Wednesday, October 22, 2025

HOOPLA/OCT 20/First Lie Wins A Novel by Ashley Elston

 

About  AMAZON

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...
 
MY 5 STAR REVIEW- Odd but great story
I thought at the beginning what an odd story. But I quickly got drawn in as I kept reading.  Who is Lucca Marino? And what's her part in this story, was my  next thought. And when it all comes out, there is quite the doozy of an answer to that question. It was well worth it all !
George is the guy who shows up as often in the story. He's the guy who is the delivery man of instructions from Mr. Smith. Tessa likes him and flirts with him, knowing neither one of the will follow up .  
Devon was a tech friend to Evie and I really liked him. He hated being an up in front guy, so he's very comfortable being on the computer and things like that. He's helped save Evie's butt time and again. She can rely on him and she doesn't trust many people !
There are story flash backs but they run smoothly once I got into the flow of things.  Evie's latest job is Ryan Sumner and she's supposed to get the dirt on him. Things don't seem to be adding up to Evie though.  She gets Devon working on that with her. 
Evie long ago got rid of Mitch, the screw up min-boss over her. He would have messed up an important job. So Devon and Evie work out something better. Mitch is out of there because bold Evie, said I'm only working with Mr. Smith from now on ! And just who is Mr. Smith? Really ! He knows Evie is the best, as she often reminds him, so he puts up with a lot from her.  He does tell her that he has limits with her boldness, reckless ways ! He just doesn't know that there is a storm coming his way when Evie figures out that he kills team members that he no longer needs. He's ruthless ! And who he is, is a big surprise !!!
I liked Ryan right from the start even though he begins to look kind of shady. Is he working WITH Mr. Smith?  Ryan does treat Evie well, but a job is a job.  Until suddenly it isn't quite that simple. Hey, if Ryan is shady, why couldn't two shady people work together? I liked that idea a lot!
I read this book through the Hoopla Library app and loved it !
 
ANATOMY OF AN ALIBI BY ASHLEY ELSTON is available January 13, 2026 on Amazon or you can pre-order. It looks interesting. 

No comments:

Post a Comment