Thank you to St Martin's Press for access via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.
The Fortune Seller (publishing 2/13/24) is the author’s latest release, and I've read her previous books, The Ballerinas and The Ingenue. All three books can be considered women's fiction with mysterious undertones, and the author does an incredible job of defining the characters.
In this book, college senior Rosie has returned to Yale and her small group of fellow female equestrian friends after a year abroad in Argentina. While she was abroad, a transfer student joined the team and her one friend who remained at Yale. Now that Rosie is back, she is rooming with the transfer student and, while Rosie has her initial hesitations, they become close rather quickly. Annelise, the new girl, teaches Rosie about tarot cards and reading fortunes. The book follows senior year as well as the first year after graduation. I had trouble setting the book down once I began, because I was completely sucked into Rosie's world. I foresaw one big twist before it hit - that always makes me feel like I am really paying attention! I think there is one mystery (at least) that still remains at the end, and I have my opinions about that...

I found the first half of this book to be a little too "horse girl" for me with a much slower pace, but ultimately understood how the pieces fit together later. I liked the tease of the tarot cards and felt those added depth to the book. The second half definitely picked up, but the pacing felt just a bit off for me overall. Still recommend this one to fans of this author and I look forward to her next release!

Dive into a genre-bending tale that defies labels and keeps you on the edge of your seat. Meet our protagonist, a regular kid navigating the opulent world of Yale's elite, but with a supernatural twist that turns the old tropes on their head.

This isn't your typical "women's fiction" – it's a gripping page-turner that delves into the complexities of class and privilege while infusing a fresh dose of paranormal intrigue. Picture a world where the ordinary clashes with the extraordinary, where the halls of academia hold secrets darker than the ivy that adorns them.

As our hero grapples with the challenges of fitting in among the wealthy and privileged, they also discover a hidden power within themselves that sets them apart in ways they never imagined. It's a journey that takes the age-old trope and catapults it into the 21st century, blending elements of mystery, fantasy, and suspense in a tale that's as captivating as it is unexpected.

So buckle up and prepare for a ride unlike any other, where the lines between reality and the supernatural blur, and the only certainty is that nothing is as it seems.

3.5⭐️

The Fortune Seller is a generally entertaining story, with a commentary on class mixed in with a mystery and plenty of horse talk and tarot reading. That said, it drags in some parts, I saw the twists and solution to the mystery elements a mile away, and the romantic side story felt unnecessary and lacking in spark. I enjoyed this enough to see it through to the finish, and would recommend it for a light quick read.

Thank you Rachel Kapelke-Dale, St. Martin’s Press, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was a doozy of a book. The two main mysteries unfolded very well and I enjoyed seeing how the character’s dealt with the aftermath. Each chapter begins with an explanation of how tarot cards can be interpreted and I found it very enlightening. There was a lot of talk about class and the differences between wealth which Kapelke Dale handled well. I did the audiobook and really enjoyed Stephanie Cannon’s narration.

•Coming of age
•Early 2000's setting
•Equestrian
•Friendship

Suspenseful and mystical. I love the tarot card references and their tie-in to each chapter. I am always up for an upper crust story as they completely intrigue me. I don't feel like you have to have a ton of knowledge of the equestrian world to read this but it would make more relatable and enjoyable.

3.5 stars

The Fortune Seller is one of those books that starts off seeming like one thing but turns into something completely different. In the first half, we meet five young women in their final year at Yale. Four of them have been friends the past few years, but Annelise is a newcomer to the group. She and our protagonist Rosie become roommates, sharing a room in the house all five of them are renting. While the other three friends are extremely wealthy and can’t relate to Rosie’s middle class background, she finds a kindred spirit in Annelise… even if she doesn’t really know anything about her. As enigmatic as Annelise is, she quickly wins her new friends over with her kindness, sunny disposition, and love of giving tarot readings.

Much of this book is abut class and money. On the one hand, three of Rosie’s friends have billionaire parents—a stark contrast to the veterinarians her own parents are. Rosie’s chosen to study economics with a goal of working in finance and becoming rich herself. She doesn’t want to have the limitations she grew up with; she wants to fit in with her rich friends and always be financially secure, even if it means denying her true passions. Wealth comes into everything, including how well the five women do in their horse club. They all ride and compete, but sometimes getting the right (expensive) horse can make the difference between a blue ribbon and not placing.

There are some elements of dark academia, with the Yale backdrop and the increasing infighting between this group of friends. Someone is stealing money, someone is keeping major secrets, and all seem to be on edge as their senior year kicks off. Equally, though, this book is a coming-of-age story about a woman finding her place in the world, both with her friends and with her career.

I enjoyed seeing the horsemanship and horse events. Growing up, I loved horses, but only got to ride a few times. To this day I still like reading about horses and the people who work with them. Another major theme, of course, is the tarot cards and their descriptive abilities. Annelise is a passionate tarot reader and is teaching Rosie about the cards’ meanings and interpretations. Though I don’t know a whole lot about tarot cards, I do enjoy similar occult interests like astrology, so I found this aspect fascinating and fun.

The first half of The Fortune Seller feels like it’s leading up to a big mystery about Annelise, maybe with the potential to be a full-on thriller. And while some major events do happen, the second half changes gears rather dramatically. Rosie is now a graduate and working in Manhattan. Her friendships with the other girls have morphed, and she’s starting to question things in a way she never had before. The biggest through-line is really the financial aspect of everything: the haves versus have-nots; the desire to become someone else or attain what others already have; the realization of how much power money can give access to. I grew up rather poor myself, and a lot of these money-focused themes and lessons resonated with me, even if I never tried to keep up the way Rosie does. But it changes the scope of what could have been a thriller, keeping it more firmly in the realms of drama and women’s fiction.

The Fortune Seller is a book that sucks you in, about young women finding themselves through friendship and a career. It’s about secrets and money, with mean pranks and sugar-coated tarot readings and major lessons to be learned. I’ve enjoyed both of the Rachel Kapelke-Dale books I’ve read so far—now I just need to finally read The Ballerinas before her next novel comes out!

For years, Rosie Macalister has hidden her middle-class upbringing from her equestrian teammates at Yale. By senior year, she finally feels like she fits in, and she arrives back from a year abroad excited to share a house with three of her teammates. But when she returns to school, she’s surprised to learn that there’s a fourth house-mate—a new girl who seems to have taken her place in the friend group and on the team. Despite her initial resentment, Rosie soon realizes why her friends love the new girl so much. Annelise is a tarot card reader, a generous friend, and one of the best riders any of them have ever seen. But when money starts disappearing from one of the housemate's bank accounts, the girls become suspicious of Annelise and her mysterious past. A year later when Rosie begins working for her friend’s father, she begins to unravel the details of Annelise’s past. She has to decide for herself whether she should do what’s right or what will provide financial security for her future.

This is a brilliant exploration of class, power, privilege, identity, and friendship, and I was as riveted as I was horrified while I read. I knew basically nothing about the equestrian world before reading this novel, but I felt like I recognized these characters so clearly from attending a prestigious university. Kapelke-Dale captured these characters brilliantly, and even their worst behavior felt believable. The tarot cards served as both a storytelling mechanism and foreshadowing throughout the novel, and it felt like a character’s idiosyncrasy rather than a gimmick. I had no expectations when I started this book, but I couldn’t put it down.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a delightfully twisty entry into the dark academia genre. At the risk of sounding dreadfully cliché, everyone is keeping secrets from each other, but it’s not until Rosie returns from study abroad that everything begins to unravel.

The pacing is perfect: taut at the tense moments, and then breezing over what the reader is supposed to perceive as unimportant. Narrator Rosie is fairly reliable; she’s both an outsider and a member of an inner circle. She knows her place is precarious, but she’s determined to make it work.

Admittedly, I began to harbor suspicions, and some of them proved to be correct. However, there were other things managed to shock me. I had no idea what was going to happen until the very end.

I would have liked to have seen more of the Yale experience, but I think that’s part of the mystique: these EQ girls are set apart from the rest of their cohort—they are quite literally not like other girls. This dynamic makes Rosie beholden to the others; she doesn’t have anyone else to turn to.

I don’t know very much about tarot, but I loved how well it worked with the narrative on so many levels. I can’t say anything more, other than nothing is as what it appears and that the future isn’t always as clear as we might make it out to be.

I would absolutely recommend The Fortune Seller. I am going to be thinking about this book for a long time. It was very clever, and I’m going to have to re-read because I know there are little moments that I missed during my first readthrough. I want to the rest of Kapelke-Dale’s other books now!



I received a digital ARC of this book from St. Martin’s/NetGalley

The Fortune Seller was a yarn of a read.

Rosie is a poor girl who is going to Yale and is a member of the equestrian team, not exactly a sport for the poor. her roommates and friends are all daughters of wealthy families with money to burn. After a semester abroad, Rosie returns to find that golden girl Cressida Tate has made a new friend and has invited her to room with Rosie and their other friends/roommates Lila and Andra. Cressida is enamored of new girl Annelise, but Rosie is not so sure. Annelise does appear great on paper, a wonderful equestrian and a talented Tarot reader, but something seems off. Then the weird stuff starts to happen and a tragedy that tests the bounds of friendship.

I enjoyed this book and the look at the wealhy and privileged. A fun read overall.

Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and the author for the chance to read and review this book.

“You’re going to work hard, you’re going to put in the effort, but never forget: success is its own kind of power, and it’s its own kind of burden, too.”

2.5 stars. I’m not sure how I feel about this one. I was very excited to start it as I love the equestrian world and the world of ivies. But for the first probably 50% of the book 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅. I almost DNF’d it. But I soldiered on.

There are two events in the story that really held my interest but other than that the story seemed to just be going in circles. Even the drama with the girls while at Yale was not enough to keep me caring. The writing was good and I was definitely immersed in their world. But, I found my mind wandering due to the lack of plot and didn’t have that desire I yearn for to pick a book back up to find out what’s going to happen.

Thank you, though, to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and the author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Both "The Ballerinas" and "The Ingenue" were four-star reads for me, but author Rachel Kapelke-Dale has moved into five-star territory with her newest novel, "The Fortune Seller." I love dark academia stories and the added drama of the competitive equestrian world made this book an enthralling read. The mystery surrounding Annelise as well as the tensions between the diverse cast of characters kept me turning pages long past my bedtime. The plot twists kept me guessing and the vividly crafted characters came alive to me. As a rider myself, I thoroughly enjoyed that this story centered around members of the Yale equestrian team and the descriptive writing made me feel like I was part of the team too. This book is more than it appears on its surface however; underneath the mystery lies an exploration of class differences and a scathing critique of those who think they can get away with anything just because they are wealthy. This book would make an excellent book club selection because there is a lot to unpack and discuss. it's also a very entertaining read!

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the privilege of reading an advanced copy of this fabulous book.

Tarot cards, ambitions, and desires come together in The Fortune Seller by Rachel Kapelke-Dale. Five girls start their senior year together at Yale, but only four survive. What happened to Annelise?

Rosie, a senior at Yale, is friends with three young women who have everything they want and more. Horses are the common factor among these women. They are equestrians. They wear designer clothes, never have to worry about money whereas Rosie struggles. She has ambitions to be on the top. A fourth young woman, Annelise, enters the circle and is a mystery. She is welcomed with open arms but later is turned against. Rosie slowly starts unraveling the mystery and her life.

Every chapter starts with the meaning of tarot cards, and the happenings coincide with that particular card. I really liked that in this book. This book is a dark one in a lot of aspects. There's mystery for sure in the book. But also, it brings up an important aspect of relationships and friendships. Do we make friendships based on safety and trust or based on our desires that we can use them for leverage later on in our life?

When we’re older, we tend to create a social circle of people who are a lot like us: similar backgrounds, similar interests, and similar careers. But The Fortune Seller by Rachel Kapelke-Dale explores what happens when students of vastly different backgrounds come together at an Ivy League school.

Full review published on NightsAndWeekends.com and aired on Shelf Discovery.

A story about class, secrets, trying to fit and being different. A page turner with a pinch of paranormal and a cast of well rounded and fascinated characters.
The first book by a new to me author. Highly recommended
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Rachel Kapelke-Dale returns following The Ingenue and The Ballerinas with her latest coming-of-age novel THE FORTUNE SELLER— a haunting and gripping portrayal of class, desire, privilege, and ambition. (no one masters it better than Rachel)!

I LOVED THIS BOOK! A huge fan of the author.

Rosie Macalister (small-town Illinois) grew up middle class and has worked hard to try and fit in with her wealthy friends at Yale and the equestrian team.

Rosie is on a scholarship, unlike her wealthy roommates. When she returns to Yale for her senior year, she discovers a new roommate in the house she shares with four others.

Annelise Tattinger is a skilled rider, and Rosie is obsessed with her—her family, money, power, prestige, clothes, sophistication, and riding skill. She keeps everyone at arm's length and is secretive about her past.

Annelise is enigmatic, mysterious, and alluring. Plus, she is a master, gifted in the art of Tarot cards and fortune telling. Who is the real Annelise?

Soon, competition and rivalry change the dynamics between the teammates. Something happens, and accusations are made. One of the girls notices money disappearing from her bank account, and Annelise's place in the circle is questioned. Can they trust her? As the girls turn against each other, the group’s unspoken tensions and assumptions lead to devastating consequences. Rosie suspects there is more to Annelise and begins sleuthing.

Then, shortly thereafter, someone dies in a riding accident. However, was it an accident?

Rosie leaves Connecticut to take a finance job in NYC at a hedge fund (not what she exactly wanted- as an assistant), but she thinks it will be a way into the world she wants. However, there is betrayal, lies, secrets, and deceit. Has Rosie made a deal with the devil? Is someone setting her up to take the fall or buying her off to keep secrets?

Does someone want revenge? Rosie will soon learn some difficult life lessons and what it takes to be truly happy.

"Fortune sounds like a wonderful thing, but that's just not how things work because we've told ourselves fairy tales about it for so long. Fortune is nothing more and nothing less than the idea that there are some things in our lives—so much more than we'd like to believe—that are out of our control, no matter how hard we try. And that's why you have to ask, but almost nobody ever does. Because they don't really want the answer. Do you really want to know?"


Wow! The author has outdone herself!

THE FORTUNE SELLER is twisty, alluring, dark, sinister, and atmospheric, and I was glued to the pages to see how this would turn out! (in one sitting). I read the e-book and listened to the audiobook, which was fantastic and narrated by the talented Stephanie Cannon—perfect for all voices for an engaging performance. I Highly recommend the audiobook.

I would also recommend buying the hardcover or e-book, as well. I highlighted many pages with the Tarot cards. You do not want to miss this.

CAPTVATING! The best part, and my favorite, is the innovative and creative introduction of each chapter with the title of a Tarot Card, its description, and how it fits with what is happening in the novel. BRILLIANT!

I loved Chapter 39: The Ten of Pentacles (Reversed)
"Everybody wants something. And the way that we go after those things determines who we are. Ten of Pentacles, when it's reversed, is all about the traps we get ourselves into. About what we've let define ourselves and our self-worth; about how we've forced ourselves into certain roles because of the compromises we thought we had to make."


Fits so well with the novel. I am a huge tarot card and equestrian fan, so this book had it all! After all, I live in Wellington, FL, the equestrian capital of the world. For real, I had a tarot card reading in New Orleans, and five years later, everything she predicted came true, which was spine-chilling!

If you have yet to read this author, you are missing out. I have loved all three of her books, and THE FORTUNE SELLER is my absolute favorite! I love the author's writing style! —a mix of coming-of-age, literary (beautiful lyrical prose), psychological suspense, mystery, thriller, and academia. I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for the gifted ARC and ALC in exchange for an honest review. #SMPInfluencers

Blog review posted @
JudithDCollins.com
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
Pub Date: Feb 13, 2024
My Rating: 5 Stars
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I enjoyed the Ballerinas by the same author, and this one was at least as good and addresses some of the same topics, particularly female friendships. While that novel centred ballet, this has horseriding, but it's horseriding as a metaphor for belonging and privilege. This is a lot more than a coming of age novel. It tackle big topics like wealth, belonging, goals and identity and it does so with style. It's not an outright suspense novel, there are twists, but the point (to me) is about class and desire. The epilogue wraps things up a little too neatly for me - but then I usually find myself complaining about epilogues, so that might be a me problem. I read it, I enjoyed it and I recommend it if you like well written, suspenseful books that ask interesting questions.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an E-Arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Fortune Seller by Rachel Kapelke-Dale ⭐️⭐️💫

While this book didn’t work for me, I did really enjoy that each chapter started with a description of a different tarot card. I also loved the emphasis on animals. If you enjoy character-driven novels, college settings, tarot cards or equestrian, this book may be a hit for you.

Here are the reasons I struggled:

I never connected with the narrator, Rosie, and that made this character-driven novel tough to enjoy. While I appreciated that her middle class upbringing was important in terms of the dichotomy with her uber rich friends, Rosie was so focused on what she wasn’t it was really hard to root for her. She had no self-confidence, and her only sense of self was that she wasn’t rich like her friends.

The supporting characters were one-noted rich kids. There was some variation among that but you could have removed many of them and the story would have been the exact same. Tiny connection points happened, but then it fell flat and we never got any more in terms of character or relationship building.

Plot and pacing went hand in hand. It was too long. The first half could have been edited down; we didn’t need so much “Rosie is not rich” inner dialogue. It was predictable on some fronts. I picked up on one of the big points at about 30% into the book. Some of the things that happened made absolutely no sense to me, but maybe I felt that way because I didn’t know the characters. There were several plot holes that I still don’t understand.

Rachel Kapelke-Dale's THE FORTUNE SELLER is wonderfully complex, twisty story about young people finding their way in the world. When middle-class Rosie returns to Yale from her junior abroad with assurance and more money than she has ever had before, she finds a new person has infiltrated her formerly tight group. Annelise is confident, a gifted Tarot card reader and excellent equestrian who is charming, dazzling bright, and fascinating to the group even when money goes missing and she falls under suspicion. Rosie revisits that tenuous time with fresh understanding and must decide to intervene and fix what went wrong or let the past remain in the past. I loved the story's voice, the relationships, the view into a world of privilege and incredible pressure. This was definitely one of those books that will keep readers up way too late reading one more page of this excellent book. I received a copy of this book and these thoughts are my own, unbiased opinions.

The Fortune-Seller, by Rachel Kapelke-Dale, is the third female-centric novel by this talented young writer. She knows young women well, and articulates the intricacy of their complicated relationships—friendships, rivalry, loyalty—with keen insight and well-executed prose.
In this novel, the year is 2005, at Yale University. Rosie, the narrator, is a middle class girl from the Midwest, who joins her wealthy roommates–Cressida, Lila, and Andra—in a lovely Victorian mansion they are renting for their senior year. All are on the school’s equestrian team, competing for places at various levels. Their relationships with each other are unbalanced by a new roommate, a rider from California—mysterious, bohemian Annalise. Rosie likes Annalise and her Tarot card reading, but when threatened by Annalise’s riding skills, the three rich girls become the mean girls, with disastrous consequences.
A Tarot card and its meaning cleverly introduce the theme and action of each chapter. If you like Tarot, you will find this entertaining. If you like horses, horseback riding, and details about equestrian teams, you will enjoy those details. I found that subject somewhat less interesting, although it does set the framework of intense competition among the girls and its effect on their personal relationships.
Post-graduation, the intrigue in Rose’s life ramps up, as the story exposes more underhanded doings by the “privileged” girls and their parents, who are portrayed as lacking a moral compass in their work and in their personal lives. I liked the concluding chapters, and finding out how the main characters fared 14 years later.
This author has a great grasp of the complexity of female relationships, and skillful prose that keeps the story interesting and thought-provoking to the end.


Thank you to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the ARC. This is my honest review.