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REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK | #1 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...
REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK | #1 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...
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Due to publisher restrictions the library cannot purchase additional copies of this title, and we apologize if there is a long waiting list. Be sure to check for other copies, because there may be other editions available.
Excerpts-
From the cover
Chapter 1
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 to slightly bigger things: razors and mouthwash and birth control pills all fighting for space in the medicine cabinet, the question changing from "Are you coming over?" to "What should we cook for dinner?"
And as much as I've been dreading it, this next step was inevitable.
It may be the first time I'm meeting the people gathered around the table, people who Ryan has known since childhood, but it hasn't escaped anyone's attention that I'm already fully embedded in his life. It's the small touches a woman brings to a man's home, like the matching throw pillows on the couch or the faint whiff of jasmine from the diffuser on the bookshelf, that every other woman notices the second she walks through the front door.
A voice floats across the candlelit table, dodges the centerpiece that I was assured was "delicate yet confident," and hovers in the air in front of me. "Evie, that's an unusual name."
I turn to Beth, debating whether to answer her question that's not really a question.
"It's short for Evelyn. I was named after my grandmother."
The women sneak glances at one another, silently communicating across the table. Every answer I give is weighed and cataloged for a later discussion.
"Oh, I love that!" Allison squeals. "I was named after my grandmother too. Where did you say you were from again?"
I didn't say, and they know this. Like birds of prey, they will pick, pick, pick all night until they get the answers they want.
"A small town in Alabama," I answer.
Before they can ask which small town in Alabama, Ryan changes the subject. "Allison, I saw your grandmother last week at the grocery store. How's she holding up?"
He's bought me a few precious moments of relief while Allison relays how her grandmother is faring following the death of her grandfather. But it won't be long until I'm the focus once again.
I don't have to know these people to know everything about them. They are the ones who started kindergarten together, their circle remaining small until high school graduation. They fled town in groups of twos and threes to attend a handful of colleges all within driving distance of here. They all joined sororities and fraternities with other groups of twos and threes with similar backgrounds, only to gravitate back to this small Louisiana town, the circle closing once again. Greek letters have been traded out for Junior League memberships and dinner parties and golf on Saturday afternoon, as long as it doesn't interfere with SEC football.
I don't fault them for the way they are; I envy them. I envy the ease they feel in these situations, for knowing exactly what to expect and what is expected of them. I envy the gracefulness that comes with knowing that everyone in this town has seen them at their worst and still accepts them.
"How did you two meet?" Sara asks, the attention once again back on me.
It's an innocent enough question, but one that unnerves me all the same.
The smile on Ryan's face tells me he knows how I feel about being asked this and he'll step in again to answer for me, but I shake him off.
Wiping my mouth gently with one of the white cloth napkins I bought specifically for this occasion, I say, "He helped change my flat tire."
Ryan would have given them more than they deserve, and that's why I stopped him. I don't mention it was at the truck stop on the outskirts of town where I worked in...
Reviews-
August 1, 2023
Evie Porter knows her job: she must charm her way into Ryan Sumner's life, following instructions from her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith. But Evie's beginning to like her quarry, and she can now envision a different kind of life for herself. Only she's not really Evie Porter, and the one person who could spill her real identity has just arrived in town. YA novelist Elston makes the leap to adult novels. Prepub Alert.
Copyright 2023 Library Journal
Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 1, 2023 A professional con woman quickly realizes her latest job has become more personal and dangerous than planned. Evie Porter (not her real name) is on a job in Louisiana and has successfully convinced her latest mark, Ryan Sumner, to fall for her in a whirlwind romance. All seems to be going well with Evie's investigation into Ryan's side business, a trucking company moving black market goods, until Evie meets a woman dating one of Ryan's friends who introduces herself as Lucca Marino--Evie's actual name. When imposter Lucca dies in a fiery car wreck and the police question Evie and Ryan as the last people to see her, an outstanding warrant pops for Evelyn Porter's arrest (though there should be no such history). It's then that Evie understands that her current job is actually a test from her employer, Mr. Smith, who was unhappy after she busted her last assignment, and the stakes are much higher than she'd anticipated. To keep herself out of jail, Evie must pull in every favor she has accumulated during her career to outwit Mr. Smith, but she will have to first discern whether she can trust Ryan or if she has to cut and run if she wants any hope for a future. Interspersed with the current adventure are flashbacks that start 10 years earlier in which Evie recalls committing petty theft at the country club in a desperate bid for cash to pay for her mother's cancer treatments during high school, being connected with Mr. Smith when she was caught, and the progression of jobs since then in which a host of lively side characters are introduced. YA writer Elston's adult debut announces itself as a savvy thriller with intrigue and momentum from the first twist of Lucca's arrival right up until the final showdowns. Evie is a smart and engaging protagonist, and her time on the run is anything but predictable. A genuine page-turner.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
November 6, 2023 The anonymous narrator of Elston’s ingeniously plotted adult debut (after the YA novel 10 Truths and a Dare) has long relied on charm and physical strength to complete a string of lucrative, increasingly dangerous missions from her mysterious boss. For her latest assignment, as in the past, she’s been given a fresh identity (“Evie”), a destination, and the name of her mark, about whom she’s supposed to learn everything and await further instructions. But the closer Evie gets to hunky Louisiana financial adviser Ryan Sumner—before long, she’s his full-time girlfriend—the more unusual this job seems. Things get especially bizarre when one of Ryan’s oldest friends shows up with a date who looks nearly identical to Evie and introduces herself by Evie’s actual name. Might Evie’s boss be setting her up? Is Ryan in on it? With the clock ticking, Evie and her MIT dropout/computer whiz sidekick, Devon, scramble to unravel what’s really going on. Though a few plot elements, particularly those concerning Devon’s hacking feats, strain credibility, Elston whips up plenty of suspense and delivers a satisfyingly serpentine finale. This promises more good things from Elston to come.
December 1, 2023 Evie Porter is a sweet, southern girl from a small Alabama town. At least, that's the story she tells. In reality, she's a professional con artist whose specialty is insinuating herself into people's lives, gaining their trust so she can expose their secrets. Her handler, Mr. Smith, is disappointed in her recent performance, so her new assignment needs to be completed flawlessly, and Evie makes her way into Ryan Sumner's life. But then the unthinkable happens: a young woman named Lucca Marino enters Ryan and Evie's orbit--and Lucca Marino is Evie's real name, a secret that only Mr. Smith would know. Then the fake Lucca ends up dead, and Evie becomes a suspect, a complication that could expose her if she doesn't handle everything perfectly. Everyone in Elston's fast-paced adult debut has a secret, and none of the characters are trustworthy or reliable. Evie is a delightfully morally ambiguous antiheroine whose ability to think on her feet results in a relentless array of shocking twists that lead to a satisfying ending. Fans of thrillers by Rachel Hawkins and Vera Kurian will be enthralled.
COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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