Missing person mystery with the original idea of using song titles for clues! Marissa's husband Ethan left for work one day after saying to her "Tell Me You Trust Me". She didn't think much about that until he failed to come home that night and she found his car in the driveway, he never made it to work. This book had a terrific start and the author did a good job of describing the exhaustion and terror Marissa felt as she tried to take care of her toddler son and deal with her overbearing family who wanted to take over her life. Then she looked at the couple's shared Spotify list and noticed a new song added by Ethan and the song title was a clue.

The song clues were fun but she also begin finding clues in other places like inside books, random websites and emails and even in an envelope left in the library. It became to seem more like a scavenger hunt then a plea for help as it would have been. much easier to buy a burner phone and call her with the information or to leave a folder with everything in one place. There are no real twists as it becomes apparent what is going on fairly quickly. Marissa must summon up all her courage to go against her sexist father and mother who don't want to let her handle things on her own. Marissa seemed like a smart woman and I wondered why she would ever buy into their ideas that women can't be smart or deal with business. There was a fair amount of repetition such as someone digging their nails into her arms which was mentioned five or six times. Overall a fun read! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC for review.

It was okay but a bit too much like all the other books of its genre. It's starting to be hard to tell them apart, and then I feel like I don't know which book is which.

I enjoyed this! This is one of the most unique thrillers I've ever read! It is fast paced and very entertaining. The ending was satisfying. This was an entertaining mystery that I would recommend! Special Thank You to Elle Owens,Thomas & Mercer and NetGalley for allowing me to read a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Domestic thrillers more often than not end up being disappointing for me. However there was something about the synopsis of this particular book that made me want to pick it up and it certainly gets going from the word go. I was so invested in the story from the very beginning and I loved the character arc of Marissa. From being someone who is constantly gaslit by her extremely conservative and sexist parents and not saying anything in her defence to finally standing up for herself and trying to figure out on her own what has happened with her husband, it was a journey worth reading about. I really want to say a lot of things about this book but most of them would be at least mild spoilers. So I am not going to do that but I do have to say that there are elements in this book that were innovative and worked well. I was scared about the ending because it could have gone in 3 directions and I was dreading it going in at least one of them. But the ending that we got was satisfactory and I am kind of ok with that.
There were a few things that weren't explained well and I wish we had answers to those as well. But other than that it was good and I definitely recommend this one if you like domestic thrillers.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a review copy.

Who do you trust when you've been told to trust no one?! When you're worried, confused & all you want is answers! Your husband who told you to trust him as he leaves the house then disappears without a trace? Your family? The evidence right in front of you or the detectives investigating a missing persons case? This one takes you to the edge & back giving you little breadcrumbs to devour as well as fun little clues to decipher with the FMC.

The premise was a new one for me...to communicate through Spotify playlists by song titles! That was the most interesting concept & such an innovative approach to a storyline I've ever read. If it's been done before, I haven't read a story using it before so it was a first for me. What was even more fun was that they were all real song titles & artists so that was even more fun recognizing all of the different songs & wondering which ones would come next.

There were so many twists & turns that you didn't know who to believe or how it was going to turn out & those are always my absolute favorite. I thoroughly enjoyed this suspenseful thrill ride & will be anxiously awaiting more from this debut author! Bravo!!

HONEST ARC REVIEW!

I wanted to like this more but I mostly found it frustrating. The writing felt amateur and the storytelling was chaotic. The concept was unique—husband disappears and only communicates with the wife through adding music to their Spotify playlists. However, you really had to suspend your sense of reality to go along with the story. Every clue was unnecessarily complicated and confusing. For a majority of the book I had no idea where the story was going, but I liked how it wrapped up in the end.

I enjoyed the premise of this book, but I feel that we went from 0 to 60 with the husband going missing and the family very obviously lying and being suspicious to our female main character. I really enjoy where we ended up, but the pacing was off.

📚: Tell Me You Trust Me by Elle Owens
⭐️: 4/5

Imagine this: you’re getting ready for the day ahead. Your husband says, “tell me you trust me,” as he walks out the door to work.

…And then he doesn’t come home.

This is such 👏🏼 a 👏🏼 great 👏🏼 debut 👏🏼 thriller 👏🏼 novel. Seriously - it hooked me from the first page and is so inventive with the use of song titles as code. Looking forward to reading more from Elle Owens in the future!

Big thanks to Thomas & Mercer via @netgalley for the digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. Tell Me You Trust Me is out now!

Tell Me You Trust Me has all the elements I love in a great story: it’s packed with mystery, plenty of deception, lives led in secret, innocent folks getting caught in the crossfire, and a character who’s always been underestimated. Good triumphs over evil. The pacing is quick, the writing is solid, and I’m thrilled to have found a new author to follow. Can’t wait to dive into more of her work! Big thanks to Elle Owens, the publishers, and NetGalley for this ARC.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #Thomas&Mercer for the book #TellMeYouTrustMe by #ElleOwens. This book is full of lies, secrets and spotify playlist that ties it all together. Marissas husband, Ethan, left this morning with only these words, "Tell me you trust me". Now he is missing and Marissas world is turned upside down. While her family is there to help, they seem strange and very over protective to the point that she doesn't tell them that she is communicating with Ethan over their spotify playlist. Can she find out why Ethan disappeared and why her family is suddenly against him?

Wow, wow wow, what a very interesting concept, this book started with a bang and just took of, it did start to sputter a little at the 75% mark but i would still recommend this!

A woman's husband goes missing with his last words being "Trust me". When her family gets involved in finding him, she begins to see another side of her parents that bares its ugly head. Who to trust becomes the question, as she races to put together a complex web of lies, gaslighting, deceit and finally murder and when it comes to the end, who will she trust? The parents that have raised her or the man she now knows she has no idea who he is in the first place!

solid 4 stars!!!
Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for this ARC. Beyond grateful and humbled

"TELL ME YOU TRUST ME" out Feb 11th 2025

P.S; The song angle in the book was such a genius idea! loved it!!

Tell Me You Trust Me by Elle Owens was a really quick read. Riveting and engaging, with lots of twists and turns that kept me turning page after page!
An engaging debut thriller.

If I am being completely honest I was a little back and forth on loving the book at the beginning. It really started to grow on me. Marissa is the definition of an unreliable character. She doesn't even believe in herself. So when Ethan leaves one morning for work and leaves her with a just a sentence, her world falls apart.

The way Owens works music into the storyline was really kind of clever and it made my love for music have a chance to intertwine with my love for books. I was always excited to see how they would use each song. I hope the police would do a better job if that were real life but considering this was fiction it made the story more fun.

About halfway through I was totally invested and was there for the twists. I loved seeing Marissa grow and become a strong FMC.

꧁𝓠𝓾𝓸𝓽𝓮𝓼꧂

🥺𝕀 𝕕𝕚𝕕𝕟’𝕥 𝕜𝕟𝕠𝕨 𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕨𝕒𝕤 𝕥𝕣𝕦𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕨𝕒𝕤𝕟’𝕥, 𝕓𝕦𝕥 𝕀 𝕔𝕠𝕦𝕝𝕕𝕟’𝕥 𝕥𝕣𝕦𝕤𝕥 𝕒𝕟𝕪𝕠𝕟𝕖 𝕓𝕖𝕤𝕚𝕕𝕖𝕤 𝕞𝕪𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕗. 𝕎𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕒 𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕚𝕗𝕪𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕥𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥.

🧭 Ethan told me to trust my gut. Problem was, she was a hot-ass mess without direction.

🗒️ 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘯, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘤𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘮𝘺𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘧 𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘳𝘦. 𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘢 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘦. 𝘔𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨.

I enjoyed the unique concept of a married couple using a music playlist to communicate in code. I had a sense of what might be happening, but I liked the journey to getting there. Marissa was a great character, and I liked how the secondary cast presented a bunch of obstacles in her path to the truth. The mystery of what her husband did for work alongside her father was intriguing and it was fun witnessing Marissa unravel the secrets. I think fans of suspense and psychological thrillers will enjoy this one.

3.5 stars rounded to 4

Elle’s debut thriller was an exciting twist on suspense. She made it original with the plot and bringing the clues through a Spotify playlist. Thought I guessed what would happen next and was pleasantly surprised when I was wrong.

Thank you, Thomas & Mercer, and NetGalley for letting me review this book.

I noticed there are mixed reviews about this book, but for myself, I LOVED it. This is the type of thriller that I love to read. It had shock factor, suspense, mystery, and so much thrill! I truly couldn’t put it down. I had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next.

Ethan asks Marissa to tell him she trusts him, She does, and then...he is gone. I loved how Marissa (Ethan’s wife) was able to solve the clues and codes that Ethan kept sending her, and Marissa was able to then communicate back to her husband.

I could read an extra 297 more pages of this book! It was just brilliant! Elle Owens is a phenomenal and an absolute genius, which she was then able to create this baby, Tell Me You Trust Me, I highly recommend this book, 100%, if you enjoy thrillers!

I don’t know what made me hold off on starting this book for so long, but I wish I had read it sooner! This book was so entertaining. I enjoyed the back and forth via playlists, the family drama and not knowing who you can trust. I hope this book receives the hype it deserves when it releases!

Should have been a quick read, but #life. Definitely not a unique plot - husband disappears with secrets - but their way of communicating through song playlists was smart. I didn't really like Marissa and honestly found her sort of dumb at times. The clues didn't really make sense, yet she was able to figure them out? But then wasn't sure if she should trust her family or not when clearly she shouldn't trust her family. And lots of loose ends not tied up. Overall though, it was entertaining enough.

Review live now on GoodReads and TheStoryGraphy

Thank you Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing me with this eArc in exchange for my honest review.

Tell Me You Trust Me centers on Marissa Creighton, whose husband, Ethan, mysteriously disappears after his parting words: "Tell me you trust me." Left alone with their young son, Logan, Marissa is consumed by fear and uncertainty. Seeking solace in their shared music playlist, she discovers a new song titled "Trust Me," which she interprets as a message from Ethan. Through coded song titles, the couple begins to communicate, yet Ethan's reasons for vanishing remain a mystery to Marissa.

A fast-paced debut novel that makes you question everyone! I truly enjoyed the playlists, and I was curious to find out who was being deceitful at the end of it all.
Unfortunately, at some point, I started feeling like things were getting a bit repetitive and the ending felt a bit flat.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed this read and will me looking out for this author's work.

This book definitely had me questioning who to trust, the pace and suspense were so well done that they had me hooked until the end.