I absolutely cannot help myself when a new exciting psychological thriller about cheaters and obsessive characters comes out. The Talented Miss Farwell is one example of why I'm so fixated on this sub-genre.

The plot takes place in the late 90's when the fine arts market has just recovered from a major dip. The title character Miss Rebecca Farwell is a rich art dealer herself, and she's everything you imagine from a rich art dealer - looking perfect, spending tons of dining and clothes, flawless woman living her best professional and social life. However, in her private life, Becky is a shy, humble small-town girl who still lives at her parents' farm in Illinois. But at heart, Becky is not just an art dealer, but a con artist borrowing money with little ability to repay.

This book is exquiste. It's an emotional, sensual ride which I loved with all my heart. Character development is incredible, especially depicting the shocking contrast between Rebecca and Becky. However, there's much more to it than character development; the plot is packed with twists and fascinating events, too, which is why I couldn't put it down.

Double life, cheating, financial theft and a smart woman made for a psychological thriller at its best.

*Thank you to the Publisher for a free advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Becky is The Talented Miss Farwell of the title and there are three areas in which she is particularly skilled - working with numbers through accounting. collecting and selling art for a profit and living a lie.

Becky grew up in the small town of Pierson, Illinois where she starts working at Town Hall right out of high school and becomes the town comptroller in her early 20s. Around the same time, unbeknownst to anyone in Pierson, she starts traveling to Chicago and New York buying expensive art as "Reba." She soon becomes obsessed with the rush of not only owning the beautiful pieces but also selling them for a profit. To do that, though, she needs cash so Becky takes advantage of her role in Pierson and uses the town coffers to fund her art addiction. As Reba becomes more and more successful, Pierson becomes more and more rundown. How long will Beck/Reba be able to keep her secret under wraps?

I was immediately drawn into this book - Becky's character is shrewd and compelling and she convinces herself what she's doing will someday benefit the people of Pierson. But eventually I got frustrated with the story. Without giving too much away, there doesn't seem to be a reason why Becky didn't put some of the money she made back into the town and I wanted to know why she was so obsessed with the art - was it because she loved it or did she get a rush from the con? But it was her ignorance over how her crime affected those around her - especially her best friend Ingrid whose son has special needs and would have benefited from town programs - was really hard to stomach. I don't need to like a protagonist to like a book but I do need to understand her motivations and in Becky's case, I never did.

Thank you to The Book Club Girls, HarperCollins Publishers, NetGalley and the author for the advanced e-copy to review.

Thanks to Custom House/Harper Collins for an advanced copy.

I really wanted to like The Talented Miss Farwell. It had a fun and different premise and I loved seeing the two sides of Becky/Reba Farwell and in the beginning how determined she was to make her dad's business successful. But it was just too drawn out towards the middle/end and I was just waiting for her to be caught.
Too many unnecessary details and it was all just about how she kept embezzling from the town but thought by being charitable and donating money back it made it slightly ok.

So, I really did not enjoy this book. It didn't hold my attention and was very hard to get through. I didn't feel like I ever connected with any of the characters. And to be honest, I didn't realize that Becky was a check forger, I thought she was obsessed with art. I hate not finishing books, so I did. But this may have been on a DNF list.

Greed and obsession are packaged in Becky Farwell, and even though you know she is greedy and out for her own interests, the reader will like her. Even at the end after she has been caught for embezzling city funds from the city for which she worked; you will like her. She may not have gone to college, but she’s got math smarts which keeps moving her up in the financial department of the small city outside of Chicago where she lives. Her problem is that she likes art. By this I mean EXPENSIVE art and as she figures out how to move the money to a city bank account that only she can access the funds her obsession grows and she finds herself moving among the big art aficionados not only of New York City but the world. Her double life works for an astonishing long time, and when it crashes, the FBI has become involved. I enjoyed the audio version of the book. Well read, with wonderful voices for different characters. I only have quibbles with a few minor details. The town of Pierson has a Petunia Festival and she helps plant petunia “bulbs”. Since when do petunias come from bulbs. As her double life becomes stressful, she begins having health problems. One of the issues is skin rashes. She reads an article about a woman who had a terrible rash on her head and during the night, she scratched it so much she ended up scratching brain matter. Where on the head does the skull not protect the brain? I can’t see how this is possible. Although the reader knows Becky is doomed if she doesn’t get her embezzlement under control, and the ending is probably known after the first two chapters, the road she takes in collecting art is interesting.

I greatly enjoyed this unique story. I wasn’t completely sure what to expect from the description but what I found had me unable to tear myself from the pages. The author wove a detailed tale that was realistic I honestly wondered if it wasn’t fiction at all a few times during. The main character isn’t loveable, but I have always found the thoughts of a bad guy to be quite intriguing and this did not disappoint. And despite Ms. Farwell’s positive qualities she was not a very good person. Her character is selfish, arrogant, and seems incapable of empathy. Becky Farwell is a smart girl and we see her in school trade her future to care for her father and his business. At some point along the years she lost that altruistic motivation and caved to her own impulsive. Becky had an expensive love, great works of art and as we find she’ll do anything to own it.

This story reminded me of the Dixon IL comptroller Rita Crundwell but with art instead of horses which is also a fascinating story of fraud. I loved Becca’s ambition but her story is a story of caution. This is a great book for accountants to read.

A tale of 2 cities, Reba/Becky. It took me a little bit to get settled into this but it was an interesting premise that was a longer story then it probably needed to be.
I was glad I read it but there was something about it was just a bit off.

I must say that I rather enjoyed this one and the complicated character of Becky/Reba Farwell. Due to her struggling family farm equipment business and ailing father, talented math student Becky isn’t able to go to college. Instead she gets a job at the town hall in the accounting office.

As the years go by, Becky is promoted at work and becomes fascinated with the art world. She starts by buying art at local estate sales and later she becomes a big player in the Chicago and New York art scene, buying and selling lots of art. You might wonder just how Becky is financing this love of hers? Well, she’s a master at the town’s books and great at juggling the myriad of accounts that the small town of Pierson has open. She truly does mean to pay it all back someday. If she can just finish collecting a few more things.

As Becky really gets deeper into the art scene, traveling all over the world to meet with collectors and make purchases, the town of Pierson is struggling to make ends meet. Becky really has them all convinced that she is doing all she can to find money for various town projects. I was anxious for the whole book that she would get caught and then I realized that the author has built up my sympathy for Becky when she is clearly stealing the town blind.

I was fascinated to read that this is based on a true story and definitely made me think about how easy it is to get sucked into taking money when you have access to it and no one seems to really be paying close attention. It’s just so tempting to people like Becky or Reba as she’s known in the art world. This was my first read by this author, but I can tell this character will be in my head for a while! And it will make me wonder what’s going on with my city’s money!

This book wasn’t what I thought it was going to be and it took me some time to appreciate it. It was more of a character study than the briskly story I had expected. The writing was strong and it was a protagonist like none I’d read before but by the end I wasn’t quite sure what the point was.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishing for those eBook advanced reader’s copy.

I enjoyed this novel about Becky/Reba Farwell and the double lives she was leading. It was uncomfortable watching her descent into obsession and madness, and even to read the physical manifestations/ramifications of that obsession. I applaud the author for her research and ability to follow this character over such a long span in history, starting in the 1980s, with topics from local town finances, to art, to US and world history. I greatly enjoyed the shout out to feminism towards the end (I don’t want to give away any spoilers).

Overall, I liked the book and will recommend to friends. 4/5 stars.

I thought that the premise of this book was really interesting - I never knew anything about art dealing.

I don't know what it was about this book, but I was captivated from the beginning. Over the course of decades, we watch Ms. Becky (Reba) Farwell grow up, get involved in the world of art collectors and grow her art collection through questionable ways. While I'm usually turned off by art in stories, this book's story focuses on the machinations of collecting, itself, rather than the art. I found the whole story completely interesting and felt like I needed to google whether this was based on a true story. A very rich character, a great story and masterful storytelling. Recommend!

This is the kind of book where I am not sure if I should review it or not. The story of one woman who lives two lives...one in a small town where she works for the city and another where she is an art collector ducking in and out of the world of the high flying socialites. The book was long winded and I had to force myself not to skip pages to get to the end. Would make a great series for TV!

The Talented Miss Farwell was a book I really wanted to like this book but it was just not for me. The Talented Miss Farwell is about a woman that is trying to lead a double life. The story seemed to drag on and the ending fell completely flat for me. Thank you to Book Club Girls and NetGalley for my advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

The premise is intriguing but it didn’t feel realistic. I thought she was clever enough but the way she shifted between lives was disjointed.
I gave this 3 stars on Goodreads.

I really wanted to like this book but it was just not for me. The Talented Miss Farwell is about a woman that is trying to lead a double life. Becky's transformation into the art collecting world was the most interesting part of the book but the entire embezzlement storyline was really a drag for me. I didn't feel like the motivation was developed all that well and the ending was flat and just didn't see plausible.

The Talented Miss Farwell by Emily Gray Tedrowe failed to excite me. It's the story of a young woman who is an accounting wiz. She works for the city and "borrows" money first to help her father's failing business. Becky discovers the art world and becomes addicted. She continues to borrow money for over 20 years to feed her art obsession. The city is on the verge of bankruptcy. Will she stop stealing from her hometown? Will her dastardly deeds come to light? Becky/Reba is a selfish woman with not life outside of her manipulation of funds, I had no empathy for Becky. She has one friend. Becky has is little or no emotional connection to anyone in either of her worlds. All I could feel is disgust for her. The book did not hold my attention but I did manage to finish it. The book has potential, but much was lacking. Thank you Book Club Girls and NetGalley for the ARC.

I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm still processing how I feel about this book. There were parts I really liked: Becky's friendship with Ingrid, her intelligence, her devotion to her father. There were parts I didn't like at all: the in-depth details of the embezzlement, the fact that she went by the name Reba when in the art world, the switching back and forth between her two personas.

Overall, I think I liked it more than I disliked it, but there were some things I would have changed or would have liked to skip over.

The stage is set, the end of the 1990's. The art market has recovered from a disastrous time. Meet the main character, Miss Rebecca Farwell. Is it coming together now? She is part of a rumor accusing her of making a massive, massive profit from her art collection. To many she is nothing but a pariah in the water.

Scene change, meet Miss Farwell inside a small town. She is single, very quiet and very unassuming in appearance and character.

As you can tell, Miss Farwell is leaving two very different lives. Can she keep up the charade and pay back the massive amount of debt? Only reading this book will reveal that answer.