I loved this so much! The power of friendship intermixed with a page turning, thrill of a ride! Highly recommend to anyone looking for an intense read.

What a thrill ride. I couldn't put this book down. Everyone in this book has secrets, but who has the biggest secret... a deadly secret. What happens to a con who gets conned.
This was a great, easy, fun read. I highly recommend to thriller readers.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book to read and review. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own.

I love a fast pace thriller book and this was exactly that. Summer and Leo are professional thieves just trying to make their way through life. Leo goes missing after going to a private island with a billionaire and Summer sets out to find her. I really love how much Summer cares for her friend enough to literally go to the place that she went missing to look for her but I don’t think Summer expected to find what she did. I think this book shows the power of friendship and shows that you do whatever it takes to survive.

This book really takes you for a ride. I read it in one sitting and that’s exactly how I like my thriller books. There were some slow parts but all in all this book was enjoyable. I think if you’re a fan of thrillers then you should give this book a spin!

4 stars! Thanks again for the ARC.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for my honest review! And thank you to the publishers for reaching out to me and asking me to read this book. I love Wendy Heard’s books so I was so excited.

This is probably my favorite book of Wendy’s so far. I read both Dead End Girls and She’s Too Pretty To Burn last year and was super excited to see more and more of her stuff coming out this year. I wasn’t sure if this was considered adult or young adult because of the sex scenes but if this was an adult book it’s my first adult book by her! This is also so fast paced and fun I was invested in the mystery the whole time.

I loved Leo and Summer. Both two different girls with two different lives who came together to form a deep friendship. I felt so bad for both of them and their pasts. Summer is a woman whose mother abandoned her and left her to drift around on her own. She leaned to be a pickpocket and survive on her own. Leo ran away from home after the murder of her older sister destroyed her family. I can’t even imagine what either of them went through. They found each other in the roughest parts of their lives and they were able to pick each other and repair the broken pieces. Summer is like a genius thief and her character was so well done. I also felt so much for Leo. I wanted to hug them both the whole time.

I see that Wendy likes art themed murder. From She’s Too Pretty To Burn being photography and this book being about paintings. I figured out the twist at the end near the middle, but it still was awesome to see it all play out. The end was super satisfying and I’m always here for whatever Wendy has next.

Summer and Leo are thieves. Leo meets billionaire Michael and sees dollar signs. She meets up with him at a hotel then disappears. Summer gets worried when she doesn’t come back. She hears that Leo has went to a private island with Michael and sets out to look for her. When she gets to the island she gets more than she bargained for.
This was a great book full of suspense and twists. I hope to read more of this author’s books.
Thanks NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine for this ARC that will be released June 13, 2023!

4.25 stars
Loved, loved, loved
I’ve never read a book by Wendy Heard before, but if this is what she has to offer, call me a new fan. I always love different POV chapters (when done right), and this is so right! This story was very fast paced and incredibly addicting. A one day read because I couldn’t put it down.

I am a huge sucker for Wendy Heard books and this one was (as usual) nothing short of amazing! Summer and Leo are incredibly beautiful women which makes it easier for them to be grifters as they can pickpocket a man in seconds and never stay in any one place very long. So when Leo meets handsome, wealthy Michael she charms his way into his heart and wrangles an invitation to his private island for the weekend. What could go wrong? Huh? EVERYTHING! Just go with it, indulge yourself, and be prepared to be blown away by this amazing story of two con-artists who are up against the very rich and savvy men who believe they control everything! I loved it! And you can trust ME on that!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

Need a bingeable read to get finished in one sitting? This is the book for you. The story doesn’t drag at all and definitely keeps you turning page after page to see what is going to happen next. There are a few questions left unanswered which is my reason for withholding the fifth star, but the story is worth the read. Pick this up if you love: girl squad vibes, a decade long mystery, street smarts, and loyalty.

4.5 stars rounded up for uniqueness. This book was a wild ride. There has been a persistent trend for the last couple years of thrillers set on remote islands, but this felt like such a fresh take on it to me. Summer and Leo are a nomadic pair living off the grid and hustling their way through life. Their backstories are tragic in different ways, but it makes sense that they fit together. After Leo is whisked away by a billionaire to his private island and Summer can no longer reach her, the events that unfold show how vital street smarts can be to survival. There are so many twists are turns, and no one can be trusted. I still have some questions I’d like answered about a couple things, but nothing that is a vital part of the story. It all comes together to reach an exciting, satisfying conclusion.

Leo and Summer are living off the grid, pick-pocketing and conning their way up and down the California coast. Despite their differing histories, they have found comfort and stability in their friendship. For their latest venture, Leo has set her sights on billionaire, Michael Forrester. Leo goes missing after one night with Michael and Summer is worried. In an attempt to find Leo, Summer sweet talks her way onto Michael's private island.

A quick, beachy thriller perfect for the summer. I'd rate this closer to a 3.5/5. While some of the plot points felt unrealistic and I could guess the twist about 60% through, I still found myself staying up to finish it. Summer and Leo felt simultaneously like opposites and the perfect pair. I was rooting for them and their friendship!

Thank you to NetGalley, Bantam, and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the digital arc.

Review Copy

When I was offered this book to review, I read the title, YOU CAN TRUST ME, and thought "ICK, terrible title!" because, after all, nobody can be trusted, right? But, I looked past the title and read a tiny bit of the synopsis. OK. I decided to give it a shot.

Glad I did! I read it pretty much straight through.

This is for sure a vacation book. Going on a cruise? Planning a trip of any kind? This is what you want to read. It's a vacation for your brain if you're doing a staycation.

Yeah, there are a couple of what I though of as problems. But, hold on to that thought. The author addresses them at the end. The couple she didn't, or that I didn't like the way she answered weren't enough to lower my rating. It ended at at a 1/4 point off. So...well worth your time and money to read. Fun book!

I loved this book and want to be friends with Summer and Leo! What survivors these two women are and this story was like nothing I have read before. Wendy Heard has crafted a great read that makes you keep turning pages to see what happens next. I loved the changing pov in each chapter and feels it helped me connect with the characters. This arc of #youcantrustme was courtesy of #netgalley and Bantam Publishers, Review opinions are all my own.

Shut. Up. I’ve read Wendy Heard before but recall nothing like this. How does an author make a homeless lifestyle of panhandling & pickpocketing seem romantic, even desirable?? I don’t know either but Ms Heard does. And what a plot & story she has woven! I may give a book 5 stars 4-5 times a year (and I prolly read 4 dozen books per) but this book earns every single one. A wonderful, thoroughly enjoyable read!!!

You Can Trust Me is a pretty fantastic, fun read. I feel like I haven’t seen protagonists like Summer and Leo before, especially not Summer. The book opens and throws you into the story right away as we follow Summer, a consummate pick pocket, work her way through a hip LA club. Con and grifter stories are nothing new, but the way we learn the process and mechanics of it are fascinating.

I know many people live non-traditional lives or off the grid, but Summer doesn’t even know when her birthday is since she’s spent her entire life outside the system. Her best friend and traveling companion has her sights on a new mark — Michael, a wealthy tech entrepreneur. When Leo disappears with him on his company’s private island, Summer cons her way on to the island to find her friend.

Summer may not have had a traditional upbringing and education, but she’s smart and savvy with her own skill set which serves her well as she tries to find out what’s happened to Leo. I also liked that a seemingly minor character detail later becomes extremely relevant to the plot. I appreciate when the infrastructure and groundwork for a thriller has been laid so carefully you don’t see what’s coming.

Puns are easy, but, you can trust me, this is a great thriller!

I was so happy to be offered this copy automatically - it was a fun quick read that really kept me along for the ride.

Summer and Leo are women who have become like sisters. Both have unhappy pasts. Summer has no idea who she is or any thing about her family. Her mother left her alone at 15. She is a thief and master pickpocket. Leo left home after a family tragedy. Summer finds her and teaches her tricks and the two are devoted to each other. One night Leo disappears. It is up to Summer to find her.
Lots of twists. How can you disappear on an island? How can events become tangled?

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC. It should be a summer hit!

This is the story of Summer and Leo, two young women who are sisters by choice. Each one tells her past and present story in her own words. They also take care of each other. When the novel starts they have been living together for a few years. Their home is the back end of an SUV. Summer, when she was 17, was abandoned by her Mother, who had raised her completely off the grid with no birth information, no surname and no education. She learned to support her self by picking pockets. Leo, when she was a teenager, lost her older sister, a freshman in college, when she was murdered. Leo’s family quickly disintegrated and she took off. When Leo and Summer met, Leo was living on the street and Summer took her in to live in the back of the SUV. They supported themselves by picking pockets and, in Leo’s case, dating and stealing from older men who enjoy the company of 20 something young women. I will not go further into the story because of spoilers but will say it kept me up way later than I planned to read. What happens to them in the present is gripping. Thanks to Net Galley and Bantam Books for an ARC for an honest review.

Wow! I really enjoyed this thriller! Thrillers have bored me to tears lately but this one has such a unique plot. I couldn’t put it down. I loved Summer and Leo’s friendship. The back and forth POV was superbly well done. Summer was approximately a day ahead of Leo at all times and it really made for an interesting read.

Thanks to netgalley, Random House, and the author for the arc! I’ll be reading more by her for sure.

Absolutely fantastic plot! Could not put the book down once I began reading it. Cannot wait for it to be released. Will recommend it to everyone I know!

I loved this book for so many reasons. First, as other reviewers have noted, it's fast-paced from the beginning, and only gets better. I often struggle with multiple perspectives — especially when time jumps are involved — but this is an example of how it is done effectively and in a way that makes every single chapter entrancing. I love anything in the scam genre, but I was unexpectedly moved by how Summer and Leo's love for each other became the main theme. It really added an additional, and essential, layer to this story. While some of the plot lines could have used more explanation or context, overall I LOVED this book and cannot wait to read what the author does next.