Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - First Lie Wins

“There's an old saying: The first lie wins. It's not referring to the little white kind that tumble out with no thought; it refers to the big one. The one that changes the game.”

Part of me was a bit hesitant to read First Lie Wins, as we all know how hyped books and me tend to get along... But there was something about the premise I wasn't able to resist, and I ended up giving in. I'm so glad I did now, because I ended up having SUCH a great time reading book! Things can be said about the credibility, but I personally didn't care as the entertainment level was through the roof. First Lie Wins reads like a Hollywood action movie with a similar vibe as Mr. And Mrs. Smith, and the premise had me fully hooked. The story is told through Evie Porter's POV, and switches back between different time in her past and the present. There was something about Evie that made it easy to start rooting for her despite her flaws, and the flashbacks worked perfectly to start revealing certain information and twists. The building up of tension and suspense was really well done, and it had me turning page after page as I HAD to know how it would all end. And while I guessed some of the twists, others came as a total surprise. The writing itself is extremely engaging and the heist/spy elements really made this story stand out. The ending itself was perfect for this story, and the journey itself was a blast as well. If you enjoyed fast-paced, engaging and cleverly plotted thrillers with a spy/heist vibe and don't mind suspending your disbelief, I can highly recommend First Lie Wins.

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amanda_reads13's review

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Evie is just her current alias. She has been many people since working for Mr. Smith. But her current assignment starts to go sideways when someone impersonating her real identity shows up.

Evie has been working for Mr. Smith for years, being used and manipulated into doing his dirty work. She very smart, but it seems like he has always been one step ahead of her. She seems a bit naive, but she is incredibly cunning and resourcful. We learn that

Evie has been planning Mr. Smith's takedown for years with her small team, Devon and Amy. As Mr. Smith tries to take Evie down, they are secretly discovering his secrets and true identity.

I had an idea of where this was heading, but

I thought Ryan was going to be Mr. Smith, not the UPS guy! It makes sense that he would always want to be close and keep a close eye on her.

I felt that the ending was a bit cheesy, but

it is interesting that she becomes Ms. Smith and takes over.

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jamiee_f's review

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adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A book full of twists and turns, and you're not sure you can trust anyone! Evie Porter has it all--a rich boyfriend who's just asked her to move in with him, a peaceful life, a beautiful home.....but there's one catch. Evie Porter doesn't exist, it's an alias created by her boss, and her boyfriend is her mark. She works for the mysterious Mr Smith, who doles out information as needed, and assigned her to infiltrate Ryan's life. However the longer she's with Ryan, the more she starts to fall for him. To feel an ache for this to be real. Then one day at a party, she runs into a woman who looks startlingly like her....and has her birth name. Her REAL name, Luca, the identity she has always hoped to one day return to, and she's shaken to her core.

She investigates and reaches out to Mr Smith, who tells her its a test, and she better get it together and wrap up the mission. Evie invites the imposter Luca over for dinner with her boyfriend, and they have a lovely evening. The next day though, they wake up, and fake Luca and her boyfriend have died in a car crash. Obviously everyone is shaken up, and the cops take Evie and Ryan's statements. A few days later though, the cops come back to question Evie due to a warrant for her, tied to the death of a woman that happened on Evie's last job in Atlanta.

Evie is shattered but she keeps it together. The cops have a picture of her leaving the hotel where a woman she was assigned to on her lost job died. She quickly consults with a lawyer and secretly contacts her tech wizard best friend/ally, and they start to hatch a plan. Evie knows Mr Smith is after her and he wants something. He ends up contacting her and saying he needs what she got on her last mission. He has her on tape putting something in a security deposit box, and if she doesn't turn it over, he's giving everything incriminating over to the cops in Atlanta.

Evie is adamant she doesn't have anything in the security deposit box, but mr. Smith does not relent. So, Evie sets off on a trip to Atlanta. However, Ryan refuses to let her go alone. He says he will come with, and they'll both meet the lawyer in Atlanta friday morning. As they road trip, Evie and Ryan both seem on the precipice of telling the other something big, but they don't spill. Evie, working with her techy BFF, starts the ball rolling on an elaborate plan to figure out who Mr. Smith is, and flush out whatever he has on her. She visits former marks and bugs them, she connects with allies from her past, all while mr. smith gets increasingly upset.

Halfway through their trip, she overhears Ryan talking to George, who is Mr Smith's messenger of many years and is baffled. Why would Ryan be receiving information from Mr Smith? What does he know? Is RYAN mr smith? Evie ends up slipping away in the night, and finishing her mission on her own. She shows up Friday in Atlanta, ready to meet with the cops.

As a reader I was nervous at this point--what was going to happen? but when the cops showed up, Evie was cool as a cucumber. She simply said the woman in those photos/videos was Luca. Which....is the truth, since she is Luca, but she means it was imposter Luca who died! She herself has a rock solid alibi with a member of the Atlanta Falcons, who she facetimes right then and there. The cops are kind of like...huh, okay yeah, and she leaves, heading to the bank to confront Mr Smith.

At the bank it turns out Mr Smith is actually George!! Twist, but thank god it's not Ryan. She takes George/Mr Smith into the security deposit box room, where they open it up and....there's nothing in there. Just a white origami swan. Mr Smith is pissed as hell, and Evie reveals that she knows who he is and what he's been up to, and she has some friends outside who would like to see him. Those friends are in fact the mobsters Evie was supposed to be getting dirt on during her Atlanta mission, but it turns out Mr Smith was just skimming off of them. So Evie hands Mr Smith over to his enemies, and immediately gets on a plane to her techy BFF's house where it turns out, the "dead" woman from Atlanta has been, alive, the whole time! The dead woman was working WITH Evie and tech BFF, all to take Mr Smith down. Very satisfying.

We get a little bit of a flash forward, where Evie says she's going clean, but in a few months, she goes back to Ryan to confront him about what happened. They have a heart to heart and clarify the shady shit they've both been up to, but decide to be together. The final scenes are of the future, where Evie and thought-to-be-dead woman Hannah are now Ms Smith, taking over the business.

It was a very satisfying climax and ending! I like how it all played out, and the flashbacks were very effective story telling. It was a good application of not revealing everything to the reader at once; the characters always knew more than the reader did. Would recommend if you like books about messy lady protagonists!

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bringmybooks's review against another edition

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mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

~~Bring~~ | ~~Borrow~~ | ✨Bypass✨

Review: Most important thing to say here is please READ OTHER REVIEWS and don't rely on just mine because I seem to be so far in the minority on this one ... but this felt very meh :(

I liked the idea of all the flashbacks leading us to present day Evie, but eventually I kinda forgot where we were and why we were there (and why I cared). The slog during the middle was real, y'all.

The writing wasn't bad and I definitely would pick up another thriller by this author, but with all the thrillers you can pick up in bookstores these days, this one would not be my recommendation.

Overall Rating: ★★★★ / 3.25

Rating each element of the book out of 5★
Characters ★★★
Atmosphere ★★★
Writing ★★★
Plot ★★★
Intrigue ★★★★
Logic ★★★
Enjoyment ★★
Pacing ★★
Dialogue ★★★

★ did not like / ★★ it was okay / ★★★ liked it / ★★★★ really liked it / ★★★★★ loved it

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fkshg8465's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Very fun book. Needed that after the heaviness of ur last one I’d read. Clever, but I have to say I had most of it figured out early on - that was a first for me, and yet, it was still an engaging read. Could be a fun TV show someday.

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kshertz's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was a great mystery book! I love an unreliable narrator and everyone is very unreliable. I’m not really sure who to root for. I don’t know who will come out on top. There are twists! It was really enjoyable to follow along with them.

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shesflippinpages's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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