In BITCOIN WIDOW Jennifer Robertson tells her side of the story. After her first marriage ended in divorce Jennifer left Nova Scotia in search of a fresh start. Jennifer moved to Ontario. Here she worked hard to clear herself of debt. Being on her own Jennifer went on a dating site. Here she met Gerry Cotten. Gerry too was a hard working individual. Focused on his career that involved the buying and selling of Bitcoin. Gerry began to amass a phenomenal amount of wealth. Moving back to Nova Scotia the couple lived an opulent lifestyle that included yachts, chartering private jets and multiple houses. The two decided to get married. The wedding was an extravagant affair in Scotland. A small gathering of relatives and friends were flown to Scotland to witness the happy occasion. The newlyweds went to India for their honeymoon and to open a school they were funding. It was in India that Gerry became extremely ill. Suffering from Crohn's disease Gerry ended up in hospital and subsequently died. After much red tape and setbacks Jennifer eventually managed to get Gerry’s body home for the funeral. Gerry’s business partner was informed about his passing and the panic about the business began. Gerry was the holder of the essentials passwords that allowed access to the money. Jennifer and the business partner anxiously awaited for an email to arrive that would allow access to the passwords. Time passed and the numerous investors grew restless wanting their money back. It turns out Gerry was not a financial wizard but a con man. Jennifer claimed she knew nothing about Gerry’s business dealings which the investors found hard to believe. With creditors at her door Jennifer lost her business and most of her and Gerrys’ joint holdings.
I found BITCOIN WIDOW to be an interesting story. It was straightforward and easy to read. I believe it will be up to individual reader as to whether or not they believe that Jennifer Robertson did not know that her husband was a con man and that she too was a victim.
Thank you to Harper Collins Canada and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced digital edition of this book.

I really enjoyed this memoir about a multimillion dollar bitcoin company. It was intriguing and shocking. Looking back, I realised I had read about this case without taking too much notice as, like many, I had no clue about cryptocurrency. I was fascinated by her story and found her to be credible and honest. The writing was evenly paced. 4.5 stars.

Compulsively readable, and fast paced - this memoir was hard to put down. I don’t recall hearing anything about this case, or Jennifer of Gerry when all this happened, so I came to this book with a bit of a blank slate.

The story this book is centred around is salacious, and full of scandal and mystery - so I think people will really be intrigued by, and want to pick up the book. It was a quick read, and interesting enough that i look forward to talking about it more with people.

While the book was intriguing enough that I had a hard time putting it down, I did struggle a bit with this book.

Pretty immediately I was put off by Jennifer’s descriptions and explanations of their travels. The way she describes different cultures, countries, and people kept rubbing me the wrong way. Her descriptions of India, especially, were jarring and pretty harmful - at one point she describes the city scenes as “apocalyptic”.

Jennifer (& Gerry) both have quite a colonial, paternalistic attitude to travel, and towards people from other cultures and communities. Despite their love of travel, it didn’t feel like all of their adventures and travels taught them any kind of empathy or cultural sensitivity - and that combined with their exorbitant spending, and coloured with the dark cloud of Gerry’s criminal activity, and the scandal that surrounded Jennifer made them both pretty unsympathetic and i likeable for me.

There is also casual racism that’s skated by a couple of times - pretty much unaddressed, and definitely not condemned.

If i’m being honest, the writing was pretty mediocre. I did read an advanced reading copy, so it’s possible it will have gone through some more edits by the time it comes out.

I won’t speculate here on Jennifer’s involvement (or lack thereof) in the scandal, or in the criminal activity - and obviously this book is very much HER perspective on HER terms.

Obviously though - the goal is to sell books, and I think this book is going to keep people guessing, and speculating for a while.

(Note: shortly after my netgalley request was approved, I received an advanced reading copy from the publisher, for Indigo’s staff pick of the month program).