I was really intrigued by the premise but, unfortunately, I did not make it further than 20% of the book. This has various reasons.
For once, the plot and the writing appear equally messy; they read like a first draft. I appreciate an action-packed plot but it feels like running parkour, for example the first two chapters are hopping from event to event without any lingering effect. Quantity does not equal quality and I would have wished for less events and more time to let them sink in instead. The writing itself does not help much. Almost exclusively short sentences are used which only makes the events feel more disconnected.
Additionally, there is not much internal insight; I have no idea who Tori actually is. The plot acts as an enabler for decisions but there are no internal debates between events to reflect on what happened. The other characters are almost exaggeratedly stereotypical. I have no other words to describe this feeling but that they remind me of old One Direction fan fictions.
Therefore, I rate this book with 1 out of 5 stars.
Thank you Running Wild Press for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley.
All opinions are my own.

I am really sorry and I hate giving bad reviews but I just could not continue with this book. The writing, the words is not my style and it hurt to read. Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC.

DNF at 5%.

Im not one to generally DNF before 15% into a book. However, what i read of this was hard to get through. I am generally a fan of YA books, and often look for some to bring into my classroom. This one however felt extremely juvinile, and it was hard to read because of that. While the content feels upper YA, the writing felt very middle grade.

I might come back to this another time, but right now it is not something that I will continue.

This one was okay! I do think the prose needed a bit of work, as it did feel a little simple at times, sometimes downright telling me what was going on instead of showing, and there was a lot of exposition that I feel like could've been seeded better throughout the story. The beginning did have me gripped though, throwing me straight into the action, and I did love the Greek mythology aspects. Definitely can see this appealing to a lot of Percy Jackson fans!

I liked this book a lot. There were a few twists throughout that I couldn’t have predicted that kept my interest in the story. I also liked how complex some of the characters morals were. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this arc.

2.5

I had to physically force myself to finish this book so many times. The premise was soooo fun but the execution was a bit lackluster; the writing felt a bit clanky to me, and it kept pulling me out of the story.

I found this book to be an enjoyable read. The story kept me engaged from start to finish and had some moments that really stood out. Overall, it offered an entertaining reading experience.

We first meet Tori at her software engineer job where everything seems normal until her boss is murdered in front of her.
Tori meets Vince, a part time monster hunter, after he saves her. They set off on an epic quest and come across villains inspired by Greek Mythology that threaten all of the human race.

This book had a lot of elements I enjoy in a good story. There was plenty of mystery, some morally grey characters and a lot of tension. This book was also a rollercoaster of events, and it kept me guessing up until the very end.

Thank you to Netgalley for the E-Arc, Rize and Running Wild press!

3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 on Goodreads

DNF'd at 21%, sadly. I've never not finished an ARC on Netgalley, in 9 years and well over 200 books, but I just could not keep going. I wanted to like it - a human bored with life, saved by a monster hunt and entangled in the mythological world, sounds great! But the execution is just... not good.

The writing is really awkward. It was full of lots of short sentences with no rhythm or flow, and incorrect sentence structure. For example: "Once it became clear she'd run out of questions. The others moved on without her." I am not a writer myself and don't claim to write my reviews with perfect structure and grammar, but there were so many instances of confusing writing that felt awkward to read.

The writing style and structure was what made it hardest to read and ultimately made me DNF, but I could not connect with the characters either. The characterisation seemed so random and inconsistent. Why was Tori so weak willed in the office and around her boss, but then suddenly confident, assertive and willing to jump in the car of a strange man after she's just witnessed a murder? I had whiplash trying to figure out who Tori was! The main male characters of Brooks, Vince and Roy I honestly couldn't tell you anything about. They are all the same; hot and incredible and I did not care for them whatsoever.

Overall, I can't recommend this book. It was not an enjoyable read and I was left with so many questions. They weren't the fun kind that keeps you wanting to read on to find out more, just the kind that comes from confusion.

La ingeniera de software Tori Jaecar lo ha logrado. Al menos, eso es lo que se dice a sí misma. Sus compañeros de trabajo apestan, odia la vida en la gran ciudad y está hambrienta de sentido en la vida desde la muerte de su hermano, pero ¿a quién le importa? La felicidad es un pequeño precio a pagar por el éxito. Cuando el jefe de Tori es asesinado frente a ella, es salvada por el cazador de monstruos a tiempo parcial, el chico malo a tiempo completo Vince Lenoir, y sus destinos se entrelazan. En su búsqueda del asesino, se embarcan en una odisea de proporciones épicas, literalmente. Villanos legendarios de la mitología griega se han mudado a América. Amenazan con enviar a la humanidad de vuelta a la era clásica. Para detenerlos, Tori y Vince deben responder a tres preguntas: ¿quiénes son, quiénes quieren ser y quién está en el corazón de todo?



Al principio la premisa me pareció interesante y la verdad es que lo disfruté mucho hasta la primera mitad, después como que fue decayendo.


Gracias NetGalley por el ARC.

The First Liar had all the elements of a story I should’ve loved—secrets, morally gray characters, and an atmosphere thick with tension. But unfortunately, it just didn’t work for me. The concept had potential, but the execution fell flat. The writing style felt a bit clunky, and I struggled to connect with either the characters or the plot.

I kept waiting for that moment when everything would click, but it never quite came. The pacing felt uneven, and the worldbuilding and emotional depth didn’t feel fully developed. I wanted to be gripped by the twists and betrayals, but instead I felt mostly detached.

That said, I can see how others might enjoy the mind games and mysterious tone—it just wasn’t my cup of tea.

I cannot stress how much I wanted to love this book. I wanted the fictional Tori to be this amazing woman, but I just kept questioning her choices. Some of the characters' movements felt lost or unremembered. It was an okay read, just wanted more really. I'm not sure more of what, but some of the story did not feel fully flushed out.

DNF'd at 8% unfortunately.

If one can see my highlights on this book it would primarily be me asking "what the heck is going on?" or pointing out how contradicting everyone is already considering that I'm only at the start of the book.

FMC literally has no sense of survival, and the men... it made me feel like I was going through the start of Twilight in a way--with Bella meeting Carlisle and the others? Yeah, that.

Like I mentioned earlier, this is purely my take on this book, and trust me, I TRIED to pick it back up every time I put it down, and love it, but I thought to myself if I would be able to sit through having a FMC like this, and unfortunately, the answer was no.

I will give it 2 stars as I loved how free-flowing the author's writing style is, which is always a win for me.

While the premise was definitely intriguing, the story itself was often confusing and left me with more questions than answers. I wasn’t sure how everything started, why certain characters were involved, or why these “monsters” were so willing to follow Zeus. Were there others not working for him? And where were the other gods—why didn’t they intervene?

The dream sequences, flashbacks, or alternate world (it wasn’t clear which) were particularly hard to follow, especially since they seemed to bleed into reality but only for specific characters. The pacing also felt uneven—several days would pass in just a few pages, with not much happening besides one character recovering. It took a while to realize the setting was a post-apocalyptic America, which only seemed to matter in Atlanta and NYC. On top of that, the frequent repetition of certain words and the constant use of characters' full names became distracting.

There’s a lot of potential in the concept, but the execution felt a bit flawed to me.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley and I appreciate the time and effort put in to it.

I had to DNF at 36%. I really tried to push through but I struggled with the action scenes and the characters.

I don’t understand how Tori went from being a bit of a pushover to chasing a murderer within 10 pages, and then jumping in a car with a stranger and demanding to go with him. Arguably this may have been the adrenaline, but then she’s suddenly learning how to become a monster hunter and really ingrained in these three men’s schemes, with minimal knowledge and zero experience about what she’s up against. I can’t quite figure out Vince’s character, I thought he was mid 20s but then he acts like a teenager when he doesn’t get his own way.

I’m sure other people will love this, and I love the idea behind it, I just wish there had been more character development and world building before jumping straight into the story.

Cool concept (kinda like adult Percy Jackson) but I just found it pretty hard to follow. Not my cup of tea but that of course doesn’t mean it won’t be others!

I hate DNFing ARCs that I get for review but I suffered through the 10% of the book I managed to read.

Every single person in this story it’s absolutely gorgeous, flawless and physically attractive while the action scene was so confusing that I had to read it twice to understand what was actually happening. The FMC that was shown as indecisive and a pushover in the first pages out of nowhere decides to banter and hop in a car with an unknown man less than ten pages afterwards.

But the worst part - and this is where I realize someone made their research for a book or not - there was a guy stitching a dog bite on her arm (which we don’t because it’s an infectious wound), with no anesthetics (at least there wasn’t a description of one) and “His touch was so gentle that she barely felt the pinch of his needle. He’d done this before.”, she thought.

Girl, a needle through your skin hurts like hell, no matter how many times that boy did that before.

Unfortunately this reads like a bad harem fanfiction and I’m definitely not up for it.

I tried to read this but I had to DNF after 5 chapters cause I couldn’t get into this book. It does have a good plot but there’s something that I did not like

In *the first liar*, software engineer Tori Jaecar’s life takes a dramatic turn when she witnesses her boss’s murder and is saved by Vince Lenoir, a part-time monster hunter. Together, they embark on an epic quest to stop legendary Greek villains now threatening humanity’s future. As they face danger, Tori and Vince must confront their own identities and destinies to save the world—and each other. A thrilling blend of mythology, adventure, and self-discovery.

This book didn’t capture my interest, though I was really excited based on the description.
The book does have good elements of Greek mythology but the character development was poor and didn’t really provide a clear reason why the main character went to fight monsters.
The book had a good idea but execution could of been improved.