Narrated by: Dominique Salvacion
Release Date: May 13, 2025
Published by: Books on Tape (Delacorte Press)
Read from: April 13-15, 2025
Stand-alone (?)
Source: PRH Audio App (I received a free e-ALC from PRH Audio App and the publisher. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Violence
For Readers Interested In: 2sLGBTQ+ (Queer), Audio, Cozy Mystery, Sparkly Cover, Most Anticipated, Mystery, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (Filipino), Realistic Fiction, YAThe young adult debut from the award-winning author of Arsenic and Adobo! When a high school tarot reader’s latest client goes missing after a troubling reading, she must apply everything she’s learned from her private investigator mother to solve a case of her own.
Danika Dizon is a natural problem-solver. Thanks to her private investigator mom and mystery author dad, she’s equipped with the skills to offer guidance to anxious classmates who come to her for a tarot reading between classes. For a price, of course.
But when one of her clients vanishes shortly after they’re dealt a death card, the girl’s younger sister Gaby begs Danika to figure out what went wrong. Danika takes on the case, thinking it’s the perfect way to prove to her parents that she should be an official investigator in the family’s detective agency.
What starts off as a compelling challenge quickly devolves into something darker as Danika and Gaby peel back layer after layer of the secret life the missing girl has been living. A life that those involved would do anything to keep from being revealed…
*MY THOUGHTS*
This isn’t really my usual thing. It’s actually a cozy mystery. I thought it was a thriller since it was her YA debut, but it’s not. After finding all the ones that I loved this year, I was ok with trying it anyway. And lo and behold, I enjoyed it anyway.
This is a bit weird to say, but it was a cute little mystery. I liked the way she made sure that everyone was involved in this mystery too. Usually in the story the author has it where the MC hides everything from their parents and the police, but this one was cool. Her mom is a Private investigator and her dad is a mystery author. They all had this super cool way to give their own input into what was going on. And even tho I didn’t care about the person whodunit and how it was revealed, it still turned out to be a good story.
The characters were terrible tho. Or at least the one lol She annoyed me for A LOT of this book. I still have no idea how it ended up with her trying to figure out anything about romance. That person is definitely toxic lol And the other person is almost perfect, but they’re too perfect and that annoyed me lol But I know that might just be a me thing. The main character tho was really amazing. She was smart af and the way the tarot was incorporated was so good. I loved it.
The ending was really eh tho. Maybe because I didn’t like the character lol But whatever the case may be, I wasn’t a fan. But I did like that there was an opening for another in the series. I hope this one still has some tarot in it too. I hope this series is just as loved and as long as her adult one.
Overall, I give this
