The action genre is still strong and kicking, thank you Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz!

~Thank you so much to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review. I consumed this book! haha~

I Do Not Trust You was released on September 11th, 2018 and was desperately needed for readers. Bias may occur, as I love all things mythology focused. #sorrynotsorry

Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz's new novel follows the story of M. M is short for Memphis and no, not like the town in Tennessee, but the ancient city in Egypt. Memphis is the daughter of an archeologist and when a man shows up saying her father isn't dead but kidnapped. Things start to get interesting!

Let the hunt begin!!



So I 100% first checked out this book thinking, based on the title, that it would be some sort of YA thriller. Imagine my surprise when it was a YA action fantasy! Not only that, but a book dealing with mythology of ALL KINDS. Egyptian mythology to the catacomb of Paris to even Norse history. All of it interesting....well, to me at least.

So let's discuss plot first. Was it blow my socks of amazing? I wouldn't say that, but it was definitely different. The plot for I Do Not Trust You was something that's not seen often and it takes a lot of knowledge and incorporates it into an action read. I love almost anything to do with mythology though, so I enjoyed the history part of the book as well as the 'hunt for secrets' part.

Character development was a little blasé in my opinion. Not too much growth but I think for the premise of the book that was okay. This wasn't an internal character growth type book. It's very much an action/heist/adventure book. It deals with the current personalities as they are and gives you a snapshot of them in a specific situation. M's character is a solid lead, Ashwin is a good secondary, and Mike is all the feels. I need a Mike. I may also need an Ash.... just saying.

Dialogue.....okay this one irked me occasionally. Where as M was super awesome and a great, she did occasionally just argue to be a huge pain. I get that emotions get in the way, but for such a logical book, it irked. hahaha

The storyline was fantastic although some parts were a bit predictable. I think most people will see where the plot goes but nevertheless will enjoy the journey. For books like these, with history and adventure, the journey is what it's all about.

Overall, this was a great stand alone book! I enjoyed every moment of it and read it in two days. (Extremely quickly). If you're looking for something fast paced and well rounded. Give it ago!

Overall Rating: 4 Stars
Plot: 4.5 Stars
Character Development: 3 Stars
Dialogue: 3 Stars
Writing: 3 Stars
I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys YA or YA fantasy. It was extremely fun and I slightly wish I had taken it on my flight to read. Oh well~ next time.

~Happy Reading!
Ash

As I've been trying to broaden my typical genre choices in books, I was super excited when offered a copy of this book. YA Adventure is not my first choice... probably not even my third choice for a book genre. While fast-paced and exciting, it wasn't quite as "edge of your seat" as I was expecting and again, not my typical choice in book. I really enjoyed the story line.

Summary: Memphis “M” Engel is mourning the loss of her beloved father the famed archeologist who died last year in a plane crash.  M’s whole life changes when Ash appears one evening and tells her her father is still alive but being held prisoner by an ancient religious sect searching for artifacts that only Professor Engel will be able to find.  Now, M and Ash must travel the world solving puzzles to find lost artifacts that will lead to her father’s salvation.

Review: I really tried to like this book but it just never quite worked for me.  M and Ash should have been an adorably flirty couple but instead they just kind of interacted until there suddenly and magically they had a great connection.  Their entire relationship just felt a little too convenient.  Literally, it was like one moment they didn’t really trust each other than the next they were greatly devoted to each other.  It just didn’t quite feel genuine.  Plus, the actually driving plot of the book felt a little silly.  The ideas of mysteries based on ancient religions and myths sounds like a great story line however the way the pieces fit together felt very superficial.  It was impossible to be drawn into a great adventure when the adventure wasn’t developed enough to capture my interest.  The whole book came together and felt like a long synopsis for an epic story not the actual story.  The plot, the characters and their relationships basically just skimming the surface and, unfortunately, never moved to the complicated workings underneath leaving the reader with a book that does have a very interesting premise however never lived up to its potential.

I was drawn to this book as it felt that I was going to go on a great and mysterious adventure. The idea of Egyptian mythology intrigued me. I’ll be honest I don’t know that much about it but I was eager enough to dive into the book.

The story opens with our main protagonist Memphis or M for short. She is strong-willed, smart and badass. M has spent most of her life travelling with her father to all sorts of different places in the world exploring and learning about the history of the world.

M then meets the handsome Ashwin/Ash, who needs her help. But more importantly, knows where to find her father. But in return for his help finding him, she must do something for him – a big favour.

And so begins the wild adventure.

Throughout the story, we travel with M and Ash to many different amazing and exciting places to decipher and obtain the important artefacts of Set – and to prevent the world from being destroyed. Which is all very exciting!

Unfortunately, the book was slightly too fast-paced for me. Understandably, both Ash and M are on a short timescale – time is not of the essence. The story moves from location to location so quickly that at times I found myself slightly lost. However, I did love the many different locations that our characters were able to explore, as well as seeing how Ash and M interacted with one another.

I assumed from the start that there may be a developing romance between the two. Thankfully it wasn’t a central theme and if anything was going to happen perhaps we would see something in a sequel – which I would quite like.

I would have liked the book to be a tad shorter as it was a tad too long for my liking. The way that the two authors worked together to make the two character’s chapters flow was fantastic and I cannot fault the writing.

I would recommend this book to fans of The Mummy or Sherlock (as M really reminded me of him!)

Reading I Do Not Trust You was like reading an updated Indiana Jones style adventure. Archaeology and spirituality collide in the unlikely team of M and Ash. I loved the way they drew out the best parts of each other, and the way their relationship developed felt so organic to me. It had all these fits and starts and super funny moments but also super awkward moments. All the stuff a deep friendship is built from.

In addition, the tension between the two of them has a slow, steady burn. I loved that the story didn’t go down the impulsive-crazy-sex path, because so often those scenes feel really artificial and unnecessary. Instead, I felt like they had this natural attraction that grew out of their shared experiences, and I desperately wanted them to have that “I have to know if you like me” conversation to get things out in the open.

It reminded me a little bit of Protector by Jennifer Tubbiolo, which is also about hunting down ancient artifacts. I liked it a lot. Content information below.

2 stars

Overall, this wasn't too bad in the sense that at least the concept was pretty unique, but I also feel like there were a lot of small issues that accumulated into making this a more negative experience for me.

First off, the marketing was off. I feel like if it wasn't marketed as "YA Thriller" and more as "YA Adventure," I would have been more prepared for this book. Because it's not really a thriller as much as it is a global scavenger hunt contemporary-with-mythology-themes adventure.

And this is cool, and would have found the perfect audience if it was pitched to readers as The Red Pyramid meets 39 Clues, but for young adult readers, but instead it landed in the hands of thriller & mystery readers, which didn't really fit the audience.

Nonetheless, I don't mind reading adventure stories, and could adapt to this.

I definitely enjoyed the scavenger hunt part of it because I love a good global scavenger hunt as much as the next gal. I think the locations they picked were all really cool and that Burns and Metz didn't just throw darts at a globe.

Although, specifically with regards to the scenes at Borobudur (I'm Indonesian and this is the only area I feel comfortable critiquing), I feel like it didn't really capture the atmosphere of the temple quite right. (Also, they ate Indonesian snack food as an entire meal and I'm just ??? They thought they were so cool and cultured and I'm over here waving 10 different meal suggestions of what to eat rather than a SNACK FOR DINNER that they didn't know was a snack.)

So, the cultural representation was a bit questionable. Nothing completely heinous happened to the Indonesian culture, specifically, but some of it felt like they took the Google Search result and copied and pasted it as an explanation for a meaningful cultural element.

Take this as you will, as I'm not able to comment on the other cultural elements besides the part I'm familiar with.

Besides that, Ash and M were both cool characters, I just was not very invested in them at all. I liked how there were stakes for M's character, but between the two, the chemistry was inexistent and there wasn't really a lot of depth to either--more backstory than depth.

I thought the way the magic worked (because there's a little mythology magic in here) was definitely cool and that was probably my favorite part of this novel, as I greatly enjoyed the way sacred spaces worked and the final explanations (no spoilers, though!!!).

The magic was the best part, but the rest of the book just felt a little bit...out there.

Like, M and her father being the only people able to translate? That seems a little wild and out there. And just other elements seemed a little out of place and could have used more cohesion in putting it together. The whole book could have used a little cohesion, honestly.

Overall, this was an interesting concept that could have used more polishing in the execution and better, more specific marketing. I'd recommend if you're super into mythology and global scavenger hunts, but this probably isn't at the top of your TBR.

A fresh YA plotline - adventure and global intrigue with only a tiny hint of romance. My biggest gripe is the heroine's name - M. M is a letter, not a name! Other than that, although a bit fantastical, I very much enjoyed the mystery and adventure around the world.

This really looks like a thriller-y book, but I can tell you it's not.

Seriously though, the title and the cover both scream THRILLER or MYSTERY or ACTION or something along those lines at me... but instead it kind of turned into an international archaeology hunt with some ancient gods thrown in there just because.

So in case you're wondering, THIS IS ABOUT MYTHOLOGY AND NOT A SUSPENSE NOVEL. @me who never reads blurbs and is constantly presuming books are in a different genre...

But moving on from that, I didn't mind the concept of the book, but it was not my favourite read. The main characters were both bland...

Memphis (shortened to M, which really frustrated me for no particular reason) was the very definition of special snowflake syndrome.

And Ashwin just seemed like such a random combination of traits that I couldn't picture him as a real person... I'm pretty sure he had a new personality every second page and he just wasn't working for me as a character.

However, for the most part I was entertained, even if the concept did feel a bit repetitive and I didn't like the characters.

The plot was completely predictable, with approximately 0 plot twists, but I personally didn't mind that element of the novel.

Whilst I haven't said a whole lot of positive things in this review, I did like it and it was not an unenjoyable read.

I enjoyed this read quite a bit. It was a really fast paced book with a lot of adventure and intrigue. The story is told in alternating view points, which isn’t really my favorite. I always get more attached to one character and then get annoyed when I have to read the other point of view. This was fairly well done though so it wasn’t too bad. I loved the history and mythology that was mixed into the story and the unique settings around the world were also a plus though I felt that they could have been a little more in depth. I really loved the diverse characters and how fast the book was paced. I flew threw it because it had a great flow and held my interest. Overall I give the book 3.5 stars and would recommend it if fast past adventure mysteries are something you like!

I received this book after submitting a previous review I had written of another book from these two authors, Sanctuary Bay. If there’s one thing that stuck with me, it’s that I never knew what to trust when it came to their first story, and so when I saw that the title of their new book was “I Do Not Trust You”, I got immediately excited... and I wasn't disappointed. This is an edgy, fast-paced book with twists and turns that you won't see coming. I read it fairly quickly as its flow is smooth.

Now, I have to admit that any type of mythology will, most times, bore me, so I was a bit sad to find out that this book was basically just two people running after ancient Egyptian mythology artifacts. Still, it ended up being pretty cool, and I feel like I learned things from this novel.

It remains that the actions within book still felt a tiny bit too convenient for me. It’s just win after win with no real sense of danger... I feel like it could have been much more dark and dramatic than it actually was.

There was a missed opportunity here, though: I really wish that this book had come with a design at the beginning. The entire story revolves around a map/hieroglyphs. It would have been great to have a visual of that map so we could follow along with M and with Ash. I kept trying to picture everything as I was reading and I didn’t have much luck... it would have added an extra layer of coolness, that’s for sure.

I'd like to thank St. Martin's Press, as well as Netgalley, for the free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, M. “M” is short for Memphis, our first main character. She is assertive and overwhelmingly intelligent with savant-type knowledge in certain areas. She speaks several languages, and she knows martial arts (of course!). Overall, I loved her.

Ashwin “Ash” Sood is a little too preppy for M. He is also a member of an ancient cult. Did I lose you?

Ash rocks M’s world by telling her that not only is her late father not dead, he also urgently needs her help.

M and Ash team up to travel the world in search of the holy grail that will save M’s father. This is where the magic happens as the book takes on an adventurous feel reminiscent of Indiana Jones. The first half of the adventure is a tad more enthralling than the second, but my interest was held throughout.

If you couldn’t tell already, I adored M, and Ash with his baggage and tender heart won me over as well. The angst and tension build in the story as their feelings towards each other grow.

I Do Not Trust You is a different sort of read for me, and it left me wishing I read this genre more often. I will definitely check out this duo’s first book.

Thank you to Wednesday Books/St. Martin’s Press for the invitation to join in on the blog tour and for the complimentary ARC. All opinions are my own.

Such a unique YA novel!!! M (Memphis) is an 18 year old young woman who has recently lost her Father and since her Mother died years earlier she is now living in her home with her new guardians. a couple she has never met .before his death. Her Father was a very accomplished archaeologist. who passed his love for ancient languages and mythology to his daughter. He took her on his digs and encouraged her studies .
She is approached by a young man Ash ( Ashwin) claiming that her Father is alive and being held hostage by a religious cult because he knows how to find an artifact they revere.. They team up to find the pieces of the artifact. which she will use to get her Father released.
I get definite Dan Brown vibes with this book. There are clues to decipher , lots of danger , and running around the globe. steps ahead of the enemy. Certainly not the typical YA formula . It steps it up a notch and gives the reader a more mature read. The two leads have a connection but it subdued and and not the main focus of the book.
I love M's personality she is fearless , smart , and resourceful. Ash is very loyal to his sect but also has feelings for M and that sets up a conflict in him , Does he stay loyal or help M free her Father ?
Reluctantly they team up to find the artifact pieces . They travel around the globe in search of the pieces .
The book is information heavy , especially in the middle of the book but it is delivered in an easy to read and understand format . It does slow the pace of the book a bit but everything that is explained is important to the ending of the book. , which by the way was fantastic !!! I hope this becomes a series because it left an opening for a Book Two !!!

****ARC provided by Netgalley for an honest review ****

Laura Burns and Melinda Metz’s <I>I Do Not Trust You</i> is pure adventure. Memphis Engel, "M” for short, is finally actually living in her family’s home after her father’s death puts to end a lifetime of adventure. With a wide knowledge of history and ancient languages, M chafes at the boring life her guardians Bob and Liza commit to. When Ashwin Sood shows up, saying her father is alive and he needs the ancient map she’s been keeping hidden – and translating in secret – to save him, she holds him at an ultimatum that sends them on a worldwide race to find the missing pieces of a statue of the Egyptian god Set before doomsday cult gets their hands on them.

That is probably the longest summary I’ve ever written at the start of one of my reviews! But it’s totally worth it and doesn’t even cover half of what’s going on in Burns and Metz’s novel. <I>I Do Not Trust You</i> is a constant adventure. Great for lover’s of the series <I>Heist Society, Also Known as</I> and <I>Embassy Row</I>. However, <I>I Do Not Trust You</i> does manage to break out of the typical YA mould avoiding any actual romance and staying pretty accessible to all ages.

The authors managed to focus on the adventure and the events enough that the exposition of the characters themselves seeps into things naturally. As much as M doesn’t trust Ash because she doesn’t know anything about him – we don’t know just as much about her. For the reader, both characters are revealed gradually through their actions and thoughts rather than all at once, giving both characters and equal amount of prominence.

Despite the slow build knowledge of the characters, they are well done. It was only for a minute that I felt any irritation over not even knowing who M is, and as it was, these feelings quickly became a faint memory. M is highly knowledgeable in ancient languages and world history, so much so that it feels almost too much, but thankfully she does have knowledgeable friends she also relies on. In comparison, it’s almost a relief that Ash knows surprisingly little outside the story of the gods themselves. For Ash, <I>I Do Not Trust You</i> is a journey of emotional growth and maturing, and by the end, you fully accept the choices he makes.

I really liked <I>I Do Not Trust You</i> and can’t wait to see what else Burns and Metz come up with, especially together (Hing: more of this!!). I received <I>I Do Not Trust You</i> from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. So glad I got the chance to read this awesome story!

Please note, this review has not yet been published. Once this is completed, the link will be added. Please feel free to use the above material in the meantime.

I was asked to post and Excerpt post for this Book on my blog melimimi.blogspot.com, which I did. But as for my thoughts, I did love the Egyptian Mythology around this book. I felt like M, the main female character had a good start but I don't think this book would be an action pack enough for a teen thriller. It comes off as more as a teen thriller. I did enjoy the book but I also felt like some parts of the book were very slow pace. I think its great for 9-12 years, it reads like a book for 9-12-year-olds. I can't honestly recommend this book to anyone older. But again I will restated that M is a very strong female character and this book was filled with Promise of being action pack but totally lack more action. Great book it just needed more

I’ve always enjoyed stories of archeological treasure hunts since they combine fascinating mythology with daring exploits. Because of that, I Do Not Trust You was an absolute delight for me to read. The tale of a young woman, a mysterious map, a handsome, enigmatic young man and the quest for a lost and powerful artifact, it’s the perfect book for someone looking for an armchair adventure.

After her father’s death, eighteen-year-old Memphis ‘M’ Engel has been counting down the days to graduation and college. She has nothing against her new guardians, a couple who knew her parents back in their college days, but she has nothing in common with them either. M, raised at numerous archeological digs, reads and writes a frightening number of languages, including many from long lost cultures; has an amazing grasp of history; is an expert at spelunking, diving, climbing and martial arts; is an outstanding student and has an intuitive grasp of how to solve problems. The guardians? A perfectly ordinary middle-class American couple – or so she thinks.

Ashwin – Ash – Sood is following M one afternoon when he learns first hand just how fast and talented at martial arts she is. He had known reaching out to her via stalking was a risk, but he wasn’t sure how else to contact her. M’s guardians are actually part of a cult who worship the god Set, and they aren’t taking care of her, they’re holding her hostage. Her father, Dr. Engel, isn’t dead, he’s a prisoner of that same cult. They have him translating a copy of a map that leads to hidden pieces of a statue of Set. The cult believes that if the pieces, scattered around the world, are reunited Set will return to rule over the earth.

Ash, a member of a rival cult called the Eye of Horus, knows M has the original map in her possession. He’s insistent that when Set returns, the god will usher in the apocalypse. He wants M to give him the map, so he can give it to the acolytes of Horus, sworn to protect the world from Set, but M convinces Ash the only way forward is for the two of them to recover the pieces of Set. She’ll trade them to the Horus followers in exchange for their aid in rescuing her father. An epic journey, full of chases, ancient temples, magic and romance follows.

I don’t read hieroglyphs, am unfamiliar with the worship of Set and Horus, don’t know the geography of France and have no knowledge of Sanskrit. That means I can’t speak to the accuracy of the text, the legends it describes or the settings it speaks of. Typically, in these kind of stories, copious artistic liberties are taken, and in this novel that is especially true, since Ash can wield magic and the plot involves the possible reincarnation of a god. Those looking for a travel journal or historically accurate depiction of ancient civilizations should probably look elsewhere. However, those looking for a fast paced, rollicking good time have come to the right place.

The strongest, and most enjoyable component of the tale is the relationship between M and Ash. As the title states, in the beginning, they don’t trust each other. M knows that Ash is willing to negotiate with her only because she has the map. She also knows he wants to steal it from her so he can take the map back to the Eye, which she can’t afford to let happen since it would leave her with no collateral to negotiate for her father’s life. She is rightfully wary of him, yet grows to admire him as she comes to know him. Ash is smart and kind and funny and honorable, in spite of the fact that he clearly had a very rough upbringing. As our story progresses, M begins to trust their joint experiences and her knowledge of his character rather than judging him strictly by who he is working for.

Ash believes that finding the pieces of Set will usher in the apocalypse, but he’s had a secret yearning to locate them since early childhood. M has the map well hidden (his sect has searched for it before) so he uses that as an excuse to join her on her globetrotting adventures. As he comes to know the smart, beautiful adventuress he finds himself more and more drawn to her.

I liked that even when they didn’t trust each other M and Ash treated each other with respect. I liked that they were able to talk out their differences and work as a team. I liked that they were attracted to each other but had the good sense to hold off on the smexy times given that they were being chased by villains and trying to decipher centuries old cryptic clues. The simple fact is I liked M and Ash, both as a couple and as individuals.

The romance here is more interest than action. Ash and M are attracted to each other, and as the story progresses, begin to like each other and truly enjoy each other’s company. The action keeps it from moving beyond the will-they-or-won’t-they phase however, which I thought was perfect given the circumstances.

This book scores high on exploits, fun and camaraderie. Ash and M visit Paris, Norway, South America, North America and a handful of other places as they decode ancient keys and go from being reluctant allies to close friends. The authors handle this all with a light, loving hand, setting the perfect tone for our adventure.

The tale not only involves multiple locations but has multi-cultural stars. Ash is a twenty-two-year-old South Asian Brit and M a biracial (white/Chinese Malaysian) American. They’re very much from the cultures they were raised in however. M teases Ash for his ‘posh’ manners, he congratulates her for being more than just a bratty clone of a Pretty Little Liars character. Their birth cultures are evident only in their appearance; their language and manners are very Western.

I Do Not Trust You is for fans of Laura Croft, Indiana Jones, James Rollins and the classic novels of Alistair MacLean. This entertaining, boisterous tale will be sure to delight aficionados of the action/suspense/thriller market.

Just surfacing above the depths from the loss of her father, Memphis Engle is still a force to be reckoned with. From the brief introduction to M, the reader learns how worldly and knowledgeable she is. Even more so as we get to know her, M could never be confused for an average American teenager. She's tenacious, cultured, traveled, selfless, and fully trained if the need to take down an opponent should arise.

Enter Ashwin Sood...he comes to M with the news that her father is not actually dead. Though it takes some convincing and M is still not willing to trust this young man, she finds herself reluctantly believing him. Unwilling to just blindly hand over the map Ash needs in order to find missing pieces of an ancient figure, which will hopefully equal the release of her captive (but alive) father, M leads the way as the two trek across the globe.

Akin to a teenage Lara Croft, or young and female Indiana Jones, M's knowledge of ancient cultures, languages, myths, and religions is enviable and fascinating. She fulfills duel roles in the book as both seeker and wise one—all the while, hanging onto the hope that she can successfully rescue her father.

With the constant location shifts, quickie cultural lessons, and back-and-forth points of view between Ash and M, this book was begging to be read speedily. I loved the balance of science and religion—even some supernatural thrown in the mix, and found I Do Not Trust You to be exciting, fast-paced, and so intriguing...and was hanging on to nearly every page. If this is the beginning to a mystery-solving, quest-taking duo—I'm in!

As a side note, I do want to comment on both the title and the cover. Glancing at the cover and reading the title in that bold text, this seems to be more along the lines of I Know What You Did Last Summer, or even a book about a cheating partner—nothing about it really shows or represents the book inside. I even asked two other people to guess what this book was about by just showing them the cover, and they were surprised by my dismissal of their guess and the actual summary. I have seen other covers that retain the cover design but the title has changed to The Lost Map of Chaos, and while I suppose that's an improvement, I think it's a slight one. Granted, I'm not full of suggestions here, but as it stands this book is not served by the current cover or title and would benefit, in my opinion, from a change to both.

This fast paced book was packed with action and a heroine that was easy to root for. The writing was excellent and the cover art was beautiful!

First of all, I really wish this book had been marketed better. It is marketed as a YA Thriller, when it really falls more into a mythology/fantasy category. Had I gone into this book with the correct mindset I think I could have liked it a lot more than I did.

I loved the settings in this book! They were described extremely well and as someone who isn’t a huge lover of history, I felt entranced at times and found myself wanting to research some of the locations more.

One of my favorite parts of this book was the beginning, when the adventures were starting to take off and really get going. Unfortunately, after awhile, the momentum slowed down but had the potential to stay quick and exciting.

There was so much potential for these characters to be amazing. I really wish there had been more character development. They were over the top characters that I had a really hard time connecting with.

Overall, I just wanted more of everything: more character development, more world building, more excitement, and more adventure.

Grateful to have received a complimentary ARC copy to honestly review.

If there’s one genre I loved as a kid, but don’t see much in the YA age range nowadays, it’s the action/adventure story. While I Do Not Trust You is being marketed as a mystery novel—and I can see certain aspects of that, too, don’t get me wrong—I think this book would be fantastic for anyone who loved action-packed, suspenseful tales of people being sent on wild missions, full of unexpected obstacles and enemies.

I knew that the story would involve Memphis—or M, as she goes by—being sucked into a shocking search for lost artifacts to save her father (who she thought was dead—surprise!), but I didn’t realize just how heavily involved the mythology in this story would be, and that was such a pleasant surprise! I grew up obsessed with ancient, lost myths, especially those of Egypt and the Greco-Roman periods, so that entire theme of this story honestly just made my inner child geek out so happily. It’s been a long time since I studied any of that mythology, so I can’t speak with certainty for how thorough the research was, but it never felt disrespectful or blaringly wrong to me.

There’s also a very heavy religious theme in the story, though not in a conversion-geared way; it’s just part of the history they’re researching, and part of Ashwin’s daily life as a follower of Horus. I actually really enjoyed the idea of this modern character being depicted as belonging to an ancient pagan religion, since that is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a book set in today’s timeframe. Unfortunately, the downside to this is that, halfway through the book, some fantasy elements come in on the religious side of things, and it made it a lot harder for me to appreciate Ash’s beliefs at face value. I strongly believe that I Do Not Trust You would have benefited greatly from leaving out any of those fantasy elements at all.

The only other thing that genuinely lacked for me in this story was the blossoming romance, which I was never able to really connect to. This may have been just a personal problem on my part; despite loving M’s character (she is such a clever, tough young woman and I genuinely enjoyed watching her bust everyone’s chops nonstop), I didn’t care much for Ashwin from the start, and never was able to develop any legitimate fondness for him. I didn’t hate him, and he didn’t get on my nerves—he was just sort of there, so it made it incredibly difficult for me to care much about what happened to him or to their friendship/potential relationship.

Minor complaints aside, I Do Not Trust You was a remarkably fun read and I enjoyed it a lot. It flew by, and I kept thinking while reading that it would make a perfect YA adventure film with the right casting choices and a little more humor thrown in. I would definitely check out work from this writing duo again in the future, and can safely recommend this one for anyone who enjoys adventure stories and a bit of mythology.

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to Wednesday Books for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The concept of co-authors always intrigues me, though I don’t come across it too often. I really enjoyed Sanctuary Bay by Laura J. Burns and Melinda Metz, so when this writing duo put out another book, I Do Not Trust You, I trusted them to give me another good read.

Instead of a prep school on a mysterious island, this time around, we get a kind of female Indiana Jones mixed with a little bit of the Da Vinci Code, following an ancient map to save her father from two rival Egyptian cults. I was really intrigued by the premise, I love the archaeological take and was excited to see where this adventure would take me and who I would meet along the way.

The history, the mythology and the treasure hunt were really interesting for me. Some of the myths that were told I had heard of, though most I had not, and I was fascinated learning about these histories that I’ve never been introduced to. They were a great distraction from the glaring problems I had with this book; how a girl of 18 had the means to go on such an epic adventure, and how a boy so loyal to preventing the demise of his people would go on a journey that basically united the artifacts he was adamant about keeping apart. (Yes, it was clearly stated that M used to help her dad and that she’d been trained since she was young, but everything happened so very easy for her and she thought nothing of traipsing off across the world on this treasure hunt. Things never really delved deep enough in the initial character building to truly convince me that M had all of this in her. I guess I’m just a bit of a skeptic.)

Above everything else, the adventure portions were really cool and what kept the book driving, but there wasn’t much more than that and even then, the adventure grew a bit stale after a while. There was never much more depth about the country they were in or the myth itself, other than the quick and dirty details that were necessary to tie together the reason M had lead them there. I suppose there needed to be a nice balance between adventure book and history book, but I would have enjoyed a bit more substance to these travels.

M’s complicated relationship with Ash is pretty typical of what you would expect here, so nothing was new there. I enjoyed the growing banter, but again, it didn’t give me much more than what you read on the surface and things ultimately ended up where you expect them to. Other characters introduced were intriguing, but again, so short lived that it didn’t really make much of an impact.

I guess that’s the gist of it for me; this was a fun read, but I wanted more from it. Expected more from it. It felt a lot like Sanctuary Bay, just in a different setting. That isn’t a bad thing, I enjoyed Sanctuary Bay and this was fun too, but not enough to make this really stand out for me. I really appreciated the mythology lessons, but outside of that, everything just felt a bit expected.