Katie True'a life is rough. She works at dead end jobs and relays on her tarot cards to guide her (and make an occasional extra cash). When her friend from work dies, she attempts to find out what happened to her friend. This mystery has it's up and downs and finding out the truth to what happened to her friend.
If you are interested in Tarot, like mystery books or reading new and up coming author's, Play the Fool is for you! I cannot wait to read more books by this author!

Katie True works at a mall selling Russian knick-knacks. To say her life is a complete mess is an understatement. Katie has been fired from every job she ever had, didn’t finish college, she is living in a dump, her sister Jessie calls the Sketchy Pines. The only thing Katie feels she is good at is reading people while she reads their Tarot cards and her friendship with Marley. So, when she sees a picture of Marley dead, she has to figure out what happened to her best friend. This starts a whole cycle of screw-ups, being chased by mob types and run-ins with the police, specifically a hot detective named Jamie.

The story has a few flashbacks of Katie and Marley for background but otherwise builds from the death of Marley. What was Marley involved in to cause her death? Who was Marley? So many things Katie didn’t know about Marley. The author does a good job, of leading the reader down the mysterious path of Marley. The simmering tension between Jamie and Katie is sweet. The way Katie takes care of her autistic brother, Owen is heartwarming. Characters are well developed, the story is an enjoyable read, I found myself rooting for Katie, wanting her to succeed, to feel good about herself. If you like a good mystery, fun characters, a little romance, some family dynamics and an underdog then this story is for you. If you don’t like any of those things, still read the story, you’ll enjoy it.

Katie True is a young woman who just can’t seem to get her life going. Her impulsiveness often creating more problems for her. She is rudderless and seems to be anchored by her fondness for tarot.

A chance meeting sends Katie on a Who-Done-It quest to solve a local murder.

The book has some uneven pacing but if the reader can stick with it, they’ll find a fun mystery with many twists and turns.

I am not quite into mystery but I was curious with such a eye-catching cover. I can say I enjoyed reading it. A whodunit that took me on twist and turns, I loved the storyline. It was entertaining from the very beginning.

Thank you Lina Chern, Random, House Publishing, and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. Play the Fool comes out March 28, 2023.

Play the Fool is a murder mystery novel about Katie, a tarot card reader that has been bouncing from one dead end job to another. Her most recent job is a sales person at the mall, there she meets Marley, a women who also bounces from job to job and city to city. They start a friendship and everything is going great until Katie is doing a tarot reading and while he is in the bathroom she finds a picture of Marley shot in the head on his phone. What ensues after that is a race to find her killer, with the added complication of a angry crime family and the fact that no one can find Marley's body.

I thought this was a interesting novel, I am usually a romance reader but thought I would try something different. I think the author's writing style keep me interested, the beginning is a little slow but once you get into it it picks up. I also think that Katie was able to go through a little character growth, and have a start of a little romance. In the end though the ending was a little predictable and I felt like the way things unraveled all of the struggle Katie went through was for nothing. Overall though I found it a very enjoyable read.

I really enjoyed reading this thriller-mystery about Katie True who is a skeptical tarot card reader. Katie’s semi-friend Marley has gone missing, and she stumbles into the middle of a mystery. While some of the details in the story seem far-fetched, I’d definitely say this story feels very small-town mystery in the reading. Something that I haven’t experienced very often in writing was having a main character hyper-focused on an object in the way that Katie is hyper-focused on her tarot cards. While she calls herself skeptical, she still relates each interaction she experiences directly to the cards in her mind, and I found it fascinating and enjoyable.

While I was slightly confused with her relationship with the detective Jamie (a lot of will they/won’t they), I very much enjoyed this book and the way the story wrapped up in the end.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the E-ARC.

I enjoyed this mystery that shares the life of Katie True, a hard on her luck twenty-something, that spends her days working at a tchotchke shop in a dying Chicago area mall. We learn through a card reading in her store that Katie's friend, Marley, is dead. That is not a spoiler!! This is the point where the fun and adventure begins.

I loved Katie as the far from perfect protagonist. Some of the decisions she made had me cringing and I was totally questioning her decision making ability. These decisions made this book fast to read and full of adventure. The supporting characters are really fun and you see a lot of character growth during this who done it! This book reminded me of Lisa Lutz's Spellman Series.

I really enjoyed this book and thank Netgalley for the ARC.

Katie True (yes, that’s her real name) is a tarot card reader. Well, she’s mostly a people reader. When trying to scam a customer out of $20 by going through his phone, she instead finds a picture of her friend Marley with a bullet in her head. Determined to find out what happened, she launches her own investigation into Marley’s death and makes some enemies along the way.

I certainly enjoyed this book, though it lacks the polished feel of some books. The concept was fun and felt original because of the addition and references to tarot throughout. The writing felt true to Katie’s personality, misguided but genuine. I was intrigued by the storyline, though parts felt predictable. The twists and turns of the book keeps the reader on their toes along the whole book.

In terms of characters, I loved seeing the juxtaposition of Katie and Marley as characters. Laid back, searching for herself Katie vs. the ever confident and sly Marley. The characters themselves and their voices were written well, distinct but both relatable. I understand the addition of Jamie as the cop in the picture, but didn’t care much for his character or his romance with Katie.

While the book felt a little slow, overall it was a fun little who-done-it mystery that kept me on my toes.

A dead beat tarot reader living in the suburbs, jumping from one dead end job to the next has to solve the murder of her best friend...and things are going to get messy. Katie True has one good talent: tarot reading, she’s not motivated to do much else and just seems to be chilling in her dead end job, living in the suburbs close to her overbearing parents. She then meets Marley, a mysterious and worldly older woman who befriends Katie at the mall. They become fast friends and Katie finally has a best friend, or what you can call someone you eat lunch with a lot and know for two months. Yet when a sketchy guy comes into Katie’s job where she sells Russian tchotchkes she gives him a tarot reading, only to look at his phone while he’s gone to get a “better reading” on him and finds a photo of Marley with a gunshot wound to the head. Things quickly spiral as Katie makes it her job to find out what happened to Marley and who killed her. Throw in a dorky but cute cop, an autistic brother, and the fact that Marley isn’t actually who she says she is and soon Katie is on her way to going down a rabbit hole her cards never foresaw. The book started off fun but quickly lost momentum by the 2/3 mark. I found the mystery to lose itself a bit and the fun of the initial part of the book faded. I was hoping for a bit more but it honestly just fell off for me and I found myself not really caring about the mystery or the characters by the end of the book. While it didn’t work for me, definitely give it a go if you are a fan of tarot and mysteries.

*Thanks Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.
Play the Fool is Lina Chern's debut novel. This novel was a good murder mystery type and I loved it! We follow Katie True as she tries to uncover the truth about what happened to her friend. I loved Katie, she was different from the usual main character who always has it together or knows exactly what to do. Katie does not have life figured out and doesn't really know what she wants out of life either. She is quirky, calls herself lazy, which she's not, she gets distracted from the mundane, do it all the time routine easily, forgets simple things and isn't a clean fanatic, but when she's focused she really goes for it.
I had a hard time putting the novel down. I would read a few chapters and keep telling myself, one more chapter. The pacing was great, a lot of the chapter endings left me wanting to know what happened next, it was not easy to figure out exactly what was going on, and the characters are great. Really hoping we get more Katie True stories.

i went into this thinking i would love it and i did! up until the romance thing started happening and the mystery wasn't really being solved and you know the drill the mystery spirals into some wack ending whatever
but the author has a great writing style that really drew me in and made this book fly by

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the advanced reader copy of Play the Fool! I absolutely loved this book. The plot was original and had me gripped. I especially loved the rich characters, whose development was central and parallel to the mystery plot without taking away too much.

The protagonist was flawed in a very believable, post-pandemic world kind of way, just trying to keep one foot in front of the other. Various other characters represented neurodivergent folks with differing behaviors and personalities that informed who they were without being plot devices, which was heartwarming and refreshing.

Lina Chern has mastered human behavior, human emotion, and tarot, and she’s wrapped them all together in a beautiful and thrilling work that I’ll remember for years to come!

The beginning was slow for me. I liked the quirky characters. The book didn’t come off as realistic. It had nothing to do with the tarot cards. Those time were my favorite. It was just how the storyline was written. Not all books have to be realistic and it was an amusing read. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced free copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me with a copy for an honest review

I think the cover and the premise of the book are SO GOOD!

The first third of the book was my favorite. I loved learning more about Katie. The beginning leaves you skeptical as though we are made to believe Katie is a talented tarot reader, we first see her as a scammer. I dont know why but that made me laugh so much.

Katie sees an image in her head of her best friend dead, she tries to go to the police to figure out why but of course they cannot do anything because as of that moment no crime has been committed.

This read more as a cozy mystery, but I will say that the romance was not done very well and felt VERY forced.
I also feel like the last half was very rushed, and the ending was pretty easily guessed.

Overall, enjoyable and quick read but too my favorite book I have read this year.

Not gonna lie this book was a bit confusing. Maybe because it wasn’t quite what I expected

Thank you NetGalley for the watch in exchange for an honest review

At first I was wholly intrigued. This story held a dark and mystical aura that circled the mystery of what happened to Marley. But it slowly drifted to ironic comedy. I was confused. The mystic in Katie became a joke. I loathed the romance plot and the mystery was lukewarm. This story took a turn for the worst, unfortunately.

Play the Fool tells the story of Katie True - an unfulfilled rich girl living on her own and without any direction. She is working at a Russian Tchotchke shop, her most recent in a line of serial dead-end jobs. She has some kind of assumed passion for Tarot card reading and those same cards are used throughout for Katie to make sense of actions and events that occur throughout the novel.

After Katie accidentally sees a picture of her best friend Marley shot dead in the head she can't leave it alone until she finds out what happened. The police won't officially intervene because No Body No Crime and Katie's word is apparently not good enough.

When considering the pure enjoyment of this novel, I would say it is meh. Katie was cute and fun but this novel was more silly as if the point of the novel was to write a joke. The romance was lukewarm at best and although the mystery was decent the novel altogether just didn't land for me.

I feel like if Katie actually had Tarot card reading ability (other than knowing what all the cards mean) would have helped, even some quasi-magical realism to it would have been really cool. It's so odd to me that this novel is leaning up against Tarot card reading and the main character isn't a boss bitch at tarot card reading. She goes on and says how good she is at reading people and then shows how she actually isn't on multiple occasions.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this digital ARC.

Katie is a down on her luck tarot card reader working at a mall in the suburbs of Chicago. Her wealthy family generally regards her as a screw-up and she has done little in the way of making her apartment a home or having a social life. Her only thing close to a friend is Marley, a woman works in a store close to hers. They hang out on their breaks and get drunk on the weekend once. Katie feels she is a kindred spirit, trying to find her purpose in life. Little does she know, there is much more to her friend than meets the eye. When Marley goes missing, Katie has reason to believe she is dead, potentially murdered by a spurned lover. She uses her tarot skills to find clues into the unfolding mystery. She ends up gettting involved with the police who, without solid evidence, don't provide too much support.

What I Enjoyed:
-I loved the general premise
-Katie was a well-developed, relatable character
-Liked how she carried the cards with her everywhere she went and constantly had cards shuffling and popping out in her minds' eye
-The pacing in the first half of the book
-Perfectly captured the not-quite friendship of co-workers who bond but don't really share too much of their personal life
-Cozy mystery feel, don't really see this as a thriller

What I Did Not Enjoy:
-The whole love interest with the cop felt unneccesary and trite
-There was too much going on in the last half of the book that made it seem wildly unrealistic
-Predictable ending

Overall, this was enjoyable but not my favorite. In the furure I would be interested in reading more by this author because there was a good bit of potential.

Katie is working a dead end job at the mall and her life is going nowhere fast. However, at least she has a friend, Marley, in the same boat as her. When Marley turns up dead in a picture on a guy’s phone in the mall, Katie finds out she may not have known Marley that well after all. However, she is determined to puzzle out the murder to prove that Marley was the friend she thought she was.

This was a great read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me easily. I loved the laid back almost irreverent writing style and really loved that this main character was so entirely relatable. She’s not a Joe Schmo like you and me that suddenly turns fabulous, brave or heroic. She’s bumbling through life and fucking up left and right but her heart is in the right place and boy do I understand that feeling. I also love the ending sentence. I feel like it’s so hard to end a story (other than a cliffhanger) with a bang but I definitely laughed at the last line and felt it was such an appropriate way to close out the book.

There are some plot points that were predictable for me but it was overall a pleasant, easy read that I really enjoyed and highly recommend!

Thanks to the author and netgalley for a free ARC in return for my honest review. Play the Fool will be out March 23, 2023!

This was a wild ride and I loved every minute. First, the tarot aspect. As someone who has taken tarot classes and has tarot cards in her purse, I loved that not only was she a reader but that she also got glimpses of cards constantly in her head upon meeting people and as initial reactions to certain situations. She may not have considered herself truly “gifted” where the cards are concerned but that proved otherwise to me and I loved that by the end, she was starting to believe in herself more.

The Marley who-done-it crime took several turns and I loved the direction it went every time. None of it felt forced…was it chaotic? Absolutely. However, it still somehow felt like a natural progression of the storyline. Had it ended any differently I don’t know if I would have bought it as easily. It wrapped up the best way it could for the crazy journey we went on.

Jamie. I LOVE Jamie. I think what I love most is that first and foremost you see very clearly the progression of their relationship from cop/suspect to cop/consultant to friends and while it didn’t end with a romantic relationship, you know it’s where it’s headed and it makes sense for them.

I, also, want to add in recognition of Owen’s character and how well written he was and how well handled that entire relationship is. He was such a light on the page for me.

I would love to see what other shenanigans Katie manages to get herself in. I think it could actually make a great series.