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dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My summary:
Evie Porter is newly dating Ryan Sumner, a business owner in a small town of Louisiana who is quite an eligible bachelor in his hometown. Much to the chagrin of the girls that are his friends, Evie appears to be a fixture in Ryan’s life now. But Evie is not who everyone thinks she is, and Ryan is hiding his own secrets.
My thoughts:
I really enjoyed this thriller! Every first impression I had of the main characters in play were completely wrong. And I really did not see any of the twists coming. Both of those add up to a satisfying suspense read for me.
Ashley Elston made the jump from YA novels to adult fiction with this book. I think this a great debut for her in this genre and I hope she writes more thrillers in the future.
I really enjoyed the twistiness of this one. I haven’t read many thrillers lately so I feel like I’m extra gullible and it actually makes for a really enjoyable reading experience. Although I wasn’t super satisfied by the ending, I think it’s an overall good read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Drug abuse, Car accident, Alcohol
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Great storytelling, a constant weaving of strands that come together beautifully at the end. I typically do not get caught off guard, but the ending was a surprise. Thrilling and engaging with a satisfying ending.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
it was aight. very twisty and the ending set this book up for a sequel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Car accident, Murder, Alcohol
Minor: Addiction, Cancer
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Moderate: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
Minor: Cancer
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Alcohol
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Violence, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Thank you for the free audiobook PRH Audio!
Rating: 4/5 stars
Evie Porter is a con woman who gets embroiled in a high stake cat and mouse game with her boss.
I’m not always a fan of con-woman thrillers, but this one was super entertaining and enjoyable! I listened to the audiobook, which had fantastic production quality and great narration by Saskia Maarleveld, and it held my attention the entire way through.
That said, I thought the way the plot unfolded was a bit difficult to follow at times, and I wish there had been more signposting/foreshadowing for the reader to be able to guess what was going on and predict events. Some of the characters towards the end felt thrown in with very little background, and I had a persistent feeling that I was missing something or hadn’t realized key facts (not a feeling I want to have while reading).
Still, this leaned more towards fun than not, and so, even with the imperfections, I would definitely recommend this one if you want a fast-paced and entertaining thriller!
CW: Murder/death; car accident; mentions of cancer/death of parent
Rating: 4/5 stars
Evie Porter is a con woman who gets embroiled in a high stake cat and mouse game with her boss.
I’m not always a fan of con-woman thrillers, but this one was super entertaining and enjoyable! I listened to the audiobook, which had fantastic production quality and great narration by Saskia Maarleveld, and it held my attention the entire way through.
That said, I thought the way the plot unfolded was a bit difficult to follow at times, and I wish there had been more signposting/foreshadowing for the reader to be able to guess what was going on and predict events. Some of the characters towards the end felt thrown in with very little background, and I had a persistent feeling that I was missing something or hadn’t realized key facts (not a feeling I want to have while reading).
Still, this leaned more towards fun than not, and so, even with the imperfections, I would definitely recommend this one if you want a fast-paced and entertaining thriller!
CW: Murder/death; car accident; mentions of cancer/death of parent
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Car accident, Murder, Alcohol
Minor: Cancer, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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!
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!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Violence, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Classism