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@Barrie Summy
book review blogs
@Barrie Summy
It's time for book reviews!
This month I will be reviewing My Friend Anna The True Story of a Fake Heiress by Rachel DeLoache Williams.
This is one of those things where I had heard on the news something about a fake heiress but I didn't pay all that much attention to it. I'm not sure what, if anything, I could have said about it. Then the author of this book went on Good Morning America to promote her book. I rarely watch interviews with people I've never heard of but for some reason I watched this one. She said she'd gone on a trip with Anna Delvey and that when she got home she got a text saying she owed $70,000 for the trip. THAT piqued my interest in the story and I ordered this book online.
The book starts off in Morocco where Anna and Rachel were vacationing at a $7,500 a night resort. Anna had offered to pay all trip expenses but management at the resort were having difficulty having payment go through on Anna's card so they seemed to take position in the room until the issue was resolved. They eventually asked Rachel if she had a credit card the charges could be put on. She agreed to let them take her credit card but only as a temporary hold until Anna could sort out her finances to pay for the trip.
They left the resort to go on a tour that Rachel had understood to be pre-charged to the resort room but when the tour was over, they were asked for payment. This was when Rachel realized that the resort had not returned her personal credit card. Someone from where they had taken the tour came back to them to the resort and Rachel swapped out her personal credit card (which they refused to release without payment) for her corporate AMEX (which she was adamant that they NOT use for anything!) and she went back with the tour guy and paid for the tour on her personal credit card.
Anna was still "resolving" her financial issues when Rachel left Morocco. When Rachel got home she realized that more than $36,000 had been applied to her personal credit card and more than $16,000 had been applied to her corporate AMEX. She had told them not to use her corporate AMEX but they had apparently recorded the information in their files and applied the balance to it when Anna checked out of the resort.
At this point in the book Rachel tells the story of how she met Anna and how their relationship progressed. They met through mutual friends / acquaintances and became fast friends. They went out a lot and the stories she told reminded me a lot of Sex and the City. (When I went to pull the picture for the review I saw that the book was like Sex and the City meets Catch Me if You Can and that truly fits this story!)
On most outings Anna would pay but on occasion she would say she didn't have her wallet or credit card and ask Rachel to pay. For the most part Rachel didn't mind because Anna was paying for a lot of things. But she talks about how things started with her being asked to pay for things she could afford to pay for and then suddenly the expenses became overwhelming.
It was a very interesting story to read about. I didn't want to put the book down, even though I knew how things worked out for Anna, the fake heiress. Rachel was instrumental in bringing down Anna and even testified against her in court. The book talks about things that happened in mid-May of this year and the book was released on July 23rd so this was as hot off the press as you can get without living it!
I feel like we've all known someone who lives a life we wish we had - not that there's ever anything wrong with the lives we lead but this other person seems more glamorous or something to us and we're drawn to it. I think that's what Anna was to Rachel and why she believed all the lies she was told. It's also why Rachel was an easy target to exploit. It gives such an insight to human relationships why we might fall victim to this type of thing. I found it a fascinating read - something I was not expecting. I had used points to pay for all but ~$5.00 of the book and I fully expected to think I'd grossly overpaid and that wasn't the case. In short, it tells the story of the fake princess from the side of a victim.
For more reviews, go to barriesummy.blogspot.com.
7 comments:
Isn't funny how we come across books sometimes? I like your explanation for how Rachel fell prey to Anna. It's scary, though. I think most of us tend to believe what a friend tells us, especially if we've spent a certain amount of time together, as these two had. Thank you for reviewing!
Does sound fascinating. Thanks for making it seem so.
Wow, what a story. I wonder if I would have fallen for the scam?
Phyllis, There was a story in the book about how Rachel and a mutual friend (a private trainer) decided to hold an intervention with Anna. The trainer brought a friend with her. If there was a connection with this person and Anna and Rachel, I don't recall reading it. In any event, she was hard nosed about the situation and insistent that Rachel and the trainer stay strong with Anna during the intervention. Any time they might feel bad for Anna she came in strong and called BS on Anna. At the end of the night they left the restaurant together with each person peeling away from the group when they reached their street. The next morning Rachel contacted the take no prisoners friend of the trainer and got a response along the lines of "can't talk now, Anna had no place to go last night so she came home with me last night and is still asleep on my couch." At some point after Rachel and the trainer went their own ways Anna went to work on the friend and convinced her to take her in. I think any con can fool even the hardest of people (not that I'm saying the friend was hardened) with the right bait. They just have to find where you're most vulnerable and play on that and it seems that Anna was very good at doing that.
What an awful situation to be in!
It must have been so hard to realize that she was being used. Sounds like the book got excellent promotional coverage. Now I see you use Blogger. I'm not sure why you are having posting comments to my blog. Are you signed in under your Google account? Thanks for the email letting me know about your difficulties. - Margy
At least justice was served and hopefully she'll get back her money through book sales. What a nightmare!
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