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.

Katie was a fun character to spend time with and I enjoyed the wild ride. The mystery is on the cozier side, but it is still a fun and engaging story. The plot does become a little unbelievable however if you are enjoying the character or the story you will enjoy the book.

Play the Fool
⭐️⭐️⭐️
I requested a digital advanced readers copy from NetGalley and Random House Publishing and providing my opinion voluntarily and unbiased.

Synopsis: For Katie True, a keen gut and quick wit are just tools of the trade. After a failed attempt at adulting in Chicago, she's back in the suburbs living a bit too close to her overbearing parents, jumping from one dead-end job to the next, and flipping through her tarot deck for guidance. Then along comes Marley.

Mysterious, worldly, and comfortable in her own skin, Marley takes a job at the mall where Katie peddles Russian tchotchkes. The two just get each other. Marley doesn't try to fix Katie's life or pretend to be someone she's not, and Katie thinks that with Marley's friendship she just might make it through this rough patch after all. So one day, having been encouraged by Marley to practice soothsaying, Katie reads tarot for someone who stumbles into her shop. But when she sneaks a glance at his phone, she finds more than just clairvoyant intel. She finds a photo. Of Marley. With a gunshot wound to the head.

The bottom falls out of Katie's world. Her best friend is dead? Who killed her? She quickly realizes there are some things her tarot cards can't foresee, and she must put her razor-sharp instincts to the ultimate test. But the truth has deadly consequences, and Katie's recklessness lands her in the crossfire of a threat she never saw coming. Now Katie must use her street smarts and her inner Strength card to solve Marley's murder--or risk losing everything.

My Thoughts: I really thought the cover was awesome and really liked the premise. The first 40% of the book was great but about 60% into the book, it lost me a little, then picked back up in the end. I think it was too much of a slow burn on the mystery angle. You do have to suspend belief a little for this story. I did love the mafia angle and even the “shady” business, as those make good storylines. I loved the MC and the cop who helps her along the way to solve the mystery of her missing friend. I also loved that she would go to the end of the earth to find out what happened to her friend. Katie is a relatable and reliable protagonist, as follow on this journey, I like her more and more. I also like the humor angle that carried throughout the book, especially in a mystery novel. Even though some aspects were predictable, it was still a good read overall that I enjoyed. I would recommend this book to others.

Arc from netgalley

I really tried to get into this. The writing just didn’t work for me. The plot wasn’t doing it for me either. Sadly. Just not for me

I read the first 50 pages of this and just couldn't get into it. I'm not sure what didn't work for me here but I don't like pushing myself to read things that I don't enjoy. Therefore I will be DNFing this book. But I'm very thankful to have had the opportunity to read this.

A fun and quick mystery with a sprinkle of humor and romance. Took me a bit to get into but overall, enjoyed the story as it unfolded. The angle of the tarot cards and palm reading was really unique and fun!

3 stars!

First off, the cover of this book is so cute! I think that this was a traditional cozy mystery and it did what it needed to do in a fun setting. I think unfortunately what I'm learning is that cozy mysteries might just not be the genre for me and that's okay!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley.

couldn't get past 65% - You lost me at the police in this one.

The humor was decent though.

This one took me a little time to get into, but I'm glad I stuck with it. A unique and engaging story with a nice combination of action and intellectual sleuthing, And it was a nice spin on the police detective-amateur sleuth interaction. An enjoyable debut and I look forward to more from Lina Chern!

Thanks to Random House for access to a digital ARC on NetGalley.

While I didn't love this story, I also didn't hate it. Where it fell for me was firmly in the frustrating category.

There was so much back and forth that I must have rolled my eyes a dozen or so times before the end. Some things never made sense such as who was Marley on the phone with? Needless to say, I have questions, but not enough to come back for a second book.

I was really intrigued getting into this book and it got off to a great start. I really enjoyed the quality of writing and the sort of mystery vibe it had going on, I felt like I'd stepped into the atmosphere of the movie Ghost World. The mystery itself wasn't that intriguing and didn't feel like that much of a mystery, as I was more interested in what happened to Katie and how she was going to deal with the situation. I didn't find myself caring about Marley very much, but it might have been more impactful to see their relationship as more established before the murder happens, since I wasn't that invested. Definitely more on the "cozy" side of the mystery genre. I wasn't crazy about the ending, and there was a LOT going on (maybe too much) but overall this was an intriguing debut and I would read more by this author.

The cover and the premise was fantastic, I really struggled to get through this. I don’t say this lightly. It was very slow and it never really picked up. It started off interesting enough but it slowly creeped into the realm of uh, that’s funny but I’m not buying the lead up. The love interest left a lot to be desired as did Katie. She was hard to like with being so lackluster at times. No real goal in her life made her just seem unanchored. I really wanted to love this book, such a great idea but I just couldn’t get behind the characters. Definitely was expecting something more romantic and magical than what this actually was.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for granting this ARC.

This was a cover request. I thought it was a great cover. The story was good. I don't read many mysteries and I honestly wasn't expecting this twist. I didn't go into the novel knowing the premise either. The main character grows into herself pretty well. I honestly wasn't a fan of Marley. It was obvious from the start she was hiding something, not 'mysterious'. None the less I trudged through the story. The detective was pretty standard and flat. It was clear the story was supposed to be about doing the hard things and taking chances.

Thank you Lina Chern, Bantam, and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

It took me a little while to get into this book. I really couldn’t tell where it was going or what the genre was really supposed to be. The ending was unexpected, but more so because this book was a little all over the the place.

The premise was interesting, I just think there could’ve been a better execution of it.