Welcome back to Reading, Reading, Reading!

Ever since I purchased my very first Kindle (more on that soon!), I have been making a significant dent through my 2020 Netgalley eARCs! Most of my Netgalley eARCs are made up on Mystery/Thriller novels, and one of my most anticipated from the bunch was The First To Lie by Hank Phillippi Ryan.

Synopsis (Goodreads.com):

What happens when an undercover reporter gets in too deep? And when a practiced liar has to face off with her own truth—how does she choose her true reality?
Who will be the first to lie?
Bestselling and award-winning author and investigative reporter Hank Phillippi Ryan delivers another twisty, thrilling suspense novel that will leave you breathless.

Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my high expectations. It was the book equivalent of the word “inception”, which initially sounds intriguing, but ends up being very confusing, exactly like how this novel played out.

One of my favourite, yet lesser read tropes in thrillers, is to read about individuals trying to shut down a shady or secretly bad company. That was my favourite aspect of this novel, as I enjoyed reading about the different secrets the main characters were uncovering surrounding Pharminex – the drug company they are trying to shut down.

I also really enjoyed the numerous twists and turns. About 40% through the novel, a major twist is thrown at the readers. Unfortunately, I was able to predict this twist. However, if you are new/newish to the mystery/thriller genre, you will probably not see it coming!

The writing in this novel was done very well, which could have been a problem in this book since there are multiple POV’s and timelines involved in this novel.

For me, what my 3/5 star rating came down to was the execution of the plot. While I enjoyed reading this novel, I found it way too unrealistic. There are certain twists in this novel that occur at the very end, and while I found them surprising, I also found them very strange and unrealistic. Since I enjoyed the writing of this novel, I would be interested in picking up another future novel written by Hank Phillippi Ryan.

Thanks to Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC to read and review!

Good Night Book Owls!