This is more of 3.5 stars.

Archaelogy and ancient myths? Sign me up! Teenage Memphis (named after the Egyptian city, not the American one) has to go on a frantic chase all around the world to find the pieces os a statue representing the Egyptian god Set, with the help of mysterious Brit Ash.
The story and overall plot is good and solid, it would have benefited from more character development and more descriptions of the locations: I got the feeling that the MCs could have been more nuanced and their motives better explained. Especially Memphis: to the attention of a somewhat distracted reader she comes through as elitist and "not like other girls".
I don't know if there will be a sequel, but the story would have been better as a duology.

This felt like Indiana Jones, National Treasure and the Da Vinci code rolled into one. Not a bad thing but I think many readers will find this to be a familiar story. It doesn't help that the book becomes repetitive which made the story lack the polish that you need in this type of story! I liked the characters and the plot but I thought this could have been executed better with a tighter plot. Overall, it was a fine read that kept my attention and that I enjoyed but wouldn't reread or recommend highly. There are better versions of this story out there but this will do in a pinch! 2.5 stars

Interesting book about a teenager travelling the world deciphering glyphs to find pieces of an ancient statue to free her father from a group holding him captive.

M is a fascinating character: in fact a modern Indiana Jones but female! With fabulous archaeology and treasure maps and codes. And the coolest back story around...the book will make you fall hard for a new mystery.

I cannot rate it any higher than a 3 though though, as it reminded me of the Davinci Code a little too much.

For some reason the entire time i read this I kept thinking "The Da Vinci Code"
So much mystery and mythology and traveling around. Which is always enjoyable.
It was so hard for me to embrace the lead's name, though!!! It's literally "M' which I couldn't accept. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing because the name almost gave her a sophisticated Indiana Jones vibe c:

A female Indiana Jones with a knack for languages, lost cultures and self-defense goes on a round-the-world search for relics to save the world from an ancient Egyptian sect and curse!

This was a fun, illuminating read that covers archaeology, religion, and history while taking readers on a wild ride to far flung cities. At the heart of the story is 18-year-old Memphis or "M" who is taken in by a well-meaning couple after her father dies. She later learns he could be alive and the key to his survival turns out to be a map with clues to finding lost relics.

Enter one Ashwin or "Ash" Sood who happens to have magical abilities courtesy of an ancient god named Horus. Together, M and Ash must solve the many clues hidden in glyphs at various ancient sites.

After the first two exciting discoveries -- a scene with a crocodile was pretty gnarly -- the rest of the discoveries were not. I enjoyed the history lesson and learning about these ancient cultures, but the romance between Ash and M which was meant to rack up the tension on their mutual trust issues, left me flat. I could understand how Ash admired M, and she found him equally interesting because of his sad backstory, but it goes nowhere.

I give this book 3.5 stars because the amount of research by the author was noteworthy! Thanks to #NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC!

(2.75 stars)

i feel like i probably should have liked this more than i actually did. the two main characters were both mixed-race, which was great because i love seeing fellow mixed-race people in books; the book centered around ancient egypt, archaeology and trying to save the world from a mad cult of the egyptian god set. sounds awesome, right?

it should have been super awesome. instead, it was good, but only in an average way.

you would have thought that venturing to various countries in search of pieces of the statue would be exciting. but really, it got strangely monotonous; there was no real description or feel of the countries they were in, so what should have been a vibrant portrait of places just ended up being "they went to a cave thing and found a piece of a statue and then they went to a slightly different cave thing on the other side of the world and found another piece".

there were also not really any good twists. honestly, there were pretty much only two, and one of them was very inconsequential and more of a "oh lmao wasn't expecting that how fun" rather than a major plot point.

i do not trust you falls into the timeless fantasy/thriller trap of an exceedingly obvious, black-and-white antagonist. there aren't any particular surprises with regards to the cult of set, who are pretty much depicted as entirely evil, against the "good" eye of horus. that being said, the eye is presented as being somewhat flawed rather than the archetypal Good Guys, which is something, but the cult of set remained the archetypal Bad Guys.

the fantasy aspect tries to be a bit of a twist, but it isn't because the blurb hints towards it and there are heavy-handed clues until it's revealed for certain. again, there was room for a lot more Surprising Aspects here, but the authors appear to have gone down the path of least resistance and made it rather straight-forward.

i was expecting a romance between the two characters because, well, YA. and the most irritating part was that we got an inbetween-thing. it's mentioned that they're attracted to each other, but it never really goes anywhere, making me wonder why on earth it was necessary to have them attracted to each other in the first place if you aren't going to do anything with that. of course, they could get together in the sequel, as there is a strong hint of further hijinks - but with the vibe of, "this is a standalone for now, but if we think of something else we might write another book".

this review seems pretty negative, but i did enjoy this book. it was fun, with writing that didn't dazzle but that was functional and kept the plot moving along at a fast pace, which is the reason why i don't quite have the heart to give it 2 stars even if i feel like it was veering dangerously close to that rating.

overall, i don't really think i would recommend it. there are better thrillers out there and better books about egyptian mythology to bother reading something quite unremarkable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
This had very VERY faint remindings of National Treasure, Indiana Jones, all wrapped up. The two leads travel the globe to solve a puzzle to save one of their fathers.
My first thought:
What they heck do these characters(specifically Ash) do for a living that they can afford to go from location to location and all the decoy stuff?
Second thought
why cant this just be from one point of view?
Still a decent read.

Memphis and Ashwin traveled the world trying to solve a complex puzzle and save her father. This book was not my cup of tea. It felt choppy to me and while I enjoy books from dual perspectives in this case I wish it was told from just one characters POV. If you are a fan of history and mythology this book may be a good fit for you.

thank you to net galley for an advance reader copy of This novel. This was novel was like a young female Indiana Jones--- archeology mysteries to be unlocked. I enjoyed the strong female character in this novel as well as the different locations depicted. I would recommend this novel to other readers.

A young adult ‘DaVinci Code’ with Egyptian based mythology holds center stage in this adventure novel, but it couldn’t keep my attention.

“I Do Not Trust You” follows Memphis, M for short, as she struggles to come to terms with her fathers untimely death only to be told by a stranger named Ash that he’s actually being held prisoner by a cult desperate to bring pieces of an old god back together and end the world as we know it. As unlikely allies they set off across the world to find the missing pieces and keep them from the enemy but with time running out and the collection putting itself together on its own the two must decide what they are willing to put their faith in to save the day, the gods or each other.

I know this is a stupid thing to comment on in a review but I couldn’t enjoy the jumping from location to location because the entire time I kept wanting to know how they were paying for all of this. We are told it’s Ash but my god (no pun intended) what could he and those he was closest to do for a living that they can afford all of those trips and decoy plane tickets?

Outside of that my biggest critique of this novel was the repetition. I know this was a hunt but it seemed like they hit the same three beats with every new piece they went to find making the entire adventure rather dull. The magic element also threw me out of this it’s so grounded in faith and the threads of connection shared between all religions making them more alike than most people like to believe but then you throw in something outside the realm of that prior to the reveal at the end seemed like a greater contradiction than a foreshadow.

I really hoped to enjoy this novel as I like all things that deal with mythology and their historical counterparts but sadly this didn’t work for me at all and I have serious questions behind the title of this book as it is such a small obstacle in the overall novel it seems like a weird choice.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review!**