This was a compelling read about a confidence of woman who scammed high performing individuals by posing as a business coach online.
I did enjoy reading the book and it was an easy read.

Thank you NetGalley and to the publisher Allen Unwin for the ARC.

Christina is a single mum sharing a granny flat with her son, and desperately trying to better their situation to buy a family home. After spending years slaving behind the scenes for minimum wage for a world-renowned leadership coach, the alias Dr Ruth is born. As Dr Ruth, Christina runs an online coaching business to scam executives, entrepreneurs, and anyone she can get her hands on who is both wealthy and a shitty person. The bulk of her income is made when she uncovers her clients’ dirty laundry and pulls the rug out from under them. As she becomes more confident in her grift, she starts to bend her own rules and has to face the consequences when her two lives collide.

Christina is a great anti-hero because a reasonable person knows two things are true:
1. Scamming people is bad
2. Some people probably deserve it
And that’s why she works so well. Dr Ruth’s main client, Julian, is a very subtle caricature and I could 100% imagine him (and I would scam him too).

I really related to Christina and I loved that her villain origin story was realistic and made it easy to see how Dr Ruth came into existence, but it wasn’t a tortured existence that felt like a pity party. I also enjoyed how the past and present were woven together the most part. Overall I think she has a lot of humanity and there’s a lot of satisfaction by the time we leave her. My one major gripe is that the set-up wasn’t proportionate to the pay-off when it came to the big ‘problem’. I think this is a great pick if you enjoy character-driven fiction, but you find typical lit fic a bit slow.

'People's secrets didn't interest or offend me. I didn't want to hurt anyone. I just need the money, and I kept my word and left people alone once they had paid me'.

Christina was raised by a single dad who, although kind-hearted, was more concerned with taking care of a bar stool in the local pub than being a caretaker of her. But Christina learned from a young age that by keeping quiet and watching the people around you, you could learn society's unwritten rules - and manipulate them to your advantage. After leaving home, with a scholarship to University though, her life still is like an unsolved puzzle, until finally an opportunity to put her skills and 'psychology' together to create an online persona together (well a few of them), 'The model was simple...I aimed to secure either a recording of exploitable information from the client, or a renewal for another package...'. All she wants is a deposit on a house, and telling people what they want to hear can't really be that bad, can it?

'The Confidence Woman' is an enjoyable story about a woman who finds herself becoming a scammer through opportunity and necessity. However, having always been a loner who needed to rely upon herself in order to get ahead, she begins to realise there's more to living than just her singular goal of saving.

Although I don't live in Australia or Melbourne, as a fellow Antipodean I enjoyed all the local references and colloquial nuances of this story, as they added a layer of believability to the tale. I did feel like the story wrapped up very quickly and neatly but, overall, I enjoyed the tale of an opportunistic scammer with a kind heart.

I love a book where the location feels real, and this book was set in my home town of Melbourne, and in regional Victoria and it really captured the feeling of the city. It also really captured the inflated housing market and the desperate position this has put some people in. Chrissie is a single mother, doing the best she can, and this book explores how she entered her precarious situation. It has more of my favourite things - found family, personal growth and good writing. the ending felt a little rushed and a little too neat for me, but it wasn't discordant.
As an aside, it made me giggle that Christina lives Northside, and never - not once, goes south of the river this entire book. Ah Melbourne, I love you.
Sophie Quick is a strong writer - I enjoyed this book and look forward to her future writing.

Thanks to NetGalley and Allen and Unwin for giving me a free e-Arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was definitely a unique read as we delve into the blurred lines of Christina / Ruth and explore the reasons that lead to these decisions.

This story is interesting, but took a while to work out initially. It’s the story of Christina who didn’t have the best childhood. Then it’s the story of Dr Ruth Carlisle, who we find out is Christina. Then things started to make more sense. Seeing why a person would create a whole new persona for themselves I they can get ahead in life makes sense in the story, but it really shows the lengths that people will go to in order to get a better life.
Thank you to NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for an advanced copy of this book for an honest review.