I received an advanced copy of The Talented Miss Farwell for my honest review. The Talented Miss Farwell takes us through the life of a young midwestern woman who develops an obsession with art. As a young woman, she has a clear talent for numbers. Upon graduation from high school, she takes a job in her small town’s government. She quickly begins to use her “talent” to borrow money from the town’s coffers to fund her art collection, right under the town’s nose.
While I found the premise of the story interesting, I felt like there was a lot of unnecessary detail in the story. For example, there is a whole chapter where the author is clearly trying to set the stage for the main character’s introduction to her beat friend but spends the whole time going into a really detailed description of this Judd’s concert they end up at together. Less detail might make the story move along a little bit quicker. Overall, average story for my taste.

The Talented Miss Farwell is the story of addiction and obsession, and a double life as Miss Farwell is both the comptroller of her small, bankrupt town and an art investor in Chicago, New York and beyond. Working her magic with "borrowed" funds siphoned off from the town budget (apparently this is not that difficult to pull off), at times losing her shirt and in good times making a huge profit, she finds herself further and further into the intricacies of the web she weaves and the increasing debt she owes to her town. Will she get caught? Will she lose her best friend in the bargain? I enjoyed this book that explores the life of an embezzler that almost everyone loves.

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for an advanced copy, for an unbiased review.

This story had an interesting storyline about how long Becky could get away with stealing the money. This story dragged on at many parts and I had to keep muddling through all of the art talk. Ultimately she screwed over her town for her own selfish addiction. This book fell middle of the road for me.

“She couldn’t tell which part of it pleased her the most: the pieces of magic hanging on her walls at home, or the fact that they had come from mistakes in the office only she knew how to spot.”

Once Becky realized how easy it is to skim off the top of others ignorance, she becomes calculated and smart with taking what she needs for her collection. She would resell and pocket the profit, giving the original “borrowed” money back to Pierson.

I almost feel like it’s a power/control issue. These men dismissed her because she was finding errors and they were not. So instead, she showed them by taking their money from under their noses. That’ll teach em to be condescending when she’s just trying to help! Ha!

Rebecca/Becky/Reba gave me such anxiety. Her stealing and making the town basically bankrupt had me holding my breathing waiting to get caught. I’ll be honest, at first, I didn’t want her to get caught. I wanted her to stick it to the man. But, as the story progressed, and Miss Farwell started treating others, I wanted them to throw the book at her. While this was a great premise and really fascinating take, I feel like this was dull and missed its potential.

If you are a fan of Catch Me if You Can or The Talented Mr. Ripley, this is for you! This has a sort of feminist twist to it, and I enjoyed it. Thank you Harper Collins and NetGalley for the gifted copy! ❤️

A rollercoaster of a read. Another reviewer compared this book to the talented Mr Ripley (without the murder, obviously), and I agree. Tedrowe does an excellent job of maintaining the tension as Becky struggles to stay one step ahead of implosion. The book works because, although Becky is conniving and manipulative, she also has moments of real humanity. She believes she is one of the good ones. The book did drag at times, and the end felt a bit anticlimactic, but in a way the lack of drama fits.

Becky Farwell is a bright, bold girl who dreams of a life bigger than her small farming town can offer her. After graduating high school she gets a job in the town's accounting department. When a reimbursement check comes across her desk, she realizes there is money floating around unclaimed by the town which she could use to fund her new obsession. She quickly develops a double life. During the week, she is meticulous Ms. Farwell, the mayors right hand. But, on weekends she is becoming a noteworthy figure in the art world.
I couldn't stop listening to this story because I had to find out if Becky would be found out. I was also fascinated by the world she is sucked into. I was equally interested in some of the other characters like her best friend and the mayor of her town, which I feel like I didn't get to see develop as much over the years.
The narrator was absolutely perfect for this story.
Overall, I really enjoyed listening to this book, and I will definitely be recommending it to readers who enjoy books like The Talented Mr. Ripley or The Goldfinch.

Thank you thank you thank you SO MUCH to BCG for the ARC. What a great book. Really enjoyed this book. The author did a fabulous job bringing the characters to life and drawing me in to the story. Will recommend!

This book was listed as a mystery, and the only mystery is how Becky thinks she can get away with what she's doing. It's really more of a character study of a criminal.

The book spans around 40 years of Becky's life from high school onward. There aren't events driving the story, but Becky's crimes, covering for her thievery, and her thoughts about art and money. Emily Gray Tedrowe does a great job of examining Becky and her motives and feelings. Unfortunately, that type of book is not my cup of tea.

I want to slap Becky. At first, she refers to her embezzlement as "activity" because she can't even admit to herself what she is doing. Becky steals an incredible amount of money from the town, puts some of it back, and congratulates herself when she pays for things out of her own secret fund. Well, where did the money come from Becky? The town! She resorts to hiring a PI to blackmail a man who finds out what she's up to instead of coming clean. Becky's only redeeming quality is her love for her friend Ingrid and Ingrid's daughter -- she buys them expensive presents like jewelry and a boy band poster signed by the members of the band.

Fans of true crime and the art world will enjoy reading this fictional account of a con artist. Readers who enjoy books more about the character than the plot will also enjoy this novel. Those looking for a quick, plot-driven read should look elsewhere.

I wasn't sure what to expect but I somehow thought the book was going to be more about the chase to catch Becky but in reality it was a long, drawn out (REALLY drawn out) story of her double-life. I think I might have appreciated this book more if I was a fan of art and knew what even a few of the mentions were. I kind of felt like the book almost didn't have a point, what was it ABOUT?

This was wonderfully written. I couldn't put the book down I wanted to see what the next chapter held in store for Becky and the things she was doing. This is definitely one to read more than once

In The Talented Miss Farwell, Becky is from small town USA in Illinois. She finds herself buying art using the town's money. She fulling intends on paying it back as soon as she is able to sell the art and make a profit. She becomes Reba in her circles with the art world. Reba revels in all the beautiful, rare collections she was introduced to. In the end, she gets caught. When everything goes electronic, her paper trails hiding the money she took and replaces gets harder to do.
I liked this book at first but it dragged on and on. I can appreciate the story but I just got bored.
Special thanks to NetGalley, Harper Collins-Custom House, and Emily Gray Tedrowe for the advance digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion. #TheTalentedMissFarwell #NetGalley

This a suspense mystery that I did not expect to like. I very much enjoyed it and had a hard time putting it down. I had to stop midway through to see if it was actually fiction because the details in how Becky embezzled money from the city were so specific and well described that I wondered if it was a true story. Becky Farwell is a teenager with a lot of responsibility taking care of her father and her father's business. She takes a lot on herself because she thinks no one around her can do it as well as she can. When she gets a job with the city she has an uncanny ability to figure out the odd accounting system that no one else has a clue about. Eventually she needs to "borrow" some money because she really wants to buy a painting. She gets addicted to art collecting and involved with high end collecting and collectors essentially having two different lives over the next 20 years. At some point things have to crash.

I agree with most of the reviews that this book was difficult to read, as I never really got hooked into the story. I didn’t realize this was based on real life in a small Illinois town. I did finish the book, but by scanning just to see how it ended.

Decent book, but definitely jumped around a bit. It wasn't a cohesive read. I enjoyed the characters but wished they would've been developed a bit more.

Obsession leads to compulsion which, in this case, leads to a very good story. Can one become so obsessed with something that you can’t, and I mean cannot, stop? You tell yourself ‘just one more’ but you know there will be ‘one more’ and then ‘one more’ and you aren’t really fooling yourself. You tell yourself you can stop anytime but can you?

Rebecca, aka Becky, aka Reba, has an addiction. She has to feed it. No, it’s not the type of drugs you might think but it is definitely Becky’s drug of choice and she risks everything, even what is not hers to risk, to satisfy her habit.

This book is just so good. I love a book where you follow people down a path that you know just can’t end well or can it? So you keep reading and thinking that there will be an aha moment or maybe not. See, a book that keeps me guessing until the end is, to me, a wonderful read and this was such a wonderful read.

Good descriptive character development and a storyline that was unique or maybe out of the headlines? Hmmmm…. Anyway, I really enjoyed this book.

Thank you to The Book Club Girls, HarperCollins Publishers, NetGalley and the author Emily Gray Tedrowe for the ebook ARC.

I became engrossed quickly because the location was in the Chicago area. Love that she was able to do so many things and figured out how to excel at what she needed.

Posted review elsewhere, but don't remember where, sorry. But I liked it.

I enjoyed the detail of the story and getting to know the characters of Becky and Ingrid. The story line picked up and then kind of trailed off. I was looking for a little more in the end. I didn’t feel there was an a-ha moment. Wanted a little more excitement near the end.
Thanks!

Interesting story of Rebecca Farwell who uses her position at the city to embezzle funds to support her art obsession. With this book we are right there from day one and get a glimpse of how the theft starts small and builds to being out of control. Story was slow in parts but I overall enjoyed this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#TheTalentedMissFarwell #NetGalley

To be honest, this book was disappointing. The author seems to want the reader to like Becky Farwell because she does so much for the town of Pierson and she's such a good friend to Ingrid, but to equally dislike her because she steals from the town. In actuality, Becky is just a horrible person. The real question is how did she get away with what she did for 20-some years.

The sad thing is that this book is based on real events that happened in Dixon, Illinois. I haven't seen anywhere that this is acknowledged - not in the summary, not in an author's note, nor on the author's own website. The author obviously did a lot of research, especially into the world of art collecting, but the last few chapters covering the trial seemed to be nothing more than a summation of newspaper articles written about it.

This was an amazing story. Things like Miss Farwell did really does exist. Was curious of what would happen to Miss Farwell until the very end. Very interesting.