WOW!!! I seriously loved this book and adored how real the characters were! I could almost see Rosie and Annalise being friends of mine. She perfected the story of excess culture, richness, and how the 1% live in impermeable ivory towers above the rest of us. I absolutely adored the twists that made karma look like a lightweight! Can’t wait to read more from her, her writing grips you and doesn’t let go!

I knew going into The Fortune Seller how well Rachel Kapelke Dale writes complicated female relationships and that’s on full display here. I loved her previous novels The Ballerinas and The Ingenue so my expectations were high.

This novel starts in 2005 with Rosie and her friends who are on the Yale Equestrian team. After being abroad for her junior year, Rosie is excited to reunite with her friends only to learn a new girl named Annelise has joined their clique and will be her roommate. Annelise is an excellent equestrian rider who appears to have many talents and one of them is her tarot card reading. Although Rosie finds herself charmed by Annelise, something seems off. All of the girls are keeping secrets and after a series of events, they start to turn on one another and there are tragic consequences. We then follow Rosie after graduation when she starts working for a hedge fund company. Events from the past continue to haunt her as she searches for answers.

I loved the dark academia feel to the story and the writing is as beautiful as I expected it would be. The tarot card interpretation and foreshadowing at the start of each chapter was a brilliant touch. Thank you to St. Martin’s Press, NetGalley, and the author for an advance digital copy of The Fortune Seller. It exceeded my high expectations!

Rosie Macalister made it to Yale. Unlike her three wealthy and closest friends,Cressida,Lila,and Andra, she hast to watch every dollar she spends. She returns for her senior year, distressed to find that Cressida has added a fourth person to their group.
The tarot card reading Annelise. What Rosie doesn’t expect is how well she will get along with Annelise and how her entire perspective about Yale and life will change. A tragedy mars their final year, and Rosie soon realizes her Yale degree will not open the doors she imagined. Her first job after graduation, exposes her to more truths about how the super wealthy are truly different and soon she has to decide if this is the life she really wants.
I didn’t expect how much this book would make me think about how hard it is to pull yourself up from a life of poverty, no matter how smart you are. Secrets and lies combined, and made me yell at my Kindle more than once, oh no, that didn’t just happen.
No spoilers, but there were certain people that I was glad to see got what they deserved.

There are some really interesting aspects of The Fortune Seller — the tarot, of course, and Rosie's description of animals, particularly the horses — but outside of that, I wasn't incredibly drawn to the story. The outsider with wealthy friends is a common trope, and while Rosie was a character I rooted for, the book didn't stand out to me.

One other thing I want to note — the description is somewhat misleading. I assumed the bulk of the book would be her post-college years, when in reality, the majority of it took place before either of the mysterious deaths occurred. This might seem like a small thing, but really changed the shape of the narrative and what drove it.

During the early 2000's on a college campus the reader encounters the complexity of female friendships, ambition and those with privilege and wealth. Middle-class Rosie Macalister has worked hard to fit in with her friends on the Yale equestrian team, but has her doubts. Set among these friendships is Annelise a mysterious newcomer who has dark undertones causing disruption, with the girls turning against each other. She is a talented equestrian as well as a talented tarot card reader. Was it fate that brought to Yale's equestrian team, or was it just coincidence? At the beginning of each chapter there is a tarot card reading giving a hint of what's to come. An interesting novel. My thanks to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Heavier than “women’s fiction” but still a page turner. Regular kid among the rich at Yale but with a fresh paranormal twist. Brings the old trope into the 21st-century.