You Can Trust Me by Wendy Heard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m happy to say that You Can Trust Me is more than just a beautiful cover. In fact, it ends up being my favorite Wendy Heard novel to-date.
Quick and addicting, though slightly predictable, I had a ton of fun reading it. IMO, it’s a great Summer Thriller.
In this story we follow two perspectives, best friends, Summer and Leo. I call them best friends, but in truth, they’re more like sisters.
Both Summer and Leo are on their own and have been for years. They make their way through the cruel world the best ways they know how, usually by conning people, and for Summer, even some stealthy pick-pocketing.
Leo is more a long-game kind of girl, but she still gets enough dough to get by. The girls are free-spirited. Preferring the open road to being tied down in one place.
They’ve been traveling around California in Summer’s Land Cruiser and things have been good. They’re happy with and supportive of one another. In truth, they’re a great match.
Their constant hustle can get tiring though, but Leo has her eyes on a big payout, via a well known billionaire and philanthropist, Michael Forrester.
Michael seems to be taken by Leo’s charms and she receives an invite to his private island. She can hardly believe her luck. She’s about to hit the mother-load.
Then Leo disappears. When she doesn’t return back to the Land Cruiser when she should, and Summer hasn’t heard from her, Summer panics.
She needs to find her. Something must be wrong. Leo would never leave her without saying goodbye, would she?
Determined to find her friend, Summer sets out to infiltrate Michael’s island. This could be her toughest and most dangerous con yet, but Leo is worth it.
Leave no woman behind.
Going into this, I’ll be honest, from the synopsis, I wasn’t sure if it was going to be for me. However, I was very quickly wrapped up into the story. I loved learning about Leo and Summer and watching how they lived their lives.
It wasn’t a relatable lifestyle to me, by any means, but I do always love a devious long-game, so Leo was my jam. I had a lot of fun watching them plot and scheme.
I also thought the setting of Michael’s private island was quite interesting. There was something very Jeffrey Epstein about it. I enjoyed having something real life to sort of compare this to. It made it feel more realistic to me.
The way the girls could get swept away to this island and once there, they honestly could have vanished into the ether. They were just playthings for the powerful men visiting the island; mere arm candy, trotted around like little prizes.
Additionally, I enjoyed how Heard switched the perspectives back and forth. They’re also not completely synced in time through most of it, so it was interesting watching the truth of what happened to Leo unfold.
While all the present drama is unfolding, you also get to learn quite a bit about both Leo and Summer’s past; like before they met up and became friends.
I enjoyed that background information quite a bit. I think it helped to explain a lot about their lifestyle, reliance on one another, as well as some of their decision-making and motivations.
Again, this helped to make it feel more realistic to me. I could see how, considering what they had been through, they would end up in their current predicament.
Overall, I found this to be really enjoyable. Heard did a nice job with the character work and I liked the steady build-up of intensity over the course of the story. The conclusion was satisfying as well, which made it a nice, well-rounded story.
I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a quick, Summer-vibes Thriller, with devious characters and a wild plot. This would make a great weekend read.
Thank you so much to the publisher, Bantam, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I’m a little late to the party, but glad I finally made the time for this one!