysterious and ruthless Mr. Smith, and an ending that came from out of nowhere but slotted right into place once it was all explained. It was a little hard to follow at times, but so worth it! The author has a brilliant mind to come up with this story - can't wait to see what she does next!

First Lie Wins Ashley Elston is a 2024 Pamela Dorman Books publication.

I love a good con, and this book is one of the best I’ve read in a long time.

This story is centered around Evie Porter, a woman of many identities, living in a shadowy world, constantly on her guard, afraid of blowing her cover- or worse- displeasing her boss…

Her current job seems to put her in danger of doing both…

One really can’t go into many details without giving something away, and besides it’s a little complicated. But all you really need to know is this book is one big, fast paced, thrill -ride!

From start to finish it kept me on my toes, constantly guessing and completely pleased with the way the story ended. Very, very clever, smart, and wildly entertaining!!

Overall, one of the best psychological thrillers I’ve read in ages!

4.5 stars

Twists and turns. A real thriller. I couldn’t put it down!!

Story of a con woman who has to outsmart her boss before he succeds in getting rid of her.

This is a cleverly plotted story with multiple twists and turns in a complex game of cat and mouse. Evie Porter is living with Ryan, and constantly consumed by the demands of the mysterious Mr. Smith, whose assignments range in difficulty as she rises through the ranks from a petty criminal to someone who is charged with finding out everything there is to know about Mr. Smith's target person. Ryan is the latest assignment and the most challenging when she meets a woman who looks like her with her actual identity from her real hometown. It is an absorbing reading experience.

“The first lie has to be the strongest. The most important. The one that has to be told”

I found the premise of First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston to be truly intriguing. Evie Porter, a con artist who works for the mysterious “Mr. Smith” finds herself trapped in a complex web of manipulation as she works on her current mark, Ryan Sumner. Posing as Ryan’s girlfriend while passing on information about Ryan’s business to her boss should have been easy for her, given she has almost perfected her game over the years in Mr. Smith’s employ. However, her growing feelings for Ryan, her feelings of guilt for her deception and her desire for a different life than she has chosen (or the life that has chosen her?) and the added pressure that she is being closely monitored and failing her current task would result in dire consequences, complicate matters further and the situation begins to spiral out of Evie’s control.

The beginning of the book drew me in and had me hooked, but as the plot progressed, my enthusiasm dampened. The author’s writing shows promise and I thought most of the twists were well executed (the entry of “Lucca Marino” was a genius plot point). However, too much of the narrative was devoted to telling rather than showing, which detracted from my overall experience. Evie is an interesting protagonist but the oversharing (in excruciatingly minute detail) about both past events and how events unfold in the present timeline not only messed with the pacing and but also made me forget that I was reading what was supposed to be a suspenseful “thriller.” Though not entirely unpredictable, there were a few aspects of the mystery that were well-crafted. However, I wasn’t a fan of how the author chose to end the story and found a few developments/revelations toward the end utterly unconvincing and contrived.

After a very long wait for my library copies, I can’t help but feel more than a tad disappointed with this one. Had I not approached this novel expecting a fast-paced, complex, edge of your set thriller, I would have enjoyed it more.

I paired my reading with the audiobook narrated by Saskia Maarleveld, who has done a commendable job of breathing life into this story.

Intense, plot driven with protagonist as a "con" artist who works for a shadowy boss and doesn't look back, taking the $$ and waiting for the next job...until she realizes her own life is in danger. GREAT fast read...and when will Netflix or other streaming production service be calling?? It seemed to be a slam dunk for a short streaming series for sure.

Evie Porter, professional imposter and con artist finds herself on a job that feels different than those that came before. When it starts to unravel, she has to cook up a scheme not just to save the job but also herself. This is a fun, twisty thriller that weaves around in the time of Evie‘s employ for the shady Mr. Smith and kept me guessing all the while. Recommended!

5 star for this one. I enjoyed the fast pace of this book but it was very intricate and a little confusing because of all the name/date changes. Stick to it the end is worth it . Well done.

This twisty read was so much fun! A con woman finds herself in a tricky spot and the plot flashes back & forth with other identities and jobs she's taken over the years. A smart protagonist, tons of surprises, and kept me interested the whole time. It was fun to read and just what I wanted.

Witty, intuitive, and clever characters, a suspenseful game of deception, and nonstop twists and turns that will keep you guessing !

Wow - what a run ride. I enjoyed this book immensely, but could have done without so much foul language. ;-)

This was fun, a different setup from most recent thriller/mysteries I've read, with a fast plot and clear intentions as the book unfolded. Definitely some convenient things that might make you raise an eyebrow, but nothing that made it all fall apart.

An engaging super-spy-next-door thriller. The constantly switching timelines, locations and identities keep things interesting.

This book took me a bit to get into but then it started to get good. It had a lot going on and a lot of good mystery in it. The story moved along at a good pace and the characters were interesting. There were a lot of twists and turns which kept you wanting to continue reading to see where it ends. I recommend it if you like a good mystery.

5 star read for sure! Plot twist within the first page and a definite page turner, that you just don’t want to put down. Keeps you questioning the characters as you read, making you think you might have figured it out until you find out you didn’t at all. Great use of flashbacks and present day storytelling. Wish I could read it for the first time again!

Good book if you like this genre of suspense, where information that the narrator knows is deliberately withheld from the reader to make the narrative’s twists and turns possible. The blurbs and the hype keep luring me in and I keep reading them, even though I personally find the books and their narrators annoying! ;)

First Lie Wins had me in a chokehold! I've seldom devoured a book as quickly. Once Evie Porter, who is a fake identity, meets a woman at a party who is pretending to be her real identity, the plot starts to catapult you into a gripping journey. The justified hype surrounding this book is undeniable. It ensnares the reader from the opening page to the final climax, a feat few thrillers achieve.