“The card was the Fool. ‘Great,’ I said. ‘This guy again.’”


I love a good mystery and Play the Fool delivered. I was initially drawn to this book because of the cover. I know, don’t judge a book by its cover, but this time it worked.

We meet our protagonist not at all living up to her potential and working a seemingly dead end job at the mall. Katie is a tarot card reader semi-professionally but also for comfort. When a man stumbles into her work with an injury and looking shaken up, she offers to read for him. What she discovers during this reading will completely change her life in many ways and propels her towards accidental self discovery as she works to uncover the mystery of who killed her best friend and why. Katie realizes she has more to offer than what she’s been made to believe and sometimes risks are necessary in life.

I have to be honest, this truly did throw me for a loop and I found myself racing to the end for the conclusion. I did not see the end coming and that is exactly how I want a book to be, especially a mystery. There was fun humor in this, particularly if you like snarky humor like I do. I felt like Katie was relatable and I found myself rooting for her as well as shaking my head at her.

Play the Fool is a great, fresh take on the classic mystery story. I would recommend this to anyone who likes mysteries with a big dash of humor.

Check out Play the Fool on March 28, 2023! Thanks to Netgalley, Lina Chern, and Random House Publishing for this wonderful arc.

#mystery #playthefool #linachern #randomhousepublishing

I really wanted to like this one but it just didn't catch my attention. I couldn't quite connect with the characters and struggled to finish.

Play the Fool by Lina Chem is a fast paced Mystery with a whimsical combination of mystery and magic.
What I Liked
1. As a tarot reader it was incredibly fun to read a story that had tarot and references to tarot reading in the plot.
2. The story was written in a way to allow for good hints as to its ending without giving everything away during the build up.
What didn't work as well for me
1. Dialogue felt stilted in several places.
2. The book felt like it could have been expanded into a longer narrative to give more space for character development.
Who I would recommend this book for
Lovers of urban fantasy or magical realism looking to dip their toes in the mystery genre will find themselves a comforting welcome in the pages of Play the Fool.

Not really my type of book and struggled to read so this was a DNF for me. I couldn’t get into the story and struggled to focus on the plot.

This cover got me interested immediately, and I couldn't wait to start this one! Katie True a go-with-the-flow Tarot card reader discovers her unlikely friend at the mall has been killed sending her on a hunt to find who is responsible.

The beginning hooked me as I loved the character building and her brother Owen with a boba addiction was a particular favorite. The middle dragged a little and the ending while a bit surprising but left me wanting more. After reading quite a few mystery novels, I enjoyed the fun twist and would recommend this to someone wanting a light-hearted mystery.

Overall a unique mystery, my rating: 3.5 ⭐'s

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this advance copy! Get your hands on this book on March 28, 2023!

Seems like the book can’t decide if it wants to be a romance or a mystery and it’s doing both mediocrely. The mystery starts off so intriguing with the photo of her dead friend on a guys phone. But at about 30% the mystery kind of stalls out and doesn’t move anywhere until it’s wrapped up.

I will say this book is quite funny. And Katie is a fun and quirky character.

This was a fun read! With magic, murder and romance, you will be entertained from start to finish. I enjoyed the addition of tarot cards in this story, it made it unique! The story was a little predictable but I still enjoyed it!

Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for providing a free e-ARC copy of this book in exchange for my review.

I love mysteries and cozy mysteries and have read dozens. I was hopeful for this one, but it didn't work out for me. I found the police angle difficult to believe and didn't' really connect with the characters.

Sadly, this was 2 stars for me, 'it was ok'

tarot card reader part of a murder was an interesting story plot and the pacing was great and the twist wow

I liked the way the tarot cards were front and center in this novel, as it made for an interesting perspective, different from other murder mysteries I've read. I enjoyed the snarky humor and particularly enjoyed the relationship between Katie and her brother, Owen. I found the plot a little bit meandering and slow in places, but still entertaining, with a good twist at the end.

I really enjoyed the first 30-35% of this book as I had no idea where it was going. However, it kind of derailed after that for me. This is an okay mystery book but just wasn’t for me. I really love the cover though.

Play the Fool by Lina Chern is a fast-paced mystery that verges on being a „caper“. But it falls just short. There was a lot of potential in the book- a lost, awkward protagonist, a snappy „BIG CITY“ cop with a sad backstory, a murder, drugs and beefy „good fellas“- all the makings of a zany, madcap caper. But. It just doesn’t get there in the end. The protagonist, Katie True, is a hapless tarot card reader who is supposed to be a lost little bird, some sort of gen z manic pixie girl. I just found her seriously annoying. I suppose she is supposed to be quirky and sympathetic, but I just found her…whiny. I couldn’t get behind her as a character. And the flimsiness of Katie’s friendship with Marley did not match Katie’s determination to solve her murder. I didn’t buy it. When Katie meets Jamie, the new cop, I think it is supposed to be a meet-cute type situation, but there was no real substance to their relationship until the last dozen pages. Chern had a fun idea- a tarot card reader who finds out her friend has been murdered and then gets into a bunch of zany predicaments on the way to solving the crime. Unfortunately, there were too many half-developed or rushed ideas and relationships; in the end, Play the Fool fell short of what it could have been. I appreciate the eARC from @NetGalley in exchange for my honest feedback. Random rating is a 3/5.

A tarot card reader who works in a mall meets another woman who works across the way. They become lunch buddies and then she goes missing. The tarot reader tries to help find her and what happened.

An absolute dream of a book for fans of Leigh Bardugo’s NINTH HOUSE, get ready to add another gritty favorite female to your list. I could not put this book down. The pacing was tight, the characters fully realized, and the TWIST! Omg. Loved every second.

The cover for this book is beautiful and I was draw to it immediately and the synopsis pulled me in almost as quickly. There isn't much backstory for Katie, nor is there a lot of family presence, with the exception of her brother Owen who just might be my favorite character! The first three quarters of the book were slow as you got to know Katie and the storyline grew. At the same time the storyline picked up, it felt a little less believable. I had a hard time buying into the romance that suddenly popped up or how "involved" Katie was able to get into the investigation. Katie is that character you root for though, you know with one turn of events her life could have been different. The last few books I've read have been "okay" and unfortunately, Play the Fool fell into this category. It could have been the timing, it certainly was a light and easy read, Play the Fool fell short for me (I do seem to be in the minority, so take this review with a grain of salt).
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Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.
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The Instagram Post was made on February 3, 2023.

The instant I saw this cover and read the synopsis I assumed this story would be 100% in my wheelhouse. I love tarot, mystery, a little fun mixed in and I was led to believe I would get all of that from this story when ai really only got maybe 50% of that energy.

I always want to be in support of a debut novel but it just didn’t hit the mark for me. The premise and the setup are no doubt interesting and I was intrigued already in the first couple of chapters. Katie is a quirky but somewhat relatable character and charming enough that I didn’t cringe at certain cringeworthy, quirky girl, behavior. She kind of falls into the mystery by accident and I think that amps up the story.

Where it really fell short for me, is that the story never realized decided what it was. There’s the mystery of Marley, mixed with Katie trying to figure out her place in the world while also thinking in tarot card metaphors, while also half starting a romance that leads nowhere with Jamie? I just didn’t understand why certain elements needed to be added. The tarot wasn’t as big a part of the story as I assumed it would be and Jamie and Katie’s relationship truly felt like big brother, little sister for 90% of it.

It bums me out because overall, sure it wasn’t terrible at all but the mystery didn’t excite me by the halfway point. I wasn’t invested and I had no reason to carry about any of what was happening. It read like a lot of filler moments leading to maybe thirty pages of real action before the big finale. There was nothing there to grip my attention and then it all pieced together far too nicely at the end. Just not what I was expecting but it had a ton of potential.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bantam for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced copy of PLAY THE FOOL by Lina Chern. I enjoyed the tarot card theme the MC Katie brought to the story, the way she viewed the world through them. I also enjoyed watching her character development and the confidence she gained as she went. I was a bit disappointed by the way the romance panned out, but I was invested in her and Jamie—their banter, their connection, their growth. The mystery kept me guessing until the very end. Also, I adored her brother Owen and I would do anything for him. It was overall just a fun read.

I would call "Play the Fool" an intense cozy mystery. Not a thriller but not a slow moving typical cozy this book kept me turning the page for more while still being gentle enough to read before bed. The writing was fun, a bit snarky (LOVED) and really made me care about the characters (even the minor ones). I particularly appreciate all the references to tarot throughout the book, keeping it on them. It would have been really easy to use the fortune telling as a hook to get started and then dropping it as the story progressed. Lina maintained this through the whole book which was great! I really enjoyed this book and look forward to more from Lina Chern.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in advance of publication.

Katie True can’t do much besides read the cards and soak in the unconditional acceptance of her new best friend, until a reading hints at murder. It was fun going along for the ride with Katie as she Nancy Drews about town. The ending was satisfying and the narrative was solid. Cute little offbeat mystery.

Katie True was an interesting character. She came from an eccentric family and picked up a knack for reading people from having to hang out with her Aunt Rosie. Katie is a master of using Tarot cards. After trying out college, Katie drifts from one job to another where she is in her current position at Firebird Imports at the mall.

Katie meets Marley, who works in the store across from Firebird Imports. Katie considers Marley to be her best friend.

One day a disheveled, out-of-sorts man rushes in where Katie works and despite the man's apparent disbelief in Tarot cards, he allows Katie to do a reading on him. When the man leaves his phone unattended, Katie takes a quick look to help her convince the man she's the real deal. What she doesn't expect to find is a picture of Marley dead behind the mall.

Katie makes a decision to bravely walk back to the spot where her friend is supposed to be, her friend's body is gone. Katie finds a gaudy necklace that Marley always wore as the only sign that Marley had been there. Katie entangles herself because she can't let go of what happened to her friend.

I found the plot to be entertaining, and I really liked Katie's brother Owen. Katie at times drove me nuts with some of her decisions, but in the long run, those poor decisions did help her gain insight and brought her in contact with someone who was willing to help. I like the concept that Katie is able to use her ability with Tarot cards and reading people so that she finally found her niche in life.

I received an ARC from NetGalley via Random House Publishing Group --Ballantine and I have voluntarily reviewed this book.