I am currently going through my Shelf to clear out books that I either DNFed or was not able to write a full review for whatever reason. Unfortunately this is the case with this title.
I hope to pick up a physical copy soon as it looked intriguing and a very interesting title, particularly considering I read a lot of true crime and this seems like a very wild story.
Thank you for the opportunity to read this book, and I hope to read more in the future.

This book was scaringly amazing. It was horrendous and you couldn't help but to feel for her, but it was breathtakingly honest and well written. Thank you to the author and Netgalley for the advanced copy!

This is Lee's Memoir of how she fell prey to a charming con man whom she met while on vacation in Wales and then later married.  She receives all sorts of warnings but still continues to believe his lies.  The book is written in a very factual matter and really only tells her side of the story.  She does do some research after the fact about his other cons but not a lot of that information is presented.  She also never fully explains why she believed all his lies despite the mounting evidence.  And why he chose her instead of wealthy women to fleece.  The book is easy and quick to read I just wish there was some more background on his cons before and after he met Lee.  Read this book for an interesting slice of life true crime.  Enjoy

Review was declined. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you to Netgalley for letting me read The Charming Predator by Lee Mackenzie and to write an honest review.

I was looking forward to read this book and it started off as a very powerful true crime story. 
However, I became bored half way through and started to Scream at the book! I hate giving up on something I have started but I carried on to the end. 

I did feel sorry for the author Lee MacKenzie who wrote how she fell for and married a con man from Wales back in the 1980s. He came over a gent! very helpful and charming, he wined and dined her, showered her with loving letters, every woman's dream! Then, he stole everything she had.
There were a lot of warning signs showing throughout their relationship. Why didn't an intelligent woman ignore these? 
However, I think we have all done this at some point in our lives! and looked back and thought why didn't I see it!? Love is blind!
She wanted to see him as a true Gentleman, at his best and not see the dark side of him. The walls came crumbling down and reality of the situation was accepted.

An engaging and compelling tale of how Lee Mackenzie fell under the spell of Kenner Jones and how he turned out to be a skilful and ruthless con man. The book is perhaps overly long and at times too detailed but it’s a real-page turner in that as a reader you can’t quite accept how self-destructively the author ignored all the warning signs and allowed herself to be so comprehensively duped. Reading the book is like watching a car crash in slow motion. An instructive and thought-provoking read.

Unfortunately, this was a book I was unable to finish. I really hated giving up on this book, but it was really hard for me to connect with the main character, even though we’re both from the same place.

The premise of this novel was intriguing, and I wanted to know how a smart woman could have been duped by such a terrible conman. The problem was that after the prologue and the first chapter, I just found myself not connecting to either the main character, Lee, or her writing style. For a book such as this, the writing needs to be really engaging, and I felt that it was lacking. I got about halfway through the second chapter before I stopped. I mean, it was really obvious that Kenner was a liar and there were just so many warning signs that went ignored.

There isn’t a lot else for me to say about this novel. I just didn’t feel like reading it any longer.

It took Lee Mackenzie thirty years to feel comfortable writing this memoir about her experiences with Kenner Jones, a con man she met and married, who eventually nearly destroyed her, emotionally and financially. She thought he would be the perfect husband but she had no idea what he had in store for her. 
There were a few warning signs before the marriage, but she chose to believe in him and ignore them, as many people would. At one point, they took an evening walk and ended up in a deserted area. She saw a change come over his face that frightened her so much that she felt an urge to escape to a public place as soon as possible. However, in the light of day, with his seemingly charming demeanor, that incident didn't seem real and she decided to overlook it. 
After getting married and moving to his home country of Wales, she began to notice things that didn't add up. At first, she believed all the excuses he invented when she confronted him about these unusual circumstances, but became increasingly suspicious as time went on. Finally, she realized that he had been constantly lying to her about almost everything. He had cleaned out her bank accounts and left her with mountains of debt. It took her ten years to pay off all the debts he left her, and the unseen emotional effects lasted even longer. 
I would like to think that stories like these might save some readers from becoming prey to a sociopath like Jones, but he and others like him are not easy to see through. Several law enforcement officers, who deal with sociopaths regularly, were fooled by him. They said he was one of the best.  That said, maybe some readers will pay a little more attention to those gut feelings that warn that something is not right and do some investigating. 
I recommend this book for an engaging read about a woman caught up in a harrowing web of lies and manipulation. It was well written and the pages flew by. Warning:  you may stay up late reading this, as I did. 
Note:  Thank you to the author and publisher for giving me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I am sorry that I am unable to read and write a review for the Charming Predator today because the file expired early.

Absolutely fascinating! A real insight into an extraordinary personality and a real lesson to be learned here - that intelligent and perceptive people can and do get tricked by skillful con-men!
The portrait of Wales from an American perspective was also very engaging and I absolutely loved this section of the book where we begin to see a tiny insight into the boyhood of a man whose morality was unlike any I'd ever seen. 
Kenner is a real Frank Abnagale and it is easy to see that he was not aware of where fiction ended and reality began. Lee's brave and relentless tale lets us see the human side to the cost of loving someone such as this - which was a really unusual and fascinating perspective on a conman. The way that he went on to beguile other women was also dealt with in a compelling way by Lee.  I just couldn't put it down and wanted to keep on reading more about the wonderful world of Kenner. Fascinating, startling and terrifying in equal measure. I 100% recommend this book for anyone interested in what makes humans tick.

Ms. MacKenzie fell for a con artist and married him. Thirty plus years later, she shares her story. Maybe it is because of the passing of time, but the narration feels very disconnected. At some point this lead me to not care about what was happening to Ms. MacKenzie. It was the classic story: fell for flattery from someone she wasn’t even attracted to, ignored obvious signs that there was a problem, and got married too quickly without learning about the person she was marrying. Add to that the heavy and unnecessary foreshadowing and the resulting book feels as though it is the product of an adult night school writing class.

This book was sooo boring and not crafted very well.  There are parts where you wanted to know more but they just seemed to drop off and no details and then there are parts that take forever to get through.  

Donna is on a backpacking adventure when she meets Kenner and it goes downhill from there for her.  I feel so horrible that she went through all of this with a psychopathic narcissistic SOB but there were so many warning signs.  She prefaces this as she came from a place where people didn't even lock their doors.  I am sorry just because you trust people doesn't mean that you should be oblivious to lies that are in black in white to you.  

Donna told her story and had parts of letters and things that Kenner sent her which showed how bad he truly was and hindsight is 20/20 and she felt worthless which didn't help her.  I am glad she got the nerve to divorce him and move on with her life.  

This book could have been really good if there were more details of who he was and what she went through not just the high level skimming of parts.  There didn't seem to be a connection, like she was just typing and not really putting herself in the book.

Lee Mackenzie has climbed her way back up from rock bottom.  At the bottom of the pit she was known to those close to her, particularly her husband, as Donna.  This book is the true story of how she met and married her husband, Kenner Jones, despite being countries apart.  
Donna had traveled to London and met Kenner at a tourist shop.  Through conversation, Kenner discovers that Donna is in need of a place to stay.  So he offers his mother’s hospitality and Donna takes him up on it.  She endured story after story from Kenner’s mother, Primrose, but took it as worth the money she saved.  
Donna had returned to her home country, Canada, and started receiving letters from Kenner.  Kenner had ended up in prison as the victim of a misunderstanding and his mother is in need of financial assistance.  Donna sends money from each paycheck to Primrose and continues to correspond with Kenner.  This is the second step down into the pit of naiveté. 
Upon Kenner’s release, Donna goes back to London to visit him.  He proposes.  She accepts and goes back to Canada to save up for their wedding and future.  They marry in Canada and then everything starts to fall apart.   The deception builds as their marriage crumbles.  Donna is caught in a landslide of broken dreams, debt, and torn between her husband and her future. 

This is all told in Donna’s point of view and partly in letters from Kenner to Donna.  These letters provide a deeper glance into who Kenner portrayed himself to be.  Without these letters, I do not believe I would have continued to read the book.  I would have just tossed it aside as a bitter tale of a woman scorned.  The other added depth to the book was the inclusion of other people deceived by Kenner.  
Although this book is classified as true crime (which is my tv preference) it did not leave me gasping in disbelief.  Rather, it left me putting it down often and picking up another book instead.   It felt like when one goes to get a coffee with an acquaintance or old friend and the cell phone tucked away in a purse or pocket is more tempting than hearing more bitter stories.  It was predictable and the details that were focused on did not add to the story, in my opinion.  
I would not recommend this book for anyone offended by deception and miscarriages.  I did not note any foul language, violence, or sexual themes.

This book was a great true crime story. It is the author's own story about how she fell in love with and was later destroyed by a conman. As a fan of true crime, I really enjoyed delving into what Lee Mackenzie went through and how looking back, she realized that she had ignored things that had given her internal red flags. This story is a perfect example of how you should always trust your gut and SSDGM

Outstanding book, it kept me engrossed from beginning to end. The mental anguish was visible on every page. Highly recommend it

I was given an ARC of this ebook by netgalley and Penguin Random House Canada and Doubleday Canada in return for my honest review.  

This was quite an engaging true story about a slick con man and a young woman who was intelligent and honest but perhaps a bit naive when it came to seeing what she needed to see in a new relationship.  She first met Kenner Jones completely at random while she was traveling around the UK on a backpacking trip and just wandered in a place looking for a room for a few days.  They become a bit further acquainted before she goes back to Canada, then he surprises her by starting up a brief correspondence with her, using her address he got  when he had her sign the traveler's guestbook first thing.  She claims to not be interested, and that he's not  her type, but as the story develops, we can see him playing her along, every step of the way. 

 She finally goes back to visit him again in the UK, and he shocks her by proposing, when they have never discussed having a relationship, just things each would like to do in the future. Despite her misgivings, she allows him to pressure her into saying yes, and she agrees to return to Canada and work for a year and save up for the start for their future together. He makes the rest of their week together so properly romantic that she's decided that she's made the right decision after all, and goes home to Canada with a happy glow.  Of course we all know what's ahead for her, don't we?

It's pretty amazing how adept a liar this guy is and how good he was at times at convincing people of what he was saying, despite the fact that he also got caught so often, so he really wasn't so great at getting away with it completly.  Must not have thought it all the way through, apparently.  Seemed to be happy with pulling it off for the moment, even if he got caught later on down the line, which makes no sense to me. 

An interesting read, told more than 30 years after it happened to Lee Mackenzie/Donna and Kenner Jones, and all the emotional, financial etc. kinds of hell he put her through under the guise of love.

A true crime story. Lee MacKenzie falls in love with a charming Welshman, Kenner Jones. She had neen a capable and confident young woman. But life in rural Western Canada made her a little unworldly. It's on a backpacking trip to the UK that she meets her future husband. A man who charmed everyone he met. A man who shattered her emotionally, psychologically and financially. Kenner Jones is at large today, having committed crimes all over the world.

I don't think you have to be young and impressionable to get sucked in by a guy like this. After all we hear of this happening to people of all ages. He also used a false surname while losing Lee into his trap. No one truly know the person they marry but you don't expect them to con you out of everything you have. This is an open and honest book of deception.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin, Random House, Canada and the author Lee MacKenzie for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This non-fiction book tells the story of a con man and the woman enthralled and entrapped by him. Lee MacKenzie grew up in rural Canada and in her travels meets a charming Welshman named Kenner Jones. There's a saying I recall -something to the effect "look well on the face of someone you meet for the first time" because after that point, how you see them is colored by your perceptions of them. And Lee, despite some red flags, marries Kenner Jones only to find out that he is a sociopath, had been admitted to several psychiatric hospitals and has a sordid history as a con man.

While the premise of this story is commendable (wanting to share her experiences in order to raise awareness), I found myself getting a bit bored at points in this book. I imagine it's hard to really put this out there and share what happened, but it seems there is an emotional distance at times that kept me from really getting into the story. 3 stars.

It is much more difficult to review a true story from the author. It was a book to raise awareness and to pay attention when red flags go off in your head. it was interesting just not something i was hooked on.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an e-ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.  This is a non fiction, true crime book, and I enjoy that genre, even though they are sometimes troubling.  This one was good, but maybe could've used tighter editing, or more emotion.   I'm sure it was a difficult subject to tackle, but to be too removed from it causes the reader to be removed as well.  It was interesting, and I did like reading it though.