First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston

Pages:
Method: Kindle
Rating: 4.75/5

I’m going to be honest, I was genuinely surprised by how much I liked this book. I’m always hesitant with psychological thrillers and mysteries but this one was amazing. The characters were great, the suspense was held in perfect tension, the information was easy to follow and well thought out, and the twists were unexpected and well executed.

One of the reasons I enjoyed this story so much was that it felt real. I think a lot of thrillers/mysteries make you feel somewhat removed from the story because the characters are FBI agents or the situation they are in are outrageous or not relatable for a regular person. But these characters were normal people with families and friends and people that they were close to. And the circumstances they found themselves in I could actually believe happen pretty regularly.

Each “mission” that the FMC was carrying out was set up and explained in enough detail that it made it believable but you weren’t bored with excess details. And the timing of the chapters was a fun way to continue to build her backstory while giving you little tidbits of information that you knew were going to be relevant to the current timeline. I also felt that the character development was well executed because you got enough detail from her past to establish who she was and how she got to where she was but it wasn’t an excessive amount that distracted from the main story.

I don’t want to give away the ending, so I’ll be careful here, but I really enjoyed the ending because it had multiple twists that worked together incredibly well and it didn’t end the way I thought it was going to in multiple different aspects of the story. I highly recommend this book, whether you are a lover of thrillers or are looking to explore the genre a little bit.

Favorite Quote: You can tell a lot about a person by the way they act when they are left waiting too long.

Question: What’s your capacity for illegal activity? How far would you be willing to go to protect or provide for yourself or your family?