Book Beginnings and Friday 56: First Lie Wins

Book Beginnings is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader that asks you to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you’re reading.

The Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Head Full of Books where every Friday you pick a book and turn to page 56 or 56%, and select a sentence or a few, as long as it’s not a spoiler.

The Book:

First Lie Wins
by Ashley Elston
Pages: 340
Published by Pamela Dorman Books
Publication Date January 2, 2024
Goodreads

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...

Beginning

It starts with the little things: an extra toothbrush in the glass holder next to the sink, a few articles of clothing in the smallest drawer, phone chargers on both sides of the bed. Then the little things turn into slightly bigger things: razors and mouthwash and birth control pills all fighting for space in the medicine cabinet, the questions changing from “Are you coming over?” to “What should we do for dinner?”

Page 56

They continue to break down everyone here, and I realize this could work to my advantage.  If James Bernard was an old friend of Ryan’s then he was an old friend of theirs too.  I just need an opening.

My Thoughts

First Lie Wins has great pacing.  Just when the characters sit down to a dinner party there is a death, a scandal, or catty friends from high school.  I can’t wait to see where the novel leads me.

Save