The Fortune Seller, Rachel KapelkeDale
The Fortune Seller, Rachel KapelkeDale
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The Fortune Seller
A Novel

Author: Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Narrator: Stephanie Cannon

Unabridged: 10 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/13/2024


Synopsis

Yellowjackets meets The Cloisters in this beguiling coming-of-age story about class, reinvention, and destiny, set against the backdrop of two mysterious deaths.

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.

A Macmillan Audio production from St. Martin’s Press.

About Rachel Kapelke-Dale

Rachel Kapelke-Dale is the author of The Ingenue and The Ballerinas, and co-author of Graduates in Wonderland. Kapelke-Dale received a B.A. from Brown University, where she rode on the varsity equestrian team, an M.A. from the Université de Paris-Diderot, and a Ph.D. from University College London. She currently lives in Paris.


Reviews

Goodreads review by mimi (taylor’s version) on February 04, 2025

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife meets the horsey version of If We Were Villains, minus the plot twists. I'm aware of how that sounds - unnecessary mean -, but I consider Dark Academia a very serious genre that sometimes includes stories far from being worthy of this label. So yes, if you h......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on January 12, 2024

After reading The Ballerinas, and The Ingenue by this author- I was super excited to read this latest release. While I did enjoy this story and the creativity of it, I unfortunately can’t say that I enjoyed it as much as the other two previous books. I felt that this book was rather “wordy”, and it......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on December 24, 2023

Fortune Seller lures you in with a summary that promises mystery and social commentary, but it ends up letting you down in both respects. Rosie Macalister is a middle-class white girl desperate to escape her financial situation. At Yale, she tries to fit in with her filthy rich friends but can't qui......more

Goodreads review by Provin on April 25, 2024

This book was all over my Goodreads feed so I decided to give it a go! For me it was a 3.5 star and I rounded up. The story was good and the characters were good. I feel like it could have easily been two books and the stories extended with more twists and shocking reveals. It’s not a book that I am......more

Goodreads review by Bonnie on February 12, 2024

When Rosie Macalister returns to Yale and her spot on the equestrian team after a year away, she finds out she is rooming with Annelise Tattinger, who turns out to be a very talented rider who reads tarot cards for the other girls in her spare time. Rosie has fought very hard for her place in the te......more


Quotes

Praise for The Fortune Seller

"Kapelke-Dale skillfully blends class concerns, character development, and a menacing atmosphere, emerging with an intoxicating mystery that defies easy categorization. Readers will be tempted to devour it in a single sitting." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Propulsive and engrossing, The Fortune Seller deftly examines the ways in which our lives are shaped by luck and by fate, illustrating the sometimes grizzly consequences of tempting either. Rachel Kapelke-Dale has (once again) captured the complexities of female friendship, ambition, and privilege with razor-sharp insight and sparkling prose, all set in the evocative worlds of equestrian competitions, dark academia, and the New York elite. Tarot cards offer hints at what’s to come in each chapter, but this story kept me on my toes throughout; I absolutely devoured it." —Genevieve Wheeler, author of Adelaide

"Kapelke-Dale is fluent in the double-edged language of female friendship. I ripped through The Fortune Seller, her captivating, fast-paced novel about upper-crust, ride-or-die housemates at Yale whose petty cruelties take a sinister turn. A refreshing look at girl power and identity, longing and belonging, and fate and free will, The Fortune Seller reveals the dark impulses that fuel our most intense, intoxicating relationships." —Jillian Medoff, author of When We Were Bright and Beautiful

"Delicious and addicting, The Fortune Seller is the book of my occult horse-girl dreams. Ambition, excess, equestrians-all filtered through the tarot and the question of fate versus luck. Kapelke-Dale has constructed a glittering tale of sacrifice and privilege. I guarantee you will not be able to put it down." —Julia Fine, author of Maddalena and the Dark

"The Fortune Seller is pure magic. A juicy campus novel suffused with complex friendship dynamics and an insider-outsider story of one woman’s struggle to fit in with her high-flying peers, Kapelke-Dale weaves suspense with sharp prose for a read that's both fast-paced and thought-provoking. The novel’s tarot cards may illuminate the future, but this much is clear: I’d follow Kapelke-Dale anywhere." —Avery Carpenter Forrey, author of Social Engagement