I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Kapelke-Dale is becoming one of my favorite new-ish women's fiction authors. After books focused on women's gymnastics and ballet, we get an equestrian book. It's important to note that this book isn't a mystery / thriller and is marked as a women's fiction genre. There's definitely edgy stuff going on and unanswered questions.

As others have mentioned, the book is a little horsey, in the first part for sure. Rosie is a senior at Yale and on the EQ team. While I did some horseback riding in high school, nothing competitive. Rosie has become best friends with Cressida Tate, the daughter of billionaire Grayson Tate, a hedge fund guy. Rosie spent her junior year abroad, and when she gets back to Yale, she's told she will have a roommate, Cress' new friend Annaliese. At first, she's furious to have to share with a stranger, but they become friends. Anneliese is a talented equestrian and also reads tarot. Rosie is so focused on her future and making money as she grew up in the middle class and that being around wealthy people has affected her.


The tragedy that happens leads the reader into the 2nd part of the book. Rosie graduates and takes an offer to be a 2nd assistant to her best friend's father. She's so enmeshed with this group and desperate that she takes it, and while she's an excellent assistant, she's told There's no career path that will take her to the finance industry. Revelations force Rosie to confront who these people she's put on a pedestal and her own ethics. She ignores red flags. Until she realizes there's a line she can't cross or ignore any further. Along the way, she meets someone, but the romance isn't the focus in this book. The twist toward the end wasn't unexpected or surprising to me. I would have rated this book higher if it had given me something unexpected, but in the mid aughts, nothing would have surprised me.

4/5☆ out February 13, 2024.

I liked this book and it was very enjoyable and entertaining. I loved the storyline. It was a good book.
I just reviewed The Fortune Seller by Rachel Kapelke-Dale. #NetGalley
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Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to review this novel.

This truly young adult tale amid a background of competitive equestrian life at Yale and life-after-Yale told from the perspective of a young woman who doesn't really fit in, but has tried really hard to do so, has some twists and turns. Most of them I was able to figure out fairly early and then had to wait for confirmation of my suspicions.

I'm not really sure about my feelings about this book, even though it's now been a few weeks since I finished it. But that's not to say that I didn't enjoy aspects of the book.

I liked the us vs. them features of the story, the vicarious glimpses into high-society, the rich and powerful elite, a world I'll never get a real glimpse into.

But I would have loved a more climactic climax to the book. I felt Anna's demise was predictable and that Rosie should have been more aware of the potential for danger for her friend. I likewise felt Tate's demise was predictable, though earned. And I longed for a more satisfying consequence for Cress.

Though I'm sure many appreciate the inclusion of the tarot as the background framework for the book, the descriptions of the cards and their implications were interesting, but only from a curiosity perspective for me. Indeed, the idea proffered by Annaliese about fate not being an actual thing seems to contradict the practice altogether, which was an odd paradox.

I would have loved more glimpses of life at Yale, which felt like it could have been anywhere--but maybe that was the intent.

I would have loved more glimpses into the competitive equestrian world, which I am completely unfamiliar with. I have students who are competitive equestrians who might have found this book more interesting had that been more of a feature.

Dysfunctionality in families, found and biological, is at the core of this story. Dissatisfaction with social class distinctions and pursuit of prosperity are also at the core of this story. Those are themes I am usually quite taken by, but for some reason this book didn't hit home with me.

I didn't dislike it; I'm hesitant to recommend it, but I do discuss it with friends, family, and students. Perhaps someone with more appreciation for the tarot would find it more satisfying.

There is a lot going on with this novel. Part college novel, part mystery, part class manifesto. It has horses, and tarot cards, and lots and lots of talk about money. The pace slowed significantly in the middle and I did not finish this one.

Rosie, the book's narrator, studies at Yale and shares a house with her friends and teammates on the riding team Cressida Tate, Lila and Andra. Cressida, or Cress, as she is called by her friends, is the daughter of Grayson Tate, a billionaire financier, making her the wealthiest of the group and their leader.
Cress introduces a new girl to the group, Annelise, a talented tarot reader and a brilliant rider, whom Cress and the group admire. But not everything is going so well in their lives. In the midst of this group of friends for whom life is apparently perfect, there is a whole range of emotions that range from friendship and admiration to envy and betrayal.
The Fortune Seller is a novel that exposes the reality of student life, dreams, successes and failures. It shows us how far envy and resentment can go, and that not all of us are immune to these feelings, regardless of our social or financial status.
I thank the author and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.
The opinion I have expressed above is based solely on what I think and feel about this book.

It was just okay. The constant money talk was grating. We get it, Rosie came from middle class and was out of place with all the rich people at Yale. Move on.
I loved the chapter headings— the little blurbs about each tarot card. But the tarot cards and readings were irrelevant past a certain point so they didn’t make a ton of sense in the end.

This was a great read even though I'm one that's not much for Tarot cards. I feel like that's something not to be messed with.
I do love the horses and the female friendships through thick and thin
I know about standing out and trying to fit in. I gave that up years ago.
In my opinion I felt that the author has done well with the middle class vs mean girls. To me, this was like watching the movie Mean Girls only with Tarot cards and horses added to the mix.
I've always loved horses since I was a girl and still do. So that's why I was delighted to discover this book had horses in it. Something I wasn't expecting at all.
From the title of the book I was expecting something else altogether.
This author has done well in bringing her characters to life.
I was upset about the deaths and how it came about. I felt that it shouldn't have happened.
The mystery in this book kept me glued to find out what really happened and why. I wasn't disappointed.
I enjoyed this new to me author. I'm hoping to read more by her in the future.
I would still read this book over and over again because you may have missed something from before while reading the first time!
This book does start out slow but keep reading because eventually it does pick up! You won't be disappointed. I wasn't at all!
5 stars for a well written story about horses, friendships and finding out who you truly are. Horses can be great therapy.
I highly recommend.
My thanks for a copy of this book. I was NOT required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

"Fortune is nothing more and nothing less than the idea that there are some things in our lives - so much more than we'd like to believe - that are out of our control, no matter how hard we try."

I loved this book, as I found it to be eerily similar (and therefore quite relatable), to my own experience as a college equestrian (EQ) at an elite Northeast university in the early to mid aughts. That being said, I realize this is a very niche group, but the book itself is accessible to a wider audience.

The novel centers around a middle-class Midwestern protagonist (Rosie) who feels the outsider as a young college student at Yale. She is taken under the wing of a fellow equestrian (Cressida), who hails from much more substantial means, following the trope of the have-not getting a glimpse into the daily lives of the one percent.

When Rosie returns to Yale for her senior year following study abroad, she rents a house off campus with her EQ friends. She is paired to room with a mysterious transfer student (Annelise), who joined the clique and the equestrian team in Rosie's absence abroad, and is a hobbyist Tarot card reader. Tensions between the women begin to arise as they are competing for success and spots on the EQ team, and it turns out that all of them are keeping secrets from one another.

Without giving away any spoilers, things come to a head one fateful day toward the end of the academic year, and the remainder of the novel focuses on how each character moves forward from the tragedy. I took off a star because many of the plot twists/secrets were predictable to me from early on in the novel.

What distinguished this book from similar ones, however, was the tenuous and nuanced bond in these female friendships that follows the characters across decades. I really enjoyed the exploration of the idea of fortune vs. fate and how this played into the themes of ambition, classism, and sexism.

Thanks to the author, NetGalley, and St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader copy of this book!

Oh man I feel so indifferent about this book.
It was very very very horse related which I was not expecting. It was a topic I really don’t care much about, so it was hard to read those parts. If you’re not in that world, it can be confusing. The death and how it happened didn’t fully make sense to me. I didn’t feel like the description was really what the book was?
I feel like there was a lot going on and the middle of the book was incredibly slow. Rosie’s obsession with Grayson was really weird to me and felt not genuine. Rosie’s relationship with Cress was really surface level and did not feel like they were best friends at all.
The storyline was unique and I didn’t see the biggest twist.

This was the second book I’ve read by the author, and I’m heading off to acquire The Ingenue next! I really appreciate the way the author writes about female friend relationships, especially when it reveals how ugly and unhealthy these relationships can be.
It started off a bit slow for me, and I admittedly skimmed the chapter beginnings that included a tarot explanation. I’m sure they probably rounded out the story as it went along, but it simply wasn’t as interesting to me as the action.
Thanks to Rachel Kapelke-Dale, St Martins Press and NetGalley for providing a free advance copy!

I received a complimentary copy of this book "The Fortune Seller" and all opinions expressed are my own. This was an interesting book. I liked the tarot cards themes. Lots of equestrian talk throughout the book, so if you don't want to read about horses, then this book isn't for you. Definitely starts off slowly and then picks up. Overall I did like the book, but more of the tarot and mystical pieces of the story.

This request from @NetGalley was automatically approved and it sat on my “to be read” shelf for a couple of weeks before I started it. The idea was interesting - secrets galore amongst a group of elite athletes at an Ivy League school. Each chapter started with a different card from tarot deck, which sort of tied into the chapter. I have to be honest; after one or two chapters, this aspect of the book lost its appeal for me. Mediocre writing and an overly used plot line are the reasons I only gave this one three stars. Wasn’t awful but not award winning either.

This is a psychological story, a coming of age, a coming to terms with what is important. A middle class young women gets in with the rich girls at her school, one of whom has a father who she admires in the field she wants to work in. While the beginning of the book is slow and alot about horse competitions. It is about the good and bad in people, the people we admire, the goals that cover our real goals, morality and what fills our hearts. Friendships that are so meaningful and sometimes so destructive. There was a mystery at the heart of the story told in an understated way that was effective and it was ultimately a moving, brought me to tears book Once I got into it, i couldn't stop reading way past time to stop I also enjoyed the tarot cards exploring the themes and foreshadowing I also enjoyed the repeat of the question do you really want to know as denial/unwillingness to face the truth was also at the heart of the novel 4.5

Meh. The title of the book is what drew me in along with the tarot aspect. While I appreciated the larger conversation on the gap between upper & middle class, it felt a little too rushed and made the entirety of the story confusing. Also, if you're obsessed with horses, cool, I however am not so I just didn't vibe with all the equestrian theme in the book.

3 stars. This book was ... fine. The mystery of who Annelise is -- and later, what happens to her -- is a juicy enough hook that it kept me on the line, even as I found myself mildly bored by the horse talk and exasperated by the shallow girl fights. The pacing is slow at first but picks up significantly at the 50% mark, and I ended up staying up late to finish it as the climax neared. The major issue, quite honestly, that I had with this book was that Rosie was so fucking annoying. And so fucking stupid. I genuinely cannot emphasize enough how hard I laughed when, at one point, Rosie tells herself that "despite [not being rich, etc.], she's always had common sense," because she consistently displayed lack of that throughout the entire book. Rosie is supposed to be the "reasonable" one in this scenario, the down-to-earth, middle-class girl who sees through all the bullshit, but the book turns her into a passive, willfully blind wannabe that genuinely detracts from the narrative. I cared about Annelise, and I wanted to know what happened to her. But I did not care about Rosie at all.

Despite Rosie's blandness, The Fortune Seller is an interesting, well-written take on class divides and the lines that blur with money and power, but one that I simply didn't find very memorable. It was a good read, but perhaps might have been better with a protagonist with more depth -- or more brain cells.

This book is very horse-centric, which might not suit everyone's taste. If you're not a fan of horses, be aware.

Putting the horse theme aside, "The Fortune Seller" offers an engaging exploration of class divisions in the United States. It follows the classic narrative of a modest girl navigating life at an elite school among the privileged one percent. However, Rachel Kapelke-Dale adds a fresh perspective to this familiar storyline.

The story begins slowly but gains momentum around the halfway point. The character dynamics are well-crafted, especially the evolving friendship between Rosie and Annelise. While some characters are unlikeable due to their shocking actions, they add depth to the narrative.

There are two mysteries at play: the identity of Annelise and what happened to her. The revelation of the first mystery is a surprising twist, while the second becomes evident later but feels somewhat predictable. Nevertheless, the suspense keeps you engaged.

The ending, while a pleasant departure from cliffhangers, is a bit too neatly resolved, offering karma and sweetness, along with an endearing dog.

In summary, "The Fortune Seller" is an engaging read, albeit horse-focused. Final rating: 3.49 stars (rounded down to 3 stars upon further reflection). It's worth reading, though it didn't quite match up to my other four-star reads.

This book reminded me of a TV show I watched growing up, The Saddle Club, expect they all went to Yale and this is their story. Overall a pretty good tale, the characters were easy to connect with but it was very horsey, which I didn’t mind.

This book threw me off a little.. I liked how different it was, definitely not like any book I've read. I did find all the horse references a little overboard. I did love watching this close friend group deteriorate. I think the progression of watching these relationships crumble was so well done and relatable.

Like slipping into a warm bath when you haven't been able to shake the chill from your bones for days. My reading slump is over babies: Watch me now.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

From the publisher:
Middle-class Rosie Macalister has worked for years to fit in with her wealthy friends on the Yale equestrian team. But when she comes back from her junior year abroad with newfound confidence, she finds that the group has been infiltrated by a mysterious intruder: Annelise Tattinger.

A talented tarot reader and a brilliant rider, the enigmatic Annelise is unlike anyone Rosie has ever met. But when one of their friends notices money disappearing from her bank account, Annelise's place in the circle is thrown into question. As the girls turn against each other, the group’s unspoken tensions and assumptions lead to devastating consequences.

It's only after graduation, when Rosie begins a job at a Manhattan hedge fund, that she uncovers Annelise's true identity––and how her place in their elite Yale set was no accident. Is it too late for Rosie to put right what went wrong, or does everyone's luck run out at some point? Set in the heady days of the early aughts, The Fortune Seller is a haunting examination of class, ambition, and the desires that shape our lives.

I liked the premise of this book. Rosie, a middle class girl trying to make it at Yale but always being just a bit off the beat, despite befriending the daughter of a hedge fund billionaire. I also really enjoyed the build up of tension between Rosie, Annelise, and the other girls as the story moved through book one.

I’m not an equestrian or familiar with that world so that was an aspect of the story that was hard to connect with. The pacing was off for me as well. The first book was a slow burn, with a twist I saw coming, but the second book moved so fast. I also didn’t buy how naive Rosie was at certain points in the story or how some plot points were just left hanging there.

I did read this in a day and was intrigued enough by the storyline.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance copy.