EXCERPT: Sam sees it first. I'm oblivious to what's about to happen, resting against the wooden lip of the hull with my head tilted up as the sun licks my face. Coniston Water. The English Lake District. A glorious spring day, sharp as a shard of glass. We're gliding up the lake, the boat following a comfortable melody, and I'm finally beginning to relax.
I'm a city girl; sailing is an alien activity. In my former life, people who sailed inhabited a different world. I glimpsed them in foreign sun-kissed marinas as they descended from dazzling white yachts in their deck shoes, designer jeans turned up at the ankle and pastel-coloured jumpers draped across their shoulders. I was the one walking past in search of a cheap hostel, interrail card in my pocket, back sweaty from the rucksack dragging on my shoulders. When the boys first mentioned sailing I'd foolishly imagined gin and tonics in iced glasses and careless laughter over meals in restaurants too exclusive to display their prices, but this is Coniston in March, not La Rochelle in August.

ABOUT 'TRUST ME': Lizzie is 27, and she has a great relationship with her 17-year-old stepson, Sam, even though they could pass for brother and sister. When Sam becomes sullen and withdrawn, Lizzie starts to suspect that something sinister is going on at school. She thinks an older woman is grooming him, trying to turn him against his family. But nobody believes her—and then suspicion falls on Lizzie herself. Trust Me is an absorbing, suspenseful and thought-provoking thriller that asks if you can ever really trust anybody . . . including yourself.

MY THOUGHTS: Trust Me was different to what I was expecting. The start, in fact probably the first half of the book, is very slow, but there was enough promise to keep me interested and reading.

The main character, Lizzie, is a difficult person to like. She is 27 and living with Jonty who is in his fifties. She comes across as very immature, but then Jonty is also very immature. Just how immature doesn't fully come across until the second half of the story.

I think Lizzie is more than a little in love with Sam, Jonty's son. She gushes about him and is constantly touching him. She is in a strange position. She is much closer to Sam's age than Jonty's and has no formal status in the household. Is she expected to be like a stepsister to Jonty, or stepmother? Lizzie has no real idea and thus wings it, but some of her actions seemed to me borderline inappropriate bearing in mind Sam is 17 and full of raging male hormones.

But then a curveball is thrown into the mix and the easy-going atmosphere of the household disintegrates into rage, jealousy and turmoil. Zosia Wand has done a great job depicting the changing family dynamics and Sam's mercurial character.

I ended up enjoying this book far more than I expected at the outset. It got a whole lot more interesting after the 50% mark and I didn't know who to trust.

I will be looking for more books by this author.

⭐⭐⭐.8

#TrustMeZosiaWand #NetGalley

THE AUTHOR: Zosia Wand is an author and playwright whose stories are rooted in the landscape of South Cumbria. She has worked extensively in reader development, regularly hosts events in libraries and bookshops and teaches creative writing.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Head of Zeus via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of Trust Me by Zosia Wand for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Trust Me by Zosia Wand was published May 2018. My bad for taking so long to read it.

Thank you for the opportunities to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

"Lizzie lives in the Lake District with her partner, Jonty, and his teenage son, Sam. Though she's only ten years older than her stepson, their set-up works. They are a family.
Then Sam becomes sullen and withdrawn, and Lizzie suspects something sinister is going on.
But no one will believe her.
They think Lizzie is to blame.
Are they right?"

I found this book to be a fascinating, if uncomfortable read, about boundaries, lines being crossed, lies and stories being told.

The writing was intense and I was drawn into the book and questioning all the way through who to believe, and empathised with Lizzie with her dilemma and who to tell and who to trust.

Unfortunately, I found the ending a bit rushed and disappointing, I wanted a final twist in the story maybe?

I have very mixed feelings about this book. It was very well written for the most part, kept me guessing and wanting to finish, but the protagonist was incredibly frustrating. I understand to some extent being self deprecating and “oh just a plain girl” is somewhat of a personality trait but it was on and on and on the entire book, even after the big reveals and after she should have realized how people felt about her. I’m also not a big fan of the super neatly wrapped up ending because of some convenient third party that came out of nowhere.

Lizzie was happy with the life she had made in the Lake District. She was happy with her lover, Jonty. The fact that there was a large age difference never bothered her.She welcomed his two children from an earlier relationship and even though Sam was nearer her age than Jonty's she never thought about him in any other way apart from a maternal one. When Sam begins to behave inappropriately towards her she is shocked, but as time goes on she becomes concerned for his safety. But what if she is the danger?

I think the 'page-turning thriller' line is stretching it rather a lot. This was an enjoyable read & I was keen to find out what was behind Sam's behaviour. I thought Lizzie was rather naive & was using Jonty's family to compensate for her own sad childhood. However if you really want a thriller this probably isn't for you!

Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Man was this a rollercoaster ride. Lizzie is only ten years older than her partner’s son and while she’s not technically his step-mother she feels responsible for him in ways that only a mother can. However when Sam starts skipping school and become aggressive, Lizzie is determined to find out what’s going on.

Firstly, the plot is great. Again like Good Me Bad Me, I haven’t read many books with a similar story so it’s always nice to read something refreshing. I particularly loved the Lake District setting of tranquility, mixed with the turbulence of Lizzie’s home life.

I read this when it was getting a little colder in the Autumn but it has the feel of a great Summer novel.

This is one of those books where you race through going 'just one more chapter' and before you know it you've (sadly) reached the end. Loved it.

I wasn't expecting this story to evolve as it did, it takes you into the lives of a 21st century family and the 21st century problems facing them. I really enjoyed it, the story was strong right until the end and I look forward to reading more from the author.

This book had me gripped from the very start.

It's very atmospheric and you can easily imagine it being adapted for a fantastic BBC drama. The Lake District is the perfect setting.

I empathised with Lizzie, the main character, as she struggled with the difficult position she was in, being only ten years older than her partner's son, Sam, and trying to find her role in the family. I did feel at times that she should have withdrawn her involvement a bit, and she was a bit naive about how others would perceive her relationship with Sam, but she was in a difficult situation.

The tension builds beautifully, and the climax at the end is unexpected. It was a book I couldn't wait to get back to at the end of the day, to see what would unfold next.

Lizzie is only 27 and her partner Jonty is much older, 53. This shouldn't matter right?
He has a son who is 17 so that makes Lizzie much closer in age to him than his father.

She has much more in common with him too it seems, but she is technically his step mother.

Sam starts to make sexual advances towards Lizzie, then he is so sorry for doing this. I thought like Lizzie is was down to teenage hormones, however, Lizzie feels its more than this and he might be being groomed.

Some believe its Lizzie herself that is the groomer of this teenage boy.
Lizzie then starts to not trust herself, but, then she thinks she knows who is the groomer.

Its a very disturbing book at times that tackles a subject matter that is difficult to read and some want to 'turn a blind eye to' but this author has handled is well.

What I thought this book was going to be about turned me upside down, it unexpectedly got my attention fully 100% half way through more and more as I flicked through the pages.

The lake district figures a lot in this book due to the author living there, it was a lovely bonus to read parts of this.

Lizzie and Jonty, I have no idea how they got together, she is much more immature than her age even, but then Jonty wasn't a welcoming character that I felt settled to get to know either.

I really loved how this author made this young boy come across so sweet and innocent, how we get emotional for him and how this slowly takes a turn.

I really did enjoy this although I see its got hugely mixed reviews I quite liked it.

I would like to than Head of Zeus for my copy.

There have been mixed reviews about this book, but I really enjoyed it! Covering everything from family to trust, Trust Me was an exciting and suspenseful read that ramped up the tension steadily over the course of the book had me racing to finish it by the end.
Though the blurb of the book gave me the impression that the story would be about child grooming, that ended up being a twist halfway through the novel. The bulk of the novel centres on Lizzie, a twenty-seven year old woman who lives in the Lake District with her older boyfriend, Jonty, and his seventeen-year old son, Sam. When Sam starts acting strangely- skipping school, and behaving inappropriately around Lizzie- she starts to question herself, her feelings for him and whether her love for him is as innocent as she first thought it was- and as other people are starting to doubt it is.
I really admired the way in which Zosia Wand set up the family dynamics in Trust Me, especially when it came to Lizzie’s in-between situation as a woman who could conceivably be Sam or Jonty’s girlfriend. At the start of the book the situation between the three of them isn’t explained at all, leaving you to draw your own conclusions, before you then learn what Lizzie is to both of the men. Her situation as a mother figure for Sam and as an object of desire is a precarious balance to maintain, which Wand fully exploits as the tension begins to ramp up in the story and Lizzie’s new friend, Rebecca, begins to upset the balance even further.
Lizzie is an interesting character. Wand goes to great lengths to illustrate how young she is in comparison with Jonty, missing out on exotic holidays with her friends to arrange festivals in the Lake District, but although she professes to be an ‘old soul’ she does come across as rather naïve sometimes. She’s likeable- if a bit touchy-feely with Sam- and is above all believable- which helps you empthasize with her as the situation between her and the two men becomes ever more fraught and confusing. You believe she wants the right thing for both boys, and loves them both, which is really nice.
Similarly, Wand does a great job of getting you to care about Sam, and does so much good work presenting him as a sympathetic, sweet boy at the start that his spiral downwards into aggressive and threatening behaviour later on hooks you and keeps you reading- well, it did me! Though I didn’t really like Jonty, and was kind of waiting for Lizzie to break up with him the whole way through, it was Sam’s character arc that was ultimately the most interesting of all of them: mostly because I didn’t know what was happening to him.
The plot itself races along: it starts off sedately and then slowly ramps up the tension, making innocent actions take on a whole new significance and the reader become as paranoid as Lizzie. Though the ending was a tad overdramatic, it still packed a punch: at one point, you didn’t know who to believe, even the main character, which added to the atmosphere of confusion and fear and was just how I liked it.
Above all, it’s an exploration about how precarious love is, and how easily it can be warped by other people. In an age where school grooming and paedophiles are in the news all the time, Trust Me is a worrying exploration of the blame game and how important it is to trust others.

Excellent story reversing the usual theme of grooming. Totally believable characters. I loved it !

Eh, I'm having a hard time with this one. While the plot was something different than what I've read before, I didn't love it, and I wasn't a fan of how it ended, either. I suppose that the subject of grooming and teachers taking advantage of kids is something that I am not comfortable with (obviously) and I didn't enjoy reading about it.

I loved this novel. It was easy for the reader to put themselves into the situation of the main character and to feel the frustration of not being believed or understood. It also had a sensible ending rather than an overly dramatic one, which made the story plausible and realistic. Highly recommended. I will buy this for several friends for Christmas, because I want to discuss it with someone else!
Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

an enjoyable read thanks to Head of Zeus via NetGalley. Something different with likeable and very unlikable characters that draw you into their story and lives.

I honestly couldn't put this down.
An original storyline with the main theme of grooming though not the obvious older male, young girl.
Well worth a read.

This was an easyyet intense read.really made me think about how easy things and situations van be misinterpreted

At 27, Lizzie is more of a sister to her teenage stepson than a parent; they share a close and loving bond. But when Sam’s personality does a 180 and he becomes sullen and uncommunicative, she’s determined to find out why. She believes something has happened at his school, but not only does no one believe her, they believe she’s the one responsible. A scary look inside the world of step-parenting, where you have all the responsibilities and none of the rights