I'm not sure where to slot this book - it's part dark academia, part women's fiction, part slow-burn thriller and more. The story centers around a group of college roommates with the shared interest of being on the Yale equestrian team. The plot explores the impact of class and opportunity on the experiences of the girls with a unique approach. It was a solid story, but overall there wasn't anything very memorable about it.

The narration was good.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #MacmillanAudio for a free copy of #TheFortuneSeller by Racel Kapelke-Dale. All opinions are my own.

The Fortune Seller was an excellent, thrilling read. I loved the multiple character perspectives and the dark academia vibe.

The Fortune Sellers by Rachel Kapelk-Dale follows Rosie a Yale student trying to find what she is really looking for after graduation. Throughout college Rosie has made friends with some of the well established families. Rosie is always struggling to make ends meet since she doesn't come from a life with money. Soon Annelise enters the group and is a reader of tarot cards. Annelise is Rosie's new roommate and soon they share a bond over the tarot cards. This was just an ok audio book with a twist that you can see coming. The author does give the meaning of the cards throughout the book which was interesting. Thank you to both NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for letting have an advanced copy of the audio book.

This was a good read but also a sad read. It has a true-to-life take on class and wealth - it was sad to Rosie when she finally realized she wasn't really a true friend of her rich "friends" but more of a project and seen as more the help than a friend. And that rich dudes are pretty much all alike - above the law and out for themselves only. And fuck anyone that gets in their way. I like that she teamed up with Annelise's sister to get justice for her!

The Fortune Seller is a slow-burn mystery that centers on relationships between female college roommates. A tight-knit foursome of Yale equestrian teammates is disrupted their senior year by a fifth girl of mysterious origins joining their clique. What transpires is a weaving of tarot-readings, socioeconomic commentary, and the aftermath of a sudden -- and mysterious -- departure of one of the girls. The narrator's performance is solid, giving each character a unique and convincing voice. The pace is slower, but deliberately so, and the protagonist is a relatable narrator.

This was a very layered novel centering on a Yale equestrian team and its members, of which two are from less elite backgrounds. Rosie returns from study abroad and is forced to room with Annelise, a student obsessed with tarot cards. She uses them to bond with her teammates and soon Rosie starts learning the craft too. She is eager for her next lesson from Annelise. Both struggle to fit into the elite scene and find common ground in the process. When tragedy strikes, mysteries start to get untangled. Hidden pasts, jealousy, upper class privilege are all interwoven in a quest to see justice served. Thanks to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for the ARC. This is my honest review

I made it about 40% through this one but just could not get invested in any of the characters. I was also waiting for things to get a bit darker and perhaps I did not wait long enough but just didn't feel compelled to keep going on this one.

*Scheduled for Instagram post week of 3/10/24

🎧📚 Thanks @macmillan.audio I just finished my {#gifted} copy the audiobook of "The Fortune Seller" and I've got some thoughts to share! 🌟

Rosie Macalister's world gets turned upside down when she returns from her junior year abroad to find her place among her wealthy Yale equestrian friends threatened by the enigmatic Annelise. With tensions rising and secrets unraveling, Rosie's journey takes a dark and twisty turn that kept me hooked until the very end. 🎠🔮

With its blend of dark academia, tarot readings, and coming-of-age drama this book was rich with atmospheric settings; however, while I enjoyed the vibes and the mystery element, I found myself wishing for richer characterization and a tighter plot… Yet, at the same time, I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters, even when I had moved on to my next read. 📖💫

Now, let's talk about Stephanie Cannon's narration. 👏 She did an incredible job bringing the story to life with her engaging voice and impeccable delivery. Even during the slower parts, her performance kept me invested and eager to see where the story would go next. 🎙️


Overall, "The Fortune Seller" wasn't quite what I expected, but I was captivated nonetheless. If you're into atmospheric reads with a hint of mystery and a lot of horses, this one might be right up your alley! 🌿

Rosie McAllister is a middle-class student at Yale in the early aughts, who lives with 3 very wealthy roommates. The girls are all on the Yale equestrian team, and when they return for their senior year a new girl has joined their shared house. Annelise is mysterious, an excellent rider, and a tarot card reader.. After a freak accident, the mystery behind who Annelise really is evolves.

Rosie's obsession with wealth, class, and the comparison of herself to her friends was an overwhelming part of the novel and in some ways, made her an unlikeable main character. The second half of the novel was a bit slow, and focused a bit too much on wealth and status.

I thought the tie-in of tarot card readings at the beginning of each chapter was unique and interesting. Although this book had a unique premise, it fell pretty flat for me.

I enjoyed the audio narrator, and her "dreamy" voice for the character of Annelise, but found her "male voice" irritating.

This was a fun read about college friends. It has the feel of pretty little liars meets Yellow Jackets meets Gossip Girl. Very different from my typical book. I enjoyed the narrator.

5/5 stars.

I’ll be the first to say that this book was predictable but I still enjoyed it immensely. I listened to the audiobook version and really, really enjoyed the narrator and her ability to bring characters to life.

The book is a dash of modern dark academia (set at Yale), part mystery thriller, and part drama. The blend was honestly perfect that even though the twists were rather predictable, I still thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book.

I had so much fun with this one. I could barely put it down. The tone and pacing of the narration was excellent - I especially loved the voices Stephanie was able to capture for each character - lovely and distinct. I especially enjoyed the device that Rachel employed of using a tarot card to set up each chapter - wonderfully effective and original! It's not quite dark academia, but it definitely lives alongside If We Were Vilnians, Ninth House and Cruel Intentions. Straight to my favorites shelf it goes!

4/5 stars

Thank you Macmillan Audio for the advanced listening copy!

SYNOPSIS -- Rosie Macalister has had her work cut out for her the last three years. As a middle class Midwesterner, she's had to fight for her place amongst Yale's equestrian team and has been fairly successfully. Returning from a year abroad to her best friends and their senior year, she's shocked to find her space -- both physical and in their group -- invaded by a mystery, tarot-reading new girl: Annelise Tattinger. While the group fights to maintain normalcy and some missing money throws everything into question, the girls are all forced to reconcile with their choices and the impending consequences.

Post graduation and working at a hedge fund in Manhattan, Rosie will finally uncover the truth about everything, including Annelise's true identity, motives and fate. With everything she thought to be true thrown into question, Rosie has to decide what her real goals and motives are for the future.

This was the perfect book for anyone who loves -- horses, dark academia vibes, college settings and tarot cards!

A wild and brutal commentary on social class and wealth, this was a super fascinating story. I loved the tarot reading and explaining portions; I have very, VERY limited experience with the tarot and I find all of it immensely interesting. The story itself was more of a slow burn, with occasional pockets of intense drama and derision. The friendships were so complex, yet seemingly surface level, and had depth that they certainly didn't show outright. Rosie's character development was one of the highlights of this story; I loved watching her change throughout the years and as she got new information.

This book was one of the more unique that I've read. Similar vibes to GIRLS AND THEIR HORSES, which I loved, but with its own twist with the tarot addition and complexity of the mystery at hand. There were some moments I was definitely shocked by and a few that seemed a bit more obvious than was maybe intended. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and was glad that I gave it a try! It was really different from what I was expecting, in all the right ways, and a very intriguing read.

DNF at 40%. The book started so stong, then I couldn't get myself to keep picking it up. The setting is great.

Fortune Seller is focused on a group of girls attending Yale — all on the equestrian team. The girls are very wealthy with the exception of the main character, Rosie, who is middle class. (Note: despite being middle class, Rosie carries on throughout the book as if she’s poverty-stricken.) The last member to join the group is mysterious horse girl/tarot expert Annelise.

The story has two main themes: horses and tarot — an odd combination, to state the obvious. The underlying theme is the rich vs poor dynamic, which exists primarily in Rosie’s head.

This book is very horse-y from the start. The horsiness is easier to digest as the book progresses. Tarot is used primarily as a vehicle to move the story along.

Though the author is set up to fail with this disjointed jumble of themes, she somehow makes it work…but it takes a while before things start to flow. I began to enjoy it about 1/3 of the way in.

Still not quite sure if this is adult or YA…it’s somewhere in the middle I guess? If you’re a horse girl, this one’s for you. If not, it’s still worth the read so long as you can get through the very horse-forward beginning.

3.6 stars rounded up to 4.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC.

I loved the backdrop of horses and equestrians against this tale of rich and middle class, fortunate and less than.

Author Rachel Kapelke-Dale brings with her a wealth of equestrian knowledge and expertise as she shares this thought provoking, wicked, and enchanting read.

"The Fortune Seller" includes a band of roommates, rich, and secretly on scholarship/work study as a mysterious and unknown, talented rider enters their fold. A rider with unbridled talent and a pension for her Tarot cards. Weaving fortune with fiction, class with secrets, this immersive ride packs some gallop.

A mix of women’s fiction meets a bit of young adult, mystery, and the occult. Rosie returns to Yale from study abroad, joining her roommates and equestrian teammates, only to discover a new addition: the mysterious but talented Annelise. Soon, her tarot abilities are used by all, including Rosie, but when a situation involving another roommate leaves her on the outs, everyone begins to turn on each other. Fast forward to post-Yale, everyone’s futures begin to unfold, but it’s possible the cards Annelise laid out are accurate even years later.
This was a fun read full of mystery but I was still left without resolution and questions on some things. Narrator Stephanie Cannon did a great job on the audiobook.
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

3.5/5 stars!

As a tarot lover and a wannabe horse girl (yeah, you read that right!!), this book was MADE for me! I found the parts that had to do with those topics super interesting, and I loved how each chapter started with a tarot card and its meaning. I wouldn’t call this a traditional suspense book, more like a mystery, and there was some twists I saw coming. The pacing was interesting but kept me gripped (there was a lot going on), and there were a few parts where I thought to myself, where is this going?! But overall I enjoyed it! I thought the narrator did a fantastic job bringing Rosie to life!

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped. I did not know anything about the book beforehand but was mainly judging by the cover and the title and therefore expected something a bit more mysterious.

If I had to tell you what the book was about, I would say – friendship – wealth dichotomy – horseback riding and – fortune telling.

Out of these themes I only somewhat enjoyed the aspect of fortune-telling. I did not know about the horseback riding theme in the story and am personally not that interested in this hobby. The friendships that were portrayed are pretty much all toxic and immature. Even the MC’s (that I think the readers are supposed to like) view on friendships is purely based on give and take and she sees herself as competing with her so-called friends. The wealth dichotomy was also a little infuriating to read about because the MC sees herself as poor and I genuinely thought she was poor, only to find out that she isn’t poor, but just not as rich as the other characters. I genuinely thought she was struggling to pay for food, but no she’s just complaining that she doesn’t have as much money as the others. This theme could have been explored much better. I think I just don’t really like the MC. She puts herself in situations that are disadvantageous to her and then complains about them rather than getting proactive.
I also had a bit of a problem with the storytelling.

Maybe I am just a sceptical reader, but the relationships between almost all of the characters felt a bit creepy to me. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop or something inappropriate to happen, especially between Rosie and Annelise’s dad.

The book has a very slow pace. Apart from telling us about the friendships of the four girls nothing really happens till 50% of the book. The second part of the book is when the girls graduate from college and has a bit of time jump. It gets a little bit more interesting here, but only barely. Unfortunately, I predicted all the twists way before they happened and therefore this book fell flat for me.

The audio narrator did an excellent job though 😊

***Thank you to NetGalley, Rachel Kapelke-Dale, and Macmillan Audio for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***

While a bit of a slow burn, I really enjoyed this book! Set in the early 2000s, The Fortune Seller brings us to campus life on Yale as we follow Rosie Macalister and her friends on Yale’s equestrian team. There’s plenty of rich horse girl drama, but also an air of mystery surrounding Annelise, the transfer student who may not be who she says she is.

While I read this, I got big Pretty Little Liars vibes from some parts of this, which I really enjoyed. The writing was engaging and I was fully invested in the story. The author truly captured the cutting meanness of the horse girls, the drama of the wealthy, and the blindness to the reality of real life for so many. There were plenty of twists and just a hint of a supernatural element. I thought the ending was satisfactory and wrapped up the story nicely.

This is the second book I’ve read that has been narrated by Stephanie Cannon and again I’m so impressed. In The Fortune Seller, she gives life to many different characters of varying ages and genders. She voices the whole Tate family, including the larger than life Mr. Tate. I was never confused by who was speaking and was able to follow the story easily.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for a review copy.