whitneydaniell

by: Ashley Elston
published: January 2, 2024
genre: Thriller, Mystery
340 pages, audiobook via Audible (09:16)
GoodReads | Amazon

Synopsis

First Lie Wins… more like “all the lies make my head hurt.”

Evie Porter has everything a nice Southern girl could want—a doting boyfriend, a white picket fence, a perfect little life. The only catch? Evie Porter doesn’t exist.

The identity comes first. Once her elusive boss, Mr. Smith, assigns her a name and location, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then comes the mark—this time, it’s Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle? The job.

But this job is different. Ryan isn’t just another assignment, and for the first time, Evie is starting to picture a life that isn’t built on deception. The problem? She’s running out of time. She botched her last job, and now Mr. Smith is out for revenge. And just when she thinks she has everything under control, she comes face to face with something far more dangerous than her boss—her real identity. The woman revealing Evie’s past in small-town Eden, North Carolina, claims to know everything about her… but she’s lying too.

Now, with her past closing in and the truth threatening to unravel everything, Evie has to decide: How far is she willing to go to hold onto her many, many lies?

My Final Thoughts

I wanted to like this book. I downloaded it on Audible almost a year ago (before my reading hiatus) and finally got around to listening. I really wanted to enjoy the plot and the story, but… I just didn’t.

Let’s start with Evie Porter—aka Lucca Marino—our small-town con girl whose version of the American Dream is to steal her way into it (which, honestly, is quite literally the American Dream). After pulling off some low-level heists, Evie gets caught with a credit card skimmer at a wedding and is apprehended by—who, exactly? A real cop? A fake cop? Who knows? Either way, she ends up in the hands of Mr. Smith, who has apparently been keeping tabs on her. And just like that, her life of crime continues.

While Evie is supposed to come across as smart and cunning, I wasn’t getting that at all. From the jump, she felt off-putting, which was especially obvious during her lunch with Ryan’s friends—all of whom just so happened to be women. Side note: it’s interesting that Ryan’s inner circle is all women, while Evie’s is all men. Anyway, Rachel, one of Ryan’s friends, starts asking Evie questions about her past—totally normal, considering she’s dating their friend. But Evie immediately goes on the defensive, which makes no sense for someone in her line of work. Her backstory should be airtight. She should be able to answer those questions in her sleep. This was my first sign that Evie wasn’t as good at her job as she thought she was. No good operative would crack under that light pressure.

Then there’s Ryan Sumner—Evie’s latest mark—a shady businessman dealing in stolen and black-market goods. But on the surface? He looks completely legit. From the beginning, I picked up on the fact that Ryan knew more about Evie than she (or the narrator) realized. One moment that stood out was when he casually mentioned wanting to plant a garden—something that Evie (or rather, the real Lucca) had always dreamed of since childhood. That was my first clue that Ryan wasn’t who we thought he was.

Evie’s job is to gather information on Ryan’s shipments and financial records, but I never quite understood if Ryan himself had hired Mr. Smith or if one of Ryan’s enemies did. Maybe this was explained at some point, but trust me—by the halfway mark, I had checked out. And of course, in typical thriller fashion, Evie catches feelings. Not wanting Ryan to lose his business, she starts doctoring the information she gives to Mr. Smith, making his operation seem less lucrative than it actually is.

But here’s where everything completely derailed for me.

Evie, completely oblivious to all the extremely obvious red flags, decides to take down Mr. Smith. And suddenly, we’re on a chaotic road trip through the Bible Belt with Ryan. Then there’s a visit to the coach (why?). High-tech surveillance that would rival the CIA. A painting heist. A cadaver. It felt like Ashley Elston had a word count to hit, so she threw a bunch of random plot points together to rush us toward the anticlimactic “showdown.” Even though I enjoyed Devon, his access to CIA-level tech while somehow being a bartender everywhere felt a little ridiculous.

And then there’s the ending.

Whatever rating I might have given this book, the ending knocked off an extra star or two. It could have easily been a 3- or 4-star read, but what was that ending? After looking up Ashley Elston, I realized this was her first book outside of YA, so hopefully, her writing will develop over time—more thought-out plots, more fleshed-out characters.

And for everyone in the Goodreads comment section asking for a sequel? Absolutely not. This does not need a sequel. Now, a book from Mr. Smith’s POV? Maybe. A Devon spinoff? Possibly. Other stories from within this universe? Sure. But a direct sequel? No, thank you.

Read more at Deadline about the Hulu adaptation of ‘First Lie Wins’