The Fortune Seller

In late 2022, I enjoyed Rachel Kapelke-Dale’s sophomore novel, The Ingenue. This week, she published her third book, The Fortune Seller, about the clash of classes at Yale and in New York City finance. With dark academia vibes, horses, tarot cards, and complicated friendships, this book is part drama, part thriller. 

Special thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Summary

Rosie Macalister is in her final year at Yale, living with her three best friends (all of them ultra-rich, in contrast to her own middle class background). But this year, a new friend has joined the group: Annelise Tattinger. Rosie and Annelise share a room in the house the five of them are renting, and though the two start off as strangers, they soon form a tight bond. They have so much in common, and Annelise is teaching Rosie all about tarot readings. But the bigger friendship group is growing more fractured, with accusations of theft and a growing realization that Annelise isn’t who she says she is. But things come to a horrible climax, leaving Rosie with lots of questions: about Annelise, about her friends, and about the future she’s envisioned for herself. 

Review

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. 

Final Thoughts

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! 

Get the Book

You can buy The Fortune Seller here – it’s available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook.

The Fortune Seller by Rachel Kapelke-Dale
Audience	Adult
Genre	Drama; Thriller
Setting	New Haven; New York City
Number of Pages	320
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	February 13, 2024
Publisher	St. Martin’s Press

Official Summary

“Sophisticated with just the right dose of sinister, this coming-of-age story doesn’t shy from the grisly power dynamics of privilege.” ––Library Journal

When it comes to seeing the future—do you really want to know?

Middle-class Rosie Macalister has worked for years to fit in with her wealthy friends on the Yale equestrian team. But when she comes back from her junior year abroad with newfound confidence, she finds that the group has been infiltrated by a mysterious intruder: Annelise Tattinger.

A talented tarot reader and a brilliant rider, the enigmatic Annelise is unlike anyone Rosie has ever met. But when one of their friends notices money disappearing from her bank account, Annelise’s place in the circle is thrown into question. As the girls turn against each other, the group’s unspoken tensions and assumptions lead to devastating consequences.

It’s only after graduation, when Rosie begins a job at a Manhattan hedge fund, that she uncovers Annelise’s true identity––and how her place in their elite Yale set was no accident. Is it too late for Rosie to put right what went wrong, or does everyone’s luck run out at some point? Set in the heady days of the early aughts, The Fortune Seller is a haunting examination of class, ambition, and the desires that shape our lives.