Elle Owens | TELL ME YOU TRUST ME Spoilers

The Book: 

Tell Me You Trust Me by Elle Owens
Published February 11, 2025 by Thomas & Mercer
Date read: October 3, 2024

Find more February 2025 releases here.

Tell Me You Trust Me spoilers can be found below, but they’re hidden under a spoiler tag so you’re safe to keep scrolling if you’d just like to read my review.

The Characters: 

Marissa

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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The Plot (from Goodreads):

When her husband goes missing, Marissa Creighton fears the worst. Tell me you trust me was the last thing Ethan said to her, and she’d shrugged it off. Now she can’t get those words out of her head.

Marissa’s family has always been her rock. But when they come to help her with two-year-old Logan, their overprotectiveness borders on oppression—occupational hazard of the family’s surveillance business, or is it? Seeking comfort in the playlist she and Ethan share, Marissa is shocked to find a new song “Trust Me.” She’s certain it’s a message.

Using song titles as code, she and Ethan start communicating back and forth. But she still doesn’t understand why he left. While his messages point to incriminating documents, her family uncovers evidence of an affair. But their discoveries come with their own baggage, including personal threats, secret bank accounts, and dusty surveillance devices. All the while Marissa wonders whether she’ll ever learn the truth—or see her husband again.

Tell Me You Trust Me Spoilers

Click here for TELL ME YOU TRUST ME spoilers
Book spoilers ahead–if you haven’t yet read Tell Me You Trust Me, I suggest you turn back now.



The Reveal:

Marissa’s parents were the ones selling client information, and when employees found out they would pin it on them or kill them if they didn’t comply. They had done the same to Ethan’s father. Ethan was investigating his death, so in the beginning Marissa was a target to get close to her family. Ethan’s sister Hailey was helping him investigate (Marissa didn’t know Ethan had siblings and assumed Hailey was an affair at first).

The Ending:

Eventually Ethan gave Marissa the clues she needed to find videos of her parents discussing these plans with their enforcer Dennis. There was also a video in their home of Marissa’s mom planning to kill Christopher while he was camping, covering up their reason for being in the area with a company retreat. Marissa gave these videos to the detective and her parents were arrested.

Ethan and Marissa ended up together, but had a long way to go to regain trust. They kept Hailey in their lives as well.

Spoiler Thoughts:

It was clear from the start that Marissa’s parents and brother were the villians. The way they belittled and controlled her, there was no one else it could possibly be. The mob angle was briefly floated but not explored at all. I could have used a little more misdirection since I like to be fooled (in a well-executed way) by my thrillers.

I also feel that communicating by Spotify was a bit far-fetched since (to my knowledge, I’m not a big music person) you can only see what song is currently playing. It could have been interesting to see Marissa misinterpret something because she missed a song from Ethan or vice versa.



I hope these Tell Me You Trust Me spoilers were helpful.

The Review: 

This book gave me so much anxiety! I couldn’t stand how Marissa’s parents belittled and gaslit her. I was so eager to get to the part where she finally stood up to them.

I loved the way the characters used Spotify to communicate. Such a clever means of passing messages and very unique to this book. I enjoyed following all the clues Ethan was leaving that only Marissa would understand. Clearly my husband and I need more inside jokes, because if he tried to leave a trail like this I definitely wouldn’t follow.

Marissa’s character arc is the best part of the story. I mentally cheered for her when she finally escaped her parents and went to a hotel, and was crushed when they found her again. How suffocating!

I will say we could have used some more misdirection and red herrings–I’ll go into this more on my blog to avoid spoilers here!

Overall a strong debut and I’m looking forward to seeing what else this author publishes.

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