I was not expecting this book at all! I was sent this book from the publisher after reviewing another book on NetGalley and I’m so glad I was! It was the perfect mix of mystery and humor. Great story pacing and character development. This will definitely be On the top of my recommendation list when this book comes out!

Play the Fool by Lina Chern is about a cynical tarot card reader who seeks to uncover the truth about her friend’s mysterious death.

The book was a quick read and fairly enjoyable. Katie, the main character, was hard to like at times due to her snarkiness and being kind of a messy character. The story is narrated by Katie. The author's writing was good and the story was developed well. It wasn't as "mysterious" as most marketed thriller books. Overall, an okay read for me.

I go back and forth on giving this a 3 or 4 stars, so I'll rate it a 3.5 out of 5 stars and round up to 4 stars.

#PlaytheFool #NetGalley @ChernLina @atrandom

Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to read this book for my honest review. Excellent book though the title wasn’t something that made me want to jump right into this book. Glad I did…thoroughly enjoyed this mystery and the characters were different and very like-able. Would highly recommend.

I think this cover is so great! I love the card embedded in the bright blue! I wish I'd loved the book as much.

The first third of the book was fascinating. I liked getting to know Katie and her wild life. Her friends, her job and her apartment. I loved how she carried the cards around and how, sometimes she was so connecte to them, that they would come as images to her in the midst of casual conversation.

But at about 50%, I thought the story derailed. It just hit the realm of not believable. I wanted to buy it, I really did, but I found the police angle to the whole case just too much. And I didn't love Jamie and whatever was going on there. I wasn't feeling the love interest in the midst of all the over-the-top mafia type family and the suddnely rush of a huge cast of characters. It was cute, I didn't mind the end, but I definitely didn't love it.

A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

Katie's friend is killed. Her best friend is dead? Who killed her and why? She's able to get messages from cards that others could not. She is out to solve the crime but puts herself in the crossfire! Such a good read! This kept me on the edge of my seat! I read this in a day! Highly recommend!

This book was a lot of fun! The main character, Katie True, is one that will have you internally screaming at her to make a different decision, but each of those decisions certainly work well to keep the plot fast-paced. The pace is faster than what you would expect from a single POV, and it works in this story. The characters have depth and are lovable without being cringy. A cozy, clever mystery where you likely won’t guess all of the twists, but the reveals still make sense.

Pub date: 28 March 2023

Thank you to NetGalley and Kathleen at Penguin Random House for the ARC; I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thanks to NetGalley, Lina Chern, and the publisher for letting me read an advance copy of Play the Fool. This was this author’s debut book and she really combined a lot of investigation, mystery, and the occult in it. I enjoyed the detail of the characters and how they processed through the book. The twists and turns were subtle but noteworthy. I enjoyed the fact that there was no sexuality thrown into the mix which would have tarnished the complexity and ambiance of the characters.. It was an excellent read and I recommend it to mystery enthusiasts.

Play the Fool by Lina Chern tells the story of Katie True a tarot card reader who is not living her best life. She befriends Marley who she sees dead in a picture. Katie feels she needs to find out what happened to her. I enjoyed this story. Liked the characters and it was a very believable story. It read more like a cozy mystery. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book.

I really enjoyed Play the Fool. It was a perfect cozy mystery for the Halloween season, complete with tarot cards. I loved how the main character had flaws, wanted to do and be better, but kept making the wrong decisions. Katie was a very relatable character. I definitely didn't anticipate how the story would go but I thought it was well done. I loved the relationship between Katie and Jamie and my only wish is that we could have seen that develop more. I got through this pretty quickly, I just had to know what was gonna happen next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for allowing me to read this ARC for an honest review!

This was a really unique mystery book! I enjoyed the grittiness of the main character Katie and the mysterious aspects of the tarot. I never anticipated the next steps of the story which is KEY for a mystery book like this. I can’t wait to see what else Lina Chern writes!

Katie True is a tarot aficionado who languishes her days (and potential) away at the mall, selling Eastern European knick knacks. When Katie offers to read the cards for an injured and disoriented customer named Nico, things go sideways fast. A little light snooping on Nico’s phone reveals a photo of her flame-haired friend Marley…. dead in the dumpster. Shocked and appalled, Katie makes it her personal mission to solve Marley’s murder- whatever the cost.

Play the Fool is a captivating and upbeat mystery that’s laugh-out-loud funny. I found myself reaching for it again and again because it’s refreshingly playful and entertaining. Finally, a suspenseful and engaging story that doesn’t rely heavily on gore, darkness and all things disturbing to intrigue an audience. Play the Fool doesn’t need any of that because the fast-paced plot, zany character and sheer fun stand all on their own. Speaking of characters, I fell in love with them all- Katie, Owen and Jamie have my heart. And how could I resist a special shoutout to the White Camry of Death!

As a curious amateur myself, I especially appreciated the tarot references, which breathe even more life and whimsy into the book. They’re also an unforgettable part of the main character’s identity. It’s really easy to root for Katie, an authentic underdog who ‘plays the fool.’ She is on her own path of personal growth towards individuation/self-actualization. Over the course of the story, she is challenged to own her ‘magic’ and shine her light, despite self-doubt, limiting beliefs and others’ expectations. Her inner development mirrors the hero(ine)’s journey- a thread of shared experience that many, if not all of us, can relate to.

With this bouquet of ringing endorsements, may I humbly recommend Play the Fool- quite possibly the most hilarious book I’ve ever read and a clever mystery to boot. If you’re looking for a lively whodunnit with lovable characters and plenty of panache, you’ve met your perfect match. I can’t wait to see what Lina Chern comes up with next!

A special thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley for the arc!
This book was enjoyable. I really liked the the characters. The plot was a-lot of fun too!

Thank you so much NetGalley and the publisher for giving me an ARC copy of this book to read and review. All of these thoughts are my own!

When I think of thrillers; I think of suspenseful and scary. I wouldn’t put this in that genre. I’d say this is more of a cozy mystery book. With that being said, it’s a good book. It held my attention enough and the plot was really good. I would recommend this to anyone who likes mysteries.

Katie is a girl who just really doesn’t have her life figured out. She’s working at a store and a man named Nico comes in acting strange. Katie loves to read tarot cards and she a bit nosy so she asked him if he wanted to get a reading done. She reads a few cards at first and then Nico decided to go to the bathroom. While in the bathroom Katie snoops through his phone and finds a picture of her friend Marley…dead.

Will Katie be able to help solve her friend’s murder? With tarot cards, luck, and a friendly cop, anything is possible.

Side note: I really liked Owen (Katie’s brother). Their relationship is relatable and funny. I also really liked Jamie the sweet cop who helps Katie. I wish there would’ve been more between them and not just romantically. I really liked them together. Also, I LOVE the cover. It really pops!

This book releases March 28, 2023. Thank you again for an ARC copy. 4 stars!

I loved this fast paced book. Katie True has been feeling like a slacker, drifting from one dead end job to another, not living up to her family’s expectations. The one thing she feels good about is her ability to use Taro cards to play psychic and help people. When she stumbles upon the news that her best friend has been murdered Katie finally decides to see something through to the end. I never really knew what to expect, but enjoyed the twists and turns.

This book is a true gem! Complicated, colorful characters drive this well written thriller. Katie True, her real name, is a tarot card reader working a dead end job in a mall trinket shop. She befriends another colorful mall employee and the intrigue unfolds! Murder, drug gangs and subterfuge. What will the cards show? With her loyal brother, Owen, and local cop, Jamie (a loner and former L.A. detective) Katie starts digging. Tight short chapters keep the reader engaged, “just one more chapter”.

A girl working in a mall at a Russian tchotchke shop in the suburbs of Chicago decides to give a tarot card reading to a man who wanders in bleeding from a wound in his head and gets a whole lot more than she bargained for. Katie True has spent her life underachieving in almost everything, but when her “best friend” (aka only friend) Marley shows up dead in a photo on a strangers phone she takes matters into her own hands and takes it upon herself to solve the murder. This book was a roller coaster honestly with me thinking I’d finally figured out who’d done it and then having my theories dashed to bits. It only made it that much more satisfying at the end when everything actually came together. It wasn’t as dark as a Ruth Ware or Paula Hawkins book, but had the same thrill you’d get from reading one of their works and trying to figure out the murderer and the motives. I wouldn’t quite call it cozy mystery but more like a fun thriller? In any case, 10/10

Tarot cards is a brilliant way to bring some nervousness from the unknown into the life of a game: to find out what’s hidden. Lina Chern managed to do this as if we were right there waiting for our cards to be read.

This is a fast-paced complex whodunit narrated by the main character, Katie. When I think of the name “Katie,” my mind goes to a sweet, pretty girl who owns a bakery or bookstore. The Katie in the book was not like my image. She was bold, brave and fearless trying to solve a mystery of why her fairly new friend was now dead.

Katie worked at a Russian knickknack store in an old shopping mall. She instantly became friends with Marley who worked in a store across from her. Katie said that all kinds of people would come into the shop: people asking where the restroom was, looking for t-shirts and then there was Nico. He stumbled in with his head bleeding which didn’t look good. He noticed she had tarot cards and asked how much. He put a $20 bill along with his phone on the table and went to the restroom to clean up. While he was gone, she looked at his last text which was a photo of her friend, Marley. To her surprise, she was dead. Katie was good at reading the cards and making people believe what she had to say. When she told him someone died, he said, “I didn’t mean for her to die.”

From that point on, Katie was on a mission to find out what happened to Marley. Her Aunt Rosie taught her how to read cards when she was eight years old. She was told, “You can know things with more than just your brain.” Katie knew that some people think in words or images. She always was thinking with tarot cards. While she was chasing the idea of finding out why her friend was dead, she would think about how different cards in the deck were influencing what was going on. There were times when I laughed out loud from her dialogue.

All the characters in this book worked: her family, her good friend, the criminals and the detective that looked like romance was brewing. They were all brought together in a way that made this a page turner. Even when parts were a tad unbelievable, it was all fine. The end was good. It made me smile which made all the difference staying up late to finish it.

My thanks to Lina Chern, Bantom Books, and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy with the expected release date of March 28, 2023.

This is marketed as a thriller, but really it feels more like a cozy murder mystery. I found myself wrapped up in my blankets, lost inside this book. I wasn't necessarily on the edge of my seat with suspense, but I was intrigued and wanted to keep reading to find out what happened. It was good writing of a good plot and was the perfect spooky season read!

A quirky mystery that is fast paced and what I considered a quick read also. Katie True is a Tarot reader , living in her hometown near her family working in a mall at a Russian trinket shop. Katie makes friends with Marley who works at a shop across from the trinket shop and gets worried when she goes missing even though Marley is kind of a drifter like that. A man comes into the shop for a reading late Sunday night, he’s out of sorts and sporting a head wound. She gives him a reading but also sneaks a glance at his phone to see what has him so upset and then her world starts to spin out from there. She goes on quite the roller coaster to get to the truth and puts her own life in danger in the process. She did become friends with a nice detective named Jamie in the process. There are lots of twists and turns that keep you engaged in the book.

Thank you NetGalley for this arc.

'Play the Fool' by Lina Chern follows Katie, a gifted tarort card reader, as she tries to unravel the death of a friend. This story was very unique it terms of plot. I found Katie to be endearing at times, with how adamant she was to help solve the murder. While this could be seen as a good quality, I found it to be her downfall in the story. She was always putting herself in situations that got her in trouble.

I would have liked to have read a bit more on her relationships with her family and Jamie overall. Her relationship with Jamie felt a little forced at times, instead of a buildup with much development outside of the police station. Her relationship with her siblings was endearing and relatable, but with her parents didn't fit. They were always trying too hard to please her in the non-existent relationship they had.

I did not find that this book was for me. I was too caught up in the scenarios that were happening and all the card reading that was going on in her head. The writing style was okay overall. There were some areas that could be improved in terms of diction, but that could be the author's style for the character.