I give it 3.5 stars:
Out of my normal genre therefore a little out of my normal tastes. However, I did enjoy the book from that perspective. The story rendition seems like it's been done a lot but always a place in the book world. If you’re into cozy feelings suspense/murder books this one's for you.

I'm so glad I started this book! Play the Fool was such a fun read. Katie True is in her late 20s and never quite launched. She works at a store at a Russian gift store in the mall, was formerly a tarot reader, and sees people in terms of their tarot card. Early on she discovers her friend has been murdered when a strange man enters her store looking as if he was assaulted. She sees a picture of her friend Marley's dead body on his phone.

Katie reports the murder to the police, but there is no body, hence they cannot open an investigation. She investigates Marley's death and previous life. Marley's character was fascinating to learn about. The writing is very snappy and conversational and pretty funny at times. I would suggest Play the Fool to those who enjoy the Finlay Donovan series. I listened to the audiobook, which was so well-narrated by Kristen Sieh, one of my all-time favorite narrators.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC. All thoughts are my own.

Play the Fool was a fun and creative mystery with a plucky main character and entertaining cast. Katie can’t seem to get it together in the way everyone expects but finds comfort in seeing the world through her tarot cards. When her friend Marley goes missing, she’s thrown into a whirlwind of activity to solve the mystery of where she went.

The humor interspersed throughout was great, and I liked Katie’s complex family relationship with a special soft spot for her brother. While it got a little clunky and unlikely in terms of how much she got involved with police work, I did love the friendship themes that grew as they wound through the book.

The writing was solid and the pacing consistently drove the story forward. You definitely don’t need to be familiar with or super into tarot readings to enjoy - I’m not and still did! Overall a solid, quick, fun read that I can easily recommend picking up!

3.5 stars

Katie True is stuck in yet another boring, dead-end job at a Russian souvenir shop in an old mall where there are hardly any shoppers. But Katie has a dream of owning her own business reading tarot cards for people. She has made one friend at work named Marley who has some secrets that she's not ready to share with Katie just yet. But one evening at work a man walks into her shop with a bloody face. She convinces him to let her read his cards but suddenly sees a photo on his phone of her friend Marley - with a gunshot wound to the head. Katie recognizes Marley is outside the mall near the dumpsters, so after work Katie checks it out and only finds Marley's necklace, not her body. Did the necklace fall off of Marley when she was murdered? Or was Marley alive and in trouble...leaving the necklace as a clue for Katie? Now Katie is on the case - bumbling though clues and teaming up with a handsome cop named Jamie. I enjoyed this quick and easy to read debut novel. It was entertaining, not graphic, very little or even no bad language. I wasn't sure it was a thriller, but read more like a cozy mystery/cute romance to me. There were some funny parts and I really liked Katie's character. She was really trying to find her place in the world. I would be interested to read another novel by Lina Chern.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts.

This book has snark. The main character was snarky, the vibe gritty, but I also had a hard time sympathizing for her mediocre life. That may have been my only negative, because the book had an intriguing murder mystery, suspense and danger, a loveable and quirky brother, plus an attractive cop. Every player was suspect in this one. I just would be annoyed with every poor choice Katie made. I think she definitely made it difficult to remember this was adult and not YA. I think Chern did well creating the mystery though, with twists and layers to the case. That, Owen, and Jamie made the book for me.

I did not care for this one. I thought the writing felt elementary and I didn't care for the plot like I thought I would. I will order a copy for the shop because someone may want a copy but I will not recommend

This was a little outside of my comfort zone for books but I loved it. It was nice to have a break my normal thrillers and try this

I was given this book without requesting it and the premise isn’t something that would normally interest me but I thought I’d give it a try. Immediately I was put off by the main character’s inner monologue and her extremely unlikely and illegal actions to aid in the investigation. This is the main reason I typically don’t enjoy crime novels, especially ones set in the current day: the main characters (if they’re not detectives) must do incredibly stupid and illegal things to get the answers to whatever mystery they’re trying to solve. My suspension of disbelief just doesn’t extend that far.

I would like to open this review with a confession: I don’t often read mystery novels. Which is strange, since I am someone who enjoys a good true crime case. But with mystery novels, it is easy to lose track of the tension and these plots can require a reader to heavily suspend their disbelief. Both were true for this novel, which made it difficult to enjoy.

If there is one rule to live by, it is this: if there is no dead body, the character isn’t actually dead. When Marley’s body wasn’t actually found at the dumpsters behind the abandoned Sears, I knew her character was actually alive and was playing some sort of game with the true antagonists. The detriment to that observation was the lack of tension I felt for the rest of the novel. Knowing, in the back of my mind, that Marley was definitely alive removed the “whodunit” aspect and placed a greater emphasis on the “why is Katie so determined to solve this case?”

That latter question is something that had me scratching my head throughout these 300-something pages. Why did Katie care so much to solve this case? It was baffling when her entire character set-up was someone who struggled with focus and motivation. Why would the alleged murder of her friend (of two months) be enough to snap Katie out of her personality and habits and change rapidly at the beginning of this novel? (I claim alleged murder because the only proof of Marley’s death was a then-deleted photo on Marley’s ex-boyfriend’s phone.) I believe this confusion is due to the murky set-up of the novel. We only saw two or three chapters of backstory to explore the friendship between Marley and Katie; however, it never felt like there was a true friendship present, which was a result of missing emotionality. Despite the large amount of introspection present, I never felt emotionally connected to Katie or her relationships. Which was frustrating, considering how many relationships and minor characters Katie interacted with.

All of this leads me into the heavy suspension of disbelief this novel required. I found it very difficult to believe that a random cop would set aside his professionalism and own case load to solve an alleged mystery without it being an official case. Beyond that, I didn’t believe that an entire police force would put up with Katie’s shenanigans and always let her off without a warning. Nor did I believe that Jaime, the cop, would allow Katie to be so heavily involved in investigating this “murder” case. With this being a contemporary mystery, I wanted more realism in the plot. That would have grounded the story and given more external conflicts for Katie to overcome.

Overall, I struggled to push through this novel. It was difficult to believe in the plot events playing out on page and I missed out on the tension that drives a mystery novel plot. While Katie’s antics were fun to read about, it required too much suspension of disbelief to be truly enjoyable.

Thank you to Penguin Random House and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Katie is just trying to figure life out. She can't seem to figure this "adulting" thing out, finding herself moving back close to her family and taking a job at a trinket store doing some tarot readings on the side. The light in Katie's life? Marley. She's fun and whimsical, taking risks and chances Katie could never dream of. Katie feels seen when she's with Marley, even if she is just living vicariously through Marley's adventures....that is, until she sees a photo of her friend with a gunshot in her head. Katie's world spins inside out as she tries to find the truth about what happened to Marley while trying to stay safe herself. What will she find? Or will she find herself to be the fool all along?

An interesting whodunnit that doesn't rely on the supernatural elements to keep the reader hooked. Personally I'm more of a fantasy/supernatural reader but I found Play The Fool to be a good mystery that unfolded into a fun ride. The pacing was where it fell a little flat in the middle for me, but once it found its footing again I devoured the back 35% in a day. Patience is a virtue to be rewarded with Play the Fool, but I'd be lying if I said it always felt like it was going to pay off.

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars. Recommended for those who enjoy just a pinch of supernatural with their mysteries. Age appropriate for 12l3+ as there is nothing graphic on the page. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book was such a fun and unique read! I loved the blend of humor and mystery that kept me turning the page. A fabulous debut!

This was a great story! I loved bringing the aspect of tarot into everyday life. The main character’s “thing” is tarot and her family frowns upon her and you can feel that strain in the story. The PLOT TWIST was unexpected.

Thanks to NG and the publisher for allowing me access to this story.

Play The Fool is an easy and perfectly detailed read. I very much enjoyed getting to know Katie and her life. She always carried her tarot cards in her pocket and often visualized cards in her head. She had me smiling more than once with her ability to steer her clients into answering her flipped card explanation. Clever! I appreciated Kate and her attitude towards her life. It is what it is style. I visualized her “spaces” and “personality” from Chern’s thorough writing ability. I give her five stars in that category. However, as much as I enjoyed her style of writing, the storyline took a turn midway through. I found the cousins of the organized crime and Jamie, the officer, all to be unrealistic. I Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine,Bantam for ARC read in exchange for my review.

At the start of Play the Fool, Katie is in a bit of a rut. She works a dead end job selling tchotchkes in her local mall. She's a constant disappointment to her parents, and the only thing she feels like she is good at is reading tarot cards. Then she meets Marley, a woman who works at the shop across from Katie's, and they strike up a quick friendship. Marley is the first to truly get Katie; she doesn't judge Katie for just being herself. This could be the start of a lifelong friendship... until Marley is killed, and Katie throws herself into solving the mystery. Who was Marley, and what was she involved in? Even as the stakes get higher, Katie refuses to give up. Hopefully she can find Marley's killer, before they find her.

This was a fun example of the amateur sleuth genre. Katie's used to feeling like a failure, and it's hard not to sympathize with her. She clearly has strengths of her own, but others just don't seem to often see them. The inclusion of tarot is an element that I really enjoyed in this mystery. Even if Katie isn't actually psychic, she is definitely skilled in reading people. I adored Owen and his relationship with Katie. Nice representation of someone on the autism spectrum, living his best life. I also liked Jamie from the start. Cop with a troubled past: classic love interest. (Although there's little romance in this novel.) This was a quick paced mystery, with characters that I enjoyed following. Would recommend.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I have enjoyed venturing into the cozy side of mystery and thought this book was intriguing - the cover is awesome and the synopsis was catching. I had fun reading this and found the humor landed well, the story was well-paced, and just an overall enjoyable ride.

Play the Fool was a refreshing, fun mystery! I had a great time reading this book and trying to guess what happened. The plot twists were unpredictable, and the pacing of the story was exceptional. I found the plot to expertly blended mystery and humor and I also felt like I learned a little bit about Tarot along the way.

I really wanted to love this book but I just couldn't get into it. I started it and then had to set it aside. It has a good plot idea but for me the reader I just didn't connect with it. The style of writing just felt off for my way of reading.

This is a mystery with a twist. Will the tarot cards show all there is to see? Marley's best friend is dead and the cards have something to do with it. Time to see if the mystery can be solved.

I was drawn in by the cover, however this story was not for me. The MC was hard to relate to, and did not keep me interested.

This one might win cover of the year for me. I want to touch it. I wish I would have liked the book as much as I liked the cover. While I didn’t exactly guess the end, I had an idea of where it was going pretty much from the start. There wasn’t anything that drew me in and made me want to know more about the characters or their story. It had potential but just didn’t quite live up to it.

This was a fun one. It wasn't what I was expecting, though I was pleasantly surprised with what we got. If you're looking for something that has supernatural elements when you see "Tarot" then this might not be the book for you.

Katie is a fun, flawed protagonist, and it was really refreshing to see someone so ordinary. By no means was she, or the plot, boring, I've just gotten used to reading characters lately that in some way had at least one edge of "cool". I like my awkward, relatable characters as much as the self-insert ones.

My favorite aspect of the book has to be the amount of seamless framing done with the tarot cards themselves. I'm not sure if the author is familiar with tarot, or had a knowledgeable consultant, but the ease of which situations were described via the cards was an interesting way to learn about the cards in applied scenarios.

As for the mystery itself, it was simpler than I would have expected. The pacing and prose, however, kept everything fast moving and humorous. If you're really into hardboiled mysteries or blood chilling thrillers, this likely won't scratch that itch. I was left wanting much more from the characters and wouldn't be against a sequel or companion book.

All in all, a fun and quick read.