What a crazy life Tanya has lived and what an honor it is that we get to read about it. I had to keep reminding myself that this is a true story and just wow I struggle withdrawing my own money from an ATM. Though Tanya was figuring out how to make transfers and get peoples lights back on as a teen. This is a great read!

Thank you Hachette Audio and Netgalley for the advance listening copy of this gripping story about Tanya Smith, a blank woman from Minneapolis, MN who stole millions from the banking system. I found this memoir to be engaging and action packed. I was hoping there would be a larger message to take away from this book but it just didn't deliver.

This was definitely a fascinating read, one that I easily could have dismissed as too hard to believe had it been a fiction novel. Tanya Smith, figuring out a lot of social engineering trips on her own at a young age, sees herself as a modern Robin Hood and eventually ends up hacking her way to millions of dollars. While the book focuses on how Smith managed to do this, most of the book ends up focusing on what happened after the FBI started closing in. Much like with the memoir Sociopath, some of the things in this feel questionable just because the storyteller is so incredibly good at lying, but there are actual news clippings from the mentioned events.
I enjoyed the pacing of this memoir a lot as the tension built up and I’m not surprised this has been optioned for a movie already.
The audiobook, narrated by Robin Miles (who I loved from Caste & The Fifth Season), was definitely fun to listen to and easy to follow.

Thank you so much to Hachette Audio for the ALC!

Wowza and yikes! I kept checking to make sure this wasn’t fiction! Sometimes it’s hard to believe it’s all real. What a story! Could not put this down.

Would recommend for fans of Catch Me if You Can or Hustlers (the JLo movie).

Thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown for the advanced audio book.

This was a wild ride! It was fascinating (and a bit disturbing) to hear how easily Smith was able to outsmart the banking system. While her motives started out noble, she definitely fell under the trap of getting too greedy and paying the consequences.

This book piqued my interest from the time I read the title and hooked me from prologue through to the epilogue! I was able to finish it in less than a day and I have to say, Ms. Smith has lived quite a life!

I had never heard of Tanya Smith and have not been able to find much about her crimes online due to various newspapers' paywalls, however the book purports to be a true story and I think it is amazing how she was able to use her smarts to manipulate a system that was designed to keep her down. Her writing is gripping and it is near impossible to hit pause as you want to find out what happens next.
Smith began by using telephone tricks in the early 80's as a child to obtain her favorite celebrities' phone numbers and after some discouragement slowly moved into committing financial crimes and giving the money away to others she felt deserved the money. She lived a lavish lifestyle, rubbing elbows with celebrities and well-connected individuals until it all came crashing down and through it all, she maintains a forward-facing attitude that helps her think her way through to how to move on from certain predicaments. In the end, it is her ingenuity and innate intelligence that help her to survive and thrive.

I was surprised to learn that the book was read by someone other than Tanya Smith herself, as Robin Miles' performance convinced me that this was her story! The conviction with which she read certain parts felt as if she lived through these experiences herself. The book was read at a good pace and with great emphasis where needed. It was an enjoyable read/listen.

This audible was produced by Jen Patton-Sanchez (sp?) and the post-production work was by Lepton Productions. I really wish audiobooks came with this information written somewhere as I am never sure of how to spell names when I hear them. This team did a great job of capturing the suspense involved in Smith's story, keeping up the quick pace that makes the readers/listener want to continue to the next chapter, and ending the book on just the right note so that you feel satisfied with the conclusion, although I'd love to know what Ms. Smith is up to nowadays...

I want to thank Hachette Audio Production and Netgalley for allowing me access to the Never Saw Me Coming Advanced Reader's Copy audiobook.

Quite an interesting story. It was very well narrated. I enjoyed hearing all about how Tanya manipulated the banking system. Very good read.

I’m so bummed to not have liked this book. But seriously WTF was going on? It just didn’t make any sense. I tried starting it over like three times and for a person who grew up on Michael Jackson I just was like this is weird and not a good weird. I did love the narrator. I just couldn’t make it through the whole book.

This audiobook was made available for me to listen to and review by Tanya Smith, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley.

I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting from this memoir but the narrative far surpassed my expectations. The narrative really takes the reader back to the very beginning: the author listening to the Jackson Five as a kid. The reader is walked through Ms. Smith's exploits from minor infractions to increasingly risky endeavors. This was exciting, surprising, and I found myself rooting for Ms. Smith.

I've seen comparisons to the movie 'Catch Me if You Can' with Leonardo DiCaprio & Tom Hanks in other reviews. This has a very similar premise and would make a fantastic TV show or movie. Of course, CMIYC was based on the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr, a con artist who is recruited by the FBI after her success. Tanya was equally successful and equally intelligent. It feels like the FBI didn't find her similarly useful based on gender and race. The prison sentence was the hardest aspect of this story. Certainly Ms. Smith was wrong for how she operated but with a convicted felon as a presidential candidate her sentencing feels unfair.

This was enjoyable, smartly written and fairly exciting for a memoir. I highly recommend this .

This audiobook is narrated by Robin Miles. While I somewhat would've enjoyed hearing this narrated in the authors voice, Robin is an excellent choice for narrator. Robin is am actor and able to convey enough emotion that almost felt like fiction.

Thank you to Tanya Smith, Hachette Audio, and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to and review this audiobook. All opinions and viewpoints expressed in this review are my own.

Corrupted file - error in download/playback, could not listen. Was really looking forward to this read!

This book was awesome! I liked the narrator. I loved how the book started with her love of Michael Jackson, the book was a good pace of telling the story of how Tanya was able to continue to evade the feds and continue her scheme. I felt bad every time she gave her heart to man, and they proved to just be using her. I also think about how much further she would've have been had she stopped involving the men she was dating into her business. All around a great read. After I finished reading, I realized Tanya is the reason for all the fail safes at the bank! HAHAHA

I listened to an advanced copy of the audiobook

Review of the audiobook : 4 stars
The narrator is good and clear at speeds 0.5x-2.5x
My only critic is that there's no chapter breaks (no chapter number or break in the story) so unless you look at your phone/computer you can't know when to naturally pause

Review of the book : 5 stars
I loved this memoir, I cannot comment on how factual or true the events told are as I had never heard of this person before but the way the information is told, the way her story is built up is so compelling, there is a very good balance of personal thoughts and experiences and pertinent critic of the justice system and I am always a fan of stories of true crime that don't have victims (stealing money from banks).

Such an interesting read, entertaining but also a good portrait of how women and especially black women are treated by authorities and the judicial system in the United States.


Thank you NetGalley and Hachette Audio | Little, Brown & Company for the opportunity to read this book.

This was fantastic. I really enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this audiobook!

This story is so strange and outrageous that it's almost unbelievable. Tanya Smith chronicles her life since her teenage years (early 70's) until the early 2000's. As I'm listening to the audiobook, I kept thinking how smart she was and how she wasted her intelligence doing corrupt things.

The story reminded me of Catch Me if You Can by Frank Abengale who eluded the FBI for many years. The story is interesting but very long and drawn out in parts. The audiobook is narrated by the author so you get the sense of her timeline in her own words. It was hard to be sympathetic about her story at times. I honestly feel a lot of mixed emotions. One minute it's fascinating and another I'm left feeling sad for her.

Check it out if you want to get in insight into an interesting but troubled life.