My Rating: โญ๏ธโญ๏ธโญ๏ธ
Spice Rating: ๐ถ๏ธ
Title: The Tarot Trials (The Tarot Trials, #1)
Author: Katee Robert
Format: eBook (NetGalley) and audiobook (netgalley)
Pages: 400
Listening Hours: approx. 14 hrs
Narrator: Lindsey Dorcus
Publication Date: 10/20/26
Publisher: Tor Books & Macmillan Audio
Categories: Fantasy, Romance, Series
Disclaimer: **I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Thank you to Tor Books & Macmillan Audio for giving me a chance to read this eARC in exchange for an honest review!
The deck has always been stacked against her.
Kestrel has trained her whole life to compete in the Tarot Trials. Her mother won once, earning a place among the five ruling Cinqueโthen paid for it with her life, executed for alleged treason against the Minor Court.
But fortune favors the bold.
Now it falls to Kestrel to take up her motherโs mantle as Champion of the Moon, enter the Trials, and face her fate. If she can master her new powers of shadow and illusion, navigate the poisonous game of alliances and lies, and corner the fellow Champion who dealt the killing blow to her mother years ago, she may uncover the truth sheโs seeking without losing her headโฆ or her heart. But in the Trials, betrayal is a question of when, not if. And winning the game isnโt about what she must do to win, but who she needs to survive.
Content Warning: death, violence
+ I think the narrator did pretty good with giving voice to the characters.
+~ The Tarot Trials is basically what the title indicates. People fight first to become a tarot card champion, and then they fight each other to the death. Five winners become Cinque, the ruling body of the city, voices of the Gods. During these trials there are alliances, betrayal, and mistrust. The first half of this story moved too slow for me. The second half is way much better with much more action.
~ I didn’t love the FMC, Kestrel. I understand she has had a tough life, she hates the wealthy, she wants to win the trials for her family but she complained from beginning to end and it got frustrating and tiring. She’s angry and bitter, though I did admire her fight but with all her talk of training and learning about the trials, she seemed so naive and inexperienced.
+~ Kestrel is bisexual but she is attracted to almost everyone she meets in the competition, which is fine but I just didn’t believe her. So I didn’t feel invested in her romantic connection with one of the competitors. There is one spicy scene but the romance didn’t do it for me.
Final Thoughts:
I think if you like deadly trials with a tarot theme, you might enjoy this one. I think this was okay – the first half was slow, the second half is better because there is more action. The trials have action, violence, alliances and betrayal. I do wish I cared more about the FMC, but I just didn’t connect to her.
Read if you like:
- tarot
- deadly trials
- low spice
Book Links:
Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
