This was a pretty good book. It was unique and it kept me entertained and engaged. I'll definitely be on the look out for more by this author.

I love a mystery, and Lina Chern's "Play the Fool" jumped right in, giving readers a story to untangle. Katie True's lackluster life quickly becomes full of nonstop thrills when her best friend is murdered... maybe? Viewing everything through the lens of her tarot cards, Katie works to figure out what happened to her friend in an engaging and fun story.

I was drawn to this book by the cover, and I loved the angle of having a (not so cozy, I suppose) mystery with a tarot card reader. I liked that the main characters weren’t perfect, and don’t even try to pretend they are. I’m not quite sure on the whole plot line being wrapped up, I felt like there were some loose ends there. There were a lot of characters introduced that you need to keep track of, which could be hard with the main character bouncing all over.

Katie can’t commit to any job or career. She had held a bunch of low expectation jobs over the years since she moved back to her hometown from Chicago. And now her one friend from her job at the mall is missing, so she turns to her trusty tarot cards to try and figure out what is going on.

"A cynical tarot card reader seeks to uncover the truth about her friend's mysterious death in this delightfully clever whodunit, "a delicious blend of suspense and madcap humor" (Library Journal, starred review).

For Katie True, a keen gut and quick wit are just tools of the trade. After a failed attempt at adulting in Chicago, she's back in the suburbs living a bit too close to her overbearing parents, jumping from one dead-end job to the next, and flipping through her tarot deck for guidance. Then along comes Marley.

Mysterious, worldly, and comfortable in her own skin, Marley takes a job at the mall where Katie peddles Russian tchotchkes. The two just get each other. Marley doesn't try to fix Katie's life or pretend to be someone she's not, and Katie thinks that with Marley's friendship, she just might make it through this rough patch after all. Until the day when Katie, having been encouraged by Marley to practice soothsaying, reads the cards for someone who stumbles into her shop. But when she sneaks a glance at his phone, she finds more than intel to improve her clairvoyance. She finds a photo. Of Marley. With a gunshot wound to the head.

The bottom falls out of Katie's world. Her best friend is dead? Who killed her? She quickly realizes there are some things her tarot cards can't foresee, and she must put her razor-sharp instincts to the ultimate test. But Katie's recklessness lands her in the crossfire of a threat she never saw coming. Now she must use her street smarts and her inner Strength card to solve Marley's murder - or risk losing everything."

I'm always here for the mystical and murder!

“Sometimes, you just have to
Play the role of a fool to
Fool the fool who thinks
They are fooling you.”
(Unable to find the original source)

Katie True is a young woman who consults tarot cards for personal guidance. As a child, she learned how to read tarot—and people—from her aunt; skills that lead her towards a career in tarot card reading. Back in her hometown after another perceived failure, she has a dead-end job, a dump for an apartment, no friends, and family that think she should be doing more than working at a Russian Emporium in an empty mall. All she has is her brother Owen, until she meets and befriends Marley: a woman of mystery. When Marley disappears, Katie finds herself using her skills of reading people to aid in her investigation of Marley’s fate (and past). Along the way, she deals with kidnappings, organized crime, drug running, and a varied cast of characters. She also finds a renewed purpose in life.

The title references the Fool tarot card which can indicate a new adventure, a new beginning, innocence, youth, idealism, and lack of commitment: words and phrases that perfectly describe Katie. However, the title can also mean to feign ignorance; or to act like a buffoon.

Play the Fool is the debut novel by Lina Chern. However, you could not tell by her writing. She gives us intriguing characters, a solid plot, excellent prose, and humor. The book is well-paced and twisty.

I highly recommend this book.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Bantam for the opportunity to read and review this fun read.

My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for an advanced copy of this mystery featuring tarot cards, growing up and learning to trust one's self as well as what the cards show.

Detectives who use the power of magic and divination, or at least pretend to, have been solving crimes for a very long time. To tell someone their future, one must understand their present, and that means a keen eye for detail, and the ability to get the person talking and sharing. Great detectives share that secret with great seers, and/or great con people, as most prognosticators tend to be. One can claim powers from beyond, but sometimes seeing how a person reacts to simple questions tells a person more than the spirits ever could. Or maybe the detective/ tarot card reader has a real gift. Play the Fool by writer Lina Chern features an aimless young lady, with a gift for tarot on her first mystery, and possibly a better future.

Katie True is back in her hometown after an attempt at living in the big city of Chicago, working as a clerk in a Russian souvenir shop, and wondering where and when life went wrong. Katie's only real friend in town Marley works in the Hot Topic- like store across the mall, and is the one bright spot in Katie's existence. Marley just is, not judgy, but supportive, fun, mysterious and different. Sunday is the deadest time in her dead end job and Katie is running a quick tarot reading for herself in order to stay awake. A customer who looks like his day has been worse than Katie's enters and on the spur of the moment, Katie offers him a reading for twenty bucks. Katie's Aunt had done readings in the carnival circuit and had taught Katie how to cold read people, and give them a fortune, that might mesh with their life. The only future that Katie sees in this reading though is trouble and Katie is suddenly right in it.

The book has a lot going on, though it sounds like a cozy mystery, this is a little violent for a cozy, with a bit of romance, and Bildungsroman. Katie is a little petulant and annoying in that sitcom way that makes woman characters seem like children in the beginning, but does grow as a character as the story goes on. There is a little bit of suspension of belief also, but that is common in most mysteries and a lot of stories, so that was fine. I did like Katie better as she seemed to grow into herself, and the mystery is good, as is the story that accompanies the tarot cards. Actually I enjoyed the tarot and its descriptions on how to read people, the most.

Recommended for readers who like mysteries with characters finding themselves and learning to get along with what life gives them. I am not sure if this is a start of a series, but I would be interested to see where Katie is going, and more about tarot cards.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Play the Fool.

Katie True is a typical middle child; she works an aimless job, adores tarot cards, and is still figuring out her path in life.

When her only friend, Marley, is murdered, she pulls a Nancy Drew and commits to solving the murder, committing to one of the only things she's ever done in her life.

But will it get her murdered, too?

Katie is a likable character; a bit of a mess, not focused but decent, not unkind. She's not sure what she's good at yet, tarot cards for sure, but can't quite figure out what she wants in life, not unlike so many of us.

When she teams up with a kind police detective, she gets more than she bargained for, and realizes trying to solve Marley's murder and learning her true identity would lead Katie to finding her own true self.

The writing is good, from Katie's first person perspective with an easy flow and rhythm.

The narrative isn't very suspenseful or thrilling; the pacing is a bit slow as Katie gets into misunderstood shenanigans and leads her own Nancy Drew investigations, getting into trouble time and time again.

Some of the scenarios require serious disbelief suspension, not the least being how quickly the cop pulls Katie into his confidence and how fast they develop a friendship.

There's a twist at the end I didn't see coming (part of the disbelief suspension) but by that time, it was easy to go along for the ride.

This was a good debut with a character you can relate to. I look forward to reading more by this author.

Katie True is simply moving her life from one dead-end job to the next after losing the one job she's ever truly enjoyed; reading tarot at a cafe.  With solid intuition and sarcasm, she does her absolute best to keep herself afloat, even if that's just working at a Russian import store and befriending a woman named Marley who works at the store right across from here. Though they become fast friends, Marley is short with her answers and keeps most of her life close to the chest. When a man stumbles into her store one day, acting extremely weird, she offers to read his tarot cards. In an attempt to get a feel for him, she sneaks a peak at his phone and discovers a photo of Marley, with a gunshot wound to the head. Katie puts her instincts to the test and starts to stalk the man with the photo. She soon discovers there is far more to Marley than she ever thought, and it might be putting her life in danger. 

Lina Chern's Play the Fool uses tarot references to help the characters come to life. For those who have only a passing knowledge of tarot, this can be fun an interesting. Katie is an interesting character, but there were multiple times in this book where all I could think was "please make better choices, girl."  The mystery in the book is enjoyable, but at times feels longer than necessary and sometimes falls back in on itself.  Truth be told, I'd rather have had an entire book with Marley as the main character than Katie. Still, Play the Fool is an enjoyable read. 

Play the Fool is available March 28th.

Thank you to Net Galley and to the publisher. My review opinion is my own. I enjoyed learning about the protagnist Kate and her somewhat questionable talents as a tarot reader. This is a unique cozy and the first time I have found a cozy with the protagnist as a tarot reader. Kate is stumbling through a do over in life and has found she can make a marginal living reading cards while she avoids the opinions of her parents . When she finds out a friend was murdered she is on the case and determined to solve this mystery.

The mystery kept my interest to conclusion. I like the supporting charcters who I hope will continue in the next in series. kate is a fairly in mature protagnist and has a lot of growing up to do. A interesting theme cozy.

Interesting premise but kind of felt bogged down in the middle. I felt like the characters had a lot of potential but weren't really fleshed out. It was an okay read.

Thanks to the publisher & NetGalley for advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

Unfortunately not my cup of tea. The premise sounded interesting, but fell flat in practice. Certainly not a bad read, but think we can pass on this one for the collection.

A mystery where a tarot card reader investigates the mysterious murder of her best friend. I was expecting for this to pull me in a lot earlier/more than it did. It’s a decent mystery but I think it didn’t live up to its potential.

Gave this novel a fair shot, but couldn't get past 35%

While I liked the premise of the plot, I just could not get past the under achiever status of the main protagonist, Katie. Failing at just about everything she does, she is resigned to working at a dead end job retailing knick knacks. But she's pretty good at tarot card reading and uses that talent to swindle unsuspecting and gullible people. A grifter in my book.

Katie's friend Marley isn't the best role model either. and neither are her employers and acquaintances. A truly depressing scenario.

There wasn't much suspense and the novel was pretty lackluster in my opinion. At 35% I expected more excitement or a crescendo toward an epic finale. But, there wasn't anything there.

I wanted to like the book but had some reservations about it because of the cover. Flashy, yes. But content-wise, it was another story. Sadly, Play the Fool wasn't a novel for me. One star -- a DNF as I didn't care for it.

I received a digital ARC from Penguin Random House through NetGalley. The review herein is completely my own and contains my honest thoughts and opinions.

This was one of my favorite books in a long time! The writing was beautiful, and the characters were wonderful. I couldn’t put this one down!

Who doesn’t love a fun murder mystery novel?
The thing that I enjoyed most about this story is the use of tarot cards. Tarot cards (and readers) have always been a huge fascination of mine. I think the author did a fabulous job with that aspect. This book started out promising, however, it wasn’t the right choice for me. I found Katie annoying and parts of the story felt unrealistic and rushed. I finished the book and liked how I couldn’t guess the ending.

Even though this book wasn’t right for me, this would be a perfect read for someone who likes cozy reads that are more on the darker side.

Thanks NetGalley for this advanced copy I’m exchange for an honest review!

Play the Fool is an entertaining mystery debut novel featuring a fun, witty female protagonist. Katie, the main character, is somewhat unlikeable, and if you are a lover of a true cozy mystery (although I didn’t find this book necessarily “cozy”), she might disappoint. But I loved her. I loved how quirky she was, and that she was fairly clumsy in conducting her own personal investigation into her friend’s murder. I also really appreciated Katie’s sense of humor, and I found myself laughing out loud quite a few times while reading.
The ending is predictable, and I didn’t find the story twisty, but I still enjoyed this read. I would love to see this evolve into a series with Katie utilizing her psychic abilities more! I look forward to checking out this author’s next book.
Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam/Random House for a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a good story. I think it will be a book club pick for many. Highly recommend this one!

Rating: 3.75 Stars Rounded Up to 4

This debut mystery release will be perfect for fans of Holly Jackson’s A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder. Play the Fool follows Katie True as she seeks to solve her friend’s mysterious murder. It is a fast paced muder-mystery that is an easy, light-hearted and comedic read.

Katie is in her twenties and is feeling a little lost in life as she struggles to figure out who she is and find the courage to go after what she really wants in life. She has a knack for reading people but no real desire to do anything else. I honestly found Katie annoying because she was so rash in her decisions and continued to make outrageously dumb decisions. This combined with how unrealistic the plot made this book feel more young adult to me.

I enjoyed the references to tarot cards throughout the book and how the book delves into the art of reading tarot cards - I just wish they would include images of the tarot cards for those of us less familiar. I thought the theme of finding yourself and finding the courage to pick yourself out of the low points in life was inspiring and well done. However, I felt that the ending didn’t wow me. There were good plot twists, but I didn’t feel like the clues to the ending were spread out enough throughout the story.

I would recommend this to fans of YA mysteries or looking for a lighter thriller read. I would not recommend this to more seasoned thriller or mystery readers. I would also recommend this to fans of tarot cards as the book is filled with fun references.

I’d like to thank Netgalley and Penguin Random House’s Ballantine publishers for providing me with a digital ARC of this book for my honest review.

Katie is a tarot card reader who turns amateur detective after she sees a photo of her best friend Marley with a gunshot wound to the head. This one isn’t quite thrilling enough to be a thriller, but it’s a little darker than a cozy mystery. This book wasn’t quite sure what it wanted to be (Murder mystery? Romance?) and the plot gets kind of chaotic and unrealistic. The author deserves props for her well-done and sensitive representation of queer and neurodiverse characters, especially Owen.

This book would be great for someone who loves the tarot, but as a person who isn’t knowledgeable about tarot cards, this aspect didn’t do much for me. Readers who like a little edge to their cozy mysteries will likely enjoy this book too.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine Books for providing me an advance copy of this book.

Snarky and snappily-paced, this tarot-themed murder mystery will have you wondering what's a clue and what's magic. The cards look good for this debut author!