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.

Thank you so much for NetGalley for allowing me a copy of this book. I enjoyed it way more then I thought I would and I would recommend this!

I loved everything about this book. The premise. The characters. Such a cozy mystery. I absolutely loved Katie, I felt like she was such a strong female protagonist. I really enjoyed the tarot readings. I felt like it added a lot of interesting information to the story.

Play the Fool was a really entertaining read! It has to be one of my favorite mysteries of the year so far. It’s also listed as a thriller and I don’t know if I would necessarily consider it a thriller, but it was still an excellent read!

Play the Fool deals pretty heavily with tarot cards and Chern does a great job explaining everything while also not behind too wordy— she keeps it interesting. I’m pretty familiar with tarot cards but I wouldn’t consider myself an expert, so I’m glad Chern laid everything out!

I can’t recommend this book enough! It’s a really quick and fun read!

Lina Chern's novel is fun and quick to read. The reader tries to solve the case of the possibly murdered friend along with Katie. Tarot cards are used throughout to help describe or identify character traits and situations; however, one doesn't need a huge knowledge of tarot to understand. The characters are funny and engaging, and Katie's growth throughout the novel is relatable.

Review of uncorrected eBook file

Katie True, working in a Russian knickknack shop in the Deerpath Shopping Center in Lake Terrace, Chicago, has a friend in Marley Callaghan, who works across the way at the Goth boutique. When an obviously-distraught Nico stumbles into the one evening, conversing, Katie offers to read the tarot cards for him.

Taking a surreptitious glance at Nico’s phone, Katie sees a picture of Marley . . . dead.

Determined to find out what happened to her friend, Katie sets out to investigate. Will she find the murderer? Will she learn why her friend was murdered?

=========

Despite some vulgar language, “Play the Fool” is an interesting tale that, although it is indeed a murder mystery, is more cozy than thriller. Impulsive Katie, who is good at reading people, is a delightful protagonist; her tarot card reading is a clever and unique addition to the telling of the tale.

Plot twists, secrets, and surprises are all part of the telling of this tale; with well-developed, believable characters and a strong female protagonist, readers will find this quick-read tale both enjoyable and entertaining.

Recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine, Bantam and NetGalley
#PlaytheFool #NetGalley

Marley and Katie are work lunch buddies. Katie normally doesn't friend with people(relatable) and the same with Marley. Marley is just jumping from job to job and Katie is a tarot card reader stuck at a lowly job that she is sure to lose. Things get intense when a strange man shows up in the Russian souvenir store and Katie reads his fortune. While he's away from the table, Katie swipes through his phone and sees her friend Marly shot in the head dead. Katie is on mission to find out what happened with what happened to her friend.

First off, thank you netgalley and bantam for this gift 🎁

I did enjoy this book, but I think it was a little draggy through the middle. I loved learning about Marley and Katie.

My favorite part was the twist! I can't say anymore than that. My favorite character is Marley. What a badass.

I love tarot cards. The cover immediately sucked me in. I really enjoyed this book. An air of insecurity gets consumed with new confidence from a best friend who ends up possibly dead? I liked the mystery and thrill of this book. It was an easy read for sure.

Katie True is an unmotivated fuck up whose best skill is reading people through tarot. I didn't find her a particularly likable main character and have no idea why a cop would find her perpetual chaos appealing. This book was only "OK" in my opinion.

I was delightfully surprised by Chern's ability to hook me from Page One of Play the Fool. Katie, a tarot card reader slash cashier at the local crumbling mall, is on the hunt for her work best friend, Marley, after she seemingly disappears. While the book followed a light-hearted,, yet slightly terrifying mystery, Chern managed to weave an exciting story, that I wish I could see played out on my TV. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and highly recommend it for a quick and fun Halloween read.

Katie is a tarot card reader who befriends Marley while both work at the mall. When Marley is murdered, Katie realizes she didn't really know her friend at all. Her persistence and tarot cards allow her to help the detective figure out who murdered Marley while also discovering who she really was. This was a fun and quick read.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

This was a really fun read. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it, but I was intrigued. The best I can describe it as is a cozy mystery with a bit of an edge. I really enjoyed it and if you enjoy cozies, I think you will too!

I want to thank Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of Play the Fool in exchange for an honest review.

I love a good murder mystery, and the addition of a tarot reader who is kind of messy makes the story more fun. Katie is a hard character to like, and I think that was why I was surprised that by the end of the book I was rooting for her to succeed. Nico is an interesting character, and some of the other side characters (like Jamie) should have had more screen time IMO. Overall, Play the Fool was a fun, whimsical read for people who like mysteries.

My only real criticism is that the use of the tarot cards seems a little gimmicky and could have been handled with a bit more respect ( I get that Katie is supposed to be kind of a mess, and how she uses the cards on a whole is still pretty cool) and the pacing is a little off at the start of the novel. Katie also makes a lot of frustrating decisions, which gave me a lot of anxiety about where the story was going. Although, I guess that might be a good thing.