I did not realize this was a sequel until partway in, when I thought 'I am definitely missing something' and gave it a look on Goodreads. However, I don't feel you necessarily have to read the first one to enjoy this. Would it provide some better context? Absolutely, but this is still understandable on its own. With that said, I will be going back to read the first book. This is a fun mystery; however, it is a bit slow to the get, I would have enjoyed seeing more twists and turns. Though I am willing to admit, this could be remedied when I go back to read this first book.

Book #2 in the Katie True series finds our inrepid tarot card reader bored and looking for excitement. Lina Chern adds to the background of our MC and stirs several new characters into the mix of this cozy with a twist, or two, or three. When Katie's hero, who saved her life when she was small, is murdered, she pulls out all her cards and tricks to solve the case.

Katie True returns in this gripping follow-up to help solve another murder — one that hits painfully close to home. This time, the victim is none other than the police officer who once saved her life as a child. As suspicion falls on her enigmatic friend, Katie turns to her trusted tarot cards for guidance in unraveling the mystery behind this shocking crime.

While the premise is intriguing and offers plenty of suspense, I found the pacing a bit uneven. The story felt overly long in places and at times lost focus, which made it difficult for me to stay fully engaged. Additionally, I strongly recommend reading the first book in the series beforehand — much of the character development is rooted there, and this installment doesn’t provide enough context for new readers to easily catch up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for the eARC. This title is set to be released on July 1st!

The rare sequel that improves on its predecessor. Maybe it's the from-the-headlines plot basis (the afterword notes that the was loosely based on a true crime I was unaware of), maybe it's the firmer sense of Katie True as a character with strengths and true insights, maybe it's the intricate mix of current story events with events in multiple character's pivotal personal histories—whatever the reasons, this story was especially gripping and made for a fast, hard to put down read.

I couldn't really get behind the tarot stuff in Play the Fool, especially since the Fool of that book absolutely seemed to be the Katie (she never seemed to know anything that was going on and always seemed several steps behind everything!), but this one made a much better case for the use of Katie's tarot-reading as a tool for aiding insight and for performing interrogations.

Tricks of Fortune is the second novel in the Katie True series and it offered up another great mystery. Katie was saved by a police officer when she was a baby. The story catapulted both of them into small town fame. Now Lieutenant Matthew Peterson has been murdered and Katie's friend Gina is the prime suspect. Katie once again teams up with Jaime to figure out what really happened.
This novel dug a little deeper into Katie's past and how she got into Tarot cards. The reader also learned a little more about her family. I also want to mention that even though this is a series, one could read this novel and enjoy the story without having read the first one. However, I believe that reading Play the Fool, is helpful for character context.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Bantam for this digital e-arc.*

I read and enjoyed Play the Fool so was excited to read the next in the series, but… I low-key obsessed over Tricks of Fortune! It's a murder-mystery without being your typical psychological thriller but also not a cozy mystery. And it's full of complicated characters that give plenty of depth to the story without relying on lots of twists and turns or unreliable narrators or other unbelievable elements. Just raw, real characters in an unclear situation having normal reactions. Katie True is a jaded, unambitious tarot card reader who has upgraded her venue from a Russian tchotchke shop at a dead mall to her sister’s real estate office. When her friend Gina (spoiler alert: Marley from PtF) is arrested for the murder of a prominent police officer with whom Katie has a deep history, she sets out to help her friend prove her innocence while also trying to get to the bottom of what happened. What ensues is a strange but entertaining trip along with Katie while she amateurly but effectively investigates Officer Pete’s murder... From the Jamie, the cop from PtF who is now her friend and frequent partner-in-crime, Katie’s brother Owen, Pete’s son Matt who she also has a past with, and a whole lot of brash confidence, she finds out that she never ever knew the person she thought was the town hero. Tricks of Fortune is a stellar follow-up to Play and Fool, and more compelling and entertaining than the first.

“Tricks of Fortune" by Lina Churn is a delightful addition to the cozy mystery genre, set against the backdrop of an endearing small town filled with colorful characters. The quirky main character, Katie, is both relatable and refreshingly original, navigating through unexpected twists with wit and charm.

Churn masterfully paints the cozy setting, making the town almost feel like a character in itself. The plot is well-paced, with enough twists to keep readers engaged without overwhelming them. The quirky protagonist adds a layer of humor and heart, making each chapter a joy to read.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn to the premise and the integration of tarot cards into solving the murder. I thought both were well executed. I also liked the backstory of how Katie knew the victim. This mystery kept me guessing, which I'm always looking for in a mystery.
I did have trouble staying interested in the writing. I felt like there were too many flashbacks that didn't relate to the action happening now. I think if there would have just been an explanation of the card or Katie explaining what draws her to each card, it would have been sufficient. Maybe I'm missing a connection of why Ramona was so important to her, but I felt like the flashbacks took away more than they added.
Overall, I enjoyed this story of the investigation of the town hero's murder.

Thank you Netgalley & Bantam for an eARC♥️

Katie True is back—and this time, the universe isn’t just testing her, it’s throwing her into a full-blown existential blender.🫨 Just when she thought adulthood meant a cozy tarot nook and fewer near-death experiences, fate drops a dead cop on her doorstep—one who *literally* held her life in his hands years ago. So much for leaving the detective work to the professionals.
This isn’t just another whodunit. It’s a messy, personal excavation of family ties, buried secrets, and the kind of small-town grudges that fester like bad wine. Katie is way over her head, but that’s where she thrives. Her chaotic charm is cranked up to eleven here—she’s still pulling tarot cards at wildly inappropriate moments, still making terrible decisions with the best intentions, and still dragging poor Jamie Roth into her orbit. (Let’s be real, he’s not complaining. Neither are we.) 🤭
Katie’s not just solving a murder—she’s untangling her own past, and it’s ugly🤫 The kind of ugly that makes you question who you can trust, even in your own family.
What makes this book sing is how Chern balances the absurd with the achingly real. One second, you’re snorting at Katie’s inner monologue (because *of course* she’d get distracted mid-investigation by a weirdly symbolic pigeon), and the next, your stomach’s in knots as another piece of the puzzle clicks into place. The tension though 😮
A knockout sequel that’s sharper, darker, and even more addictive than the first. Katie True remains the unhinged, tarot-slinging heroine we never knew we needed🤗. Just maybe don’t read it before a family reunion. 🔪✨

This was a so-so mystery - predictable in many ways (which is fine, as when I pick up a true cozy, I just want a quick escape). What I found really intriguing was the explanation of how tarot cards are interpreted. The use of flashbacks of Katie sitting with her aunt as she explained different cards to her and the link to the present was well-crafted. The juxtaposition of the tarot cards to the sci fi movie, however, was….odd. The characters are almost all more flawed in vastly different ways from each other than necessary, which made them as a group pretty unlikable to me. There wasn't any sense of true relationship between any of them, which made this a struggle for me to really engage.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Bantam, Netgalley, and the author for access to this novel.

Damn, I love Katie True. She's absolutely hilarious, full of perfect one-liners that I wish I could say. I like that she is mildly self-conscious about her lack of ambition and crummy apartment but then makes zero moves to actually do anything about it. And I especially like that she has a growing group of people who accept that about her and meet her where she's at. Jamie. Gina. Owen.

The will-they-won't-they TEASES in this one were killer. Pun intended. RIP me.

I liked the mystery in this one better than the first - the whole community was impacted by it, even Katie herself. The stakes were high and it was hard to read about someone who starts off as a pillar of the community and ends up as the worst kind of scumbag. Katie goes through a lot mentally and emotionally (and physically!!! girl can't catch a break!!!).

I am already impatient for Katie's next adventure. (and maybe Katie's adventure with a certain detective wink wink nudge nudge).

Thank you to NetGalley, Lina Chern, and Bantam Books for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I am all for a cozy mystery with HEAVY humor, I have my faves and this one has become one. Katie is a tarot reader, she has this need to try to solve this case because it’s close to home, the police officer was someone who saved her as a child, and she feels like she owes this to him. Little does she know that this man has a ton of secrets and who can you really trust???? Her own best friend Gina is hilarious and such a savage, she reminds me of someone I know, ME. But right when you thought everything was over, lol. I would love to continue to read more of Katie the Tarot Reading mystery solver lol.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

I enjoyed this one more than the first book. The character of Katie is well fleshed out. I find her relatable and a little quirky. The mystery keeps you guessing. I didn't figure it out until the reveal. And it's a jaw dropper! There us a lot going on in this story and I was hooked by it all.

Book Review: Tricks of Fortune by Lina Churn
⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 (3.5 stars)

If you loved the humor, hijinks, and tarot-flavored mystery of Play the Fool, you'll find plenty to enjoy in Tricks of Fortune. Book two in Lina Churn’s quirky cozy mystery series brings back our favorite reluctant amateur sleuth, Katie True, and once again throws her into the middle of a small-town whodunit—with a deck of tarot cards and a lot of heart.

Just like book one, I really enjoyed the blend of laugh-out-loud moments and mystical vibes. Katie's habit of interpreting people and situations through tarot cards is such a fun and unique character trait, and it continues to give the series its signature flavor. Katie herself is a delight—quirky, scrappy, and endearingly imperfect. She doesn’t always have it together, and that’s exactly what makes her so charming.

That said, some of the storytelling choices didn’t land quite as well for me this time around. The flashbacks with Gina’s aunt explaining tarot card meanings would have made so much more sense in the first book; here, they felt oddly placed and a bit clunky. The new layer of Katie’s backstory—particularly the sudden revelation about her being “famous” for a childhood rescue—came out of nowhere and didn’t quite align with how her character was treated in book one. It made her journey feel a little uneven.

I also struggled a bit with the setting and logistics. The overlap of towns, jurisdictions, and Jamie’s role felt muddled, and I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how everything (and everyone) connected. It didn’t ruin the story, but it did make me pause and backtrack a few times.

As for the mystery itself, I figured it out early, which took away a bit of the suspense. The big reveal didn’t surprise me, and while watching the threads unravel was still satisfying, the final legal consequences for the villain didn’t feel realistic, especially for such a serious crime. That ending pulled me out of the story a bit.

All in all, Tricks of Fortune is a solid follow-up that keeps the spirit of the series alive—funny, heartfelt, and just a little bit magical—but some of its pacing, plotting, and character reveals kept it from reaching the heights it could have. I’m still rooting for Katie True though, and I’ll absolutely be picking up the next book to see what trouble she stumbles into next!

4/5 stars
Tricks of Fortune, the second book in Lina Chern’s Play the Fool series, delivers another smart, twisty mystery with just the right amount of sarcasm, suspense, and small-town secrets.

This time, Katie True—our tarot-reading, delightfully snarky amateur sleuth—finds herself wrapped up in a murder investigation when her childhood savior, Lt. Matthew Peterson, is killed and her friend Gina becomes the prime suspect. Katie teams up with Jaime once again to get to the bottom of things.

The mystery is layered and well-paced, with plenty of red herrings and clever twists that kept me guessing. I also appreciated getting a deeper look into Katie’s past and how she got into tarot, which adds a fun and unique touch to the story.

While I slightly preferred the first book, this one still held up as a strong follow-up—and could easily be enjoyed as a standalone. If you like your mysteries with a quirky lead, witty dialogue, and just a touch of romance and heart, Tricks of Fortune is a solid pick.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Bantam for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

From the publisher: Tarot card reader extraordinaire Katie True gets embroiled in another local murder when her best friend becomes the prime suspect.

Tricks of Fortune is a quirky cozy mystery set in the Chicago suburbs. Although it is the second book in the series, I think you could easily read it first without feeling too lost.

Katie True is somewhere on the neurodivergent scale, and I think anyone who feels they look at the world in a different way than most people could relate to her. She has an autistic brother who is making his own way, and a successful sister she scrapes along with. The first murder victim is the police officer who rescued Katie from a car accident when she was a baby long ago. The officer goes on to become a local hero. People often say to Katie, “You’re the baby,” as a photo of the rescue is well known in the community. She struggles with a self-imposed expectation to make something of her life after the dramatic rescue gave her a second chance.

I’m not into tarot cards, but throughout Tricks of Fortune we flash back to Katie’s Aunt Rose going through the deck of cards with her. I found this very helpful since Katie uses the cards to help her understand people and situations. There’s no magic involved, just psychology.

I guessed the Big Reveal almost from the very beginning, but that did not alter my enjoyment of the book. There’s a slow burn romance to watch in addition to the unraveling of what happened with the first murder. At one point after she’s been in a car accident the commander in charge of the investigation brutally interrogates Katie, which I found pretty unbelievable (she was not a suspect), but fortunately there was not too much of that.

The book isn’t laugh out loud funny but the author has a way with words that often made me smile. “Jessie narrowed her eyes. ‘You’re not helping Jaimie investigate this, are you?’ She said INVESTIGATE the way I once heard a shaggy street preacher say FORNICATE.” (ch. 14 of the advance reader copy)

I read an advance reader copy of Tricks of Fortune from Netgalley. It is scheduled to be released on July 1 and will be available at the Galesburg Public Library. The first book, Play the Fool, can be found in the adult fiction collection at the library under the author’s last name, Chern. I am looking forward to book three.

I didn’t realize that this book was the second book in a series. Luckily you don’t necessarily have to read the first book in order to enjoy this one. However, pacing in this book is exceedingly slow. I did enjoy the tarot card readings intermingled with the mystery and there are a lot of things that are discovered throughout this book that show very well that people can have a side to them we don’t always know. A person can be two things at a time. And those two things are not always pretty.
Thank you to Random House Publishing and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advance copy of this title.

I read this book because NetGalley asked me to. I enjoyed reading it, so I’m glad I had the opportunity. This is the second book in a series, and I did not read the first book. I didn’t feel lost or confused by not reading the first one, but I felt I missed a lot of character development. It felt sort of like being the newcomer to an established group.

This is a murder mystery. Katie True, a tarot card reader, is the main character and tries to assist in solving the murder of a cop who saved her life when she was a baby and is a town favorite.

This was a pleasant read but a little slow-paced for a murder mystery. Having lived in a Chicago suburb, I did like the Chicagoland references in the book.

This second outing for Tarot Card reader Katie True finds her working to clear her friend Gina Dio, who happens to be an ex-cop, of murder. The cards foretold that a secret from Gina's past would hurt her. It has been a year since Katie has been in business as a professional reader working out of one of her sister's real estate offices and they are celebrating. No sooner does Katie read the card than Gina is arrested for the murder of Lt. Matthew Peterson (Officer Pete, as many in the community refer to him). Katie and Officer Pete have history, he rescued her from a car accident when she was a baby. Katie knows that Gina is innocent and decides to prove it.

As Katie investigates she learns that Officer Pete was not the sterling person she thought he was. He cheated on his wife, drank alot and stole money. When another officer is killed the police want to blame Gina for this one also. Are the deaths connected?

The story is told in two time periods, present and when Katie was a child learning about the Tarot cards from her Aunt Rosie. Lina Chern intertwines the cards with the suspects that Katie interviews to seek out clues. There are secrets revealed, red herrings thrown at us, twists and turns to keep us engaged. Although this is the second book in the series, it can be read as a stand-alone. I would recommend reading Play the Fool, the first book as it provides the background and introduces us to the major characters. I look forward to more Katie True and her Tarot cards!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher, Ballantine Bantam Dell | Random House Group, for an ARC. The opinions in the review are my own.

An interesting story of Katie True as she navigates adulthood that seems at odds with her family and friends. Katie wants to be able to help people through her reading of tarot cards. As she has an inate skill of interpreting the skills for the person in question, it seems that this profession is frowned upon by her family.

The story is a continuation for the main characters involved. Very little explanation is provided about who some characters are and why they behave the way they do. Apparently Katie has solved a crime in the past and used those same skills in this story to help her friend.

While taking place in some very small towns in Illinois, the author takes you through a colorful group of characters that leaves the reader wondering who did it. Being a tarot reader in such small communities seems a little farfetched, Katie is an entertaining investigator that finds the culprit at the end.

A very entertaining and easy read. It was perfect for a vacation book.