Tell Me How It Ends

Chaos in the Cards #1

by Quinton Li

Fae Crate Book Box November 2023 Feature
Indie Ink Award Finalist 2023 for Asexual or Aromantic Representation

A coming-of-age cozy fantasy with a queer cast, witches, and tarot. Perfect for fans of Legends & Lattes and Our Flag Means Death

Iris Galacia's tarot cards do more than entertain gamblers.

With the flip of her fingers she can predict the future and uncover a person's secrets. Under the watchful eye of her mother, she is already on thin ice for pursuing a passion in the family business, but then cracks start to form, and eventually she falls through.

She is given an ultimatum: earn a thousand coins or leave the business, and the family.

Enter Marin Boudreau, a charming young person who can scale buildings and break off doorknobs, who comes for her help to rescue a witch who's been falsely imprisoned in Excava Kingdom.

And Marin is willing to pay a high sum for her talents.

But saving a prisoner from royal hands isn't easy, nor is leaving home for the first time in eighteen years.

Now Iris must learn to trust in herself, Marin, and this new magical world, while racing the clock before the royals decide the fate of the witch, and before any secrets catch up to her.

TELL ME HOW IT ENDS features LGBTQ+, disabled, neurodivergent, cultural, and mental health representation. The main character, Iris Galacia, is a lesbian tarot reader with anxiety and autism. The second main character, Marin Boudreau, is an aromantic asexual non-binary person with ADHD.

Genres: Fantasy, Queer, LGBT, Young Adult, Lesbian, Witches, Disability

315 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 9, 2023

About the author

Quinton Li (they/them) is an award-winning non-binary author of spiritual, queer, and evocative narratives that represent underrepresented identities. They are the author of Tell Me How It Ends, and Chrysalis and Requiem, and the editor and curator of Devout: An Anthology of Angels. Their poetry can be found with Panorame Press, Messy Misfits Club and Iris Youth Magazine. Find more at quintonli.com

Reviews

[Menoa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happy publication day 💗🎊


I need to preface my review with the fact that I got an arc from the author, but my thought are mine !
With that said : let’s review
Sometimes you stumble upon books that just feel like going home. Tell me how it ends was like that to me. It’s the perfect mix between cozy fantasy and heist fantasy, with high stakes.
You’re invited to Iris self discovery journey about the world and herself, you can see how she evolve throughout everything, how she deal with everything. She was a joy to follow and to read about. She’s just so adorable.I want to wrap her in a burrito blanket.
I still need to fight her mom. Badly.
I would love to see more of her.
Marin has everything ready to be a fan favorite, understandably so. They’re so charming and full of personality. I liked the glimpse of their character we got and I kind of want more about their life in general.
Myst is my personal favourite, I just enjoy this kind of character.
Let me fight his uncle tho.
Kalaya…. I want more of her. She have an aura of invincibility around her ? And I really wish to see her friendship with Iris !
The balance between worldbuiding and character development was perfect for me !
I enjoyed everything about them all, the found family trope won my heart once again !

Can’t wait for everyone to read it ❤️

[MeenaG · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick disclaimer before the review, I did receive this as an arc from the author.

Content warnings: Family-based trauma, fantasy violence and racism, kidnappings, imprisonment, anxiety

Spoiler for the review, I loved this book.
I had wanted to read it since I first saw the book announced on Twitter and I was so happy when I woke up and was accepted to the arc team.

The plot is Iris, a tarot card reader, who is, I guess we can say, recruited to help save a prisoner. This prisoner is of the Caemi race, unlike Iris who is from the Senti race. Caemi have more magic abilities than the Senti and it was so much fun being able to see how Iris was able to learn more about tarot reading and other magics around her from the Caemi she met on the rescue mission.

The characters... They were amazing. Iris was so much fun and very relatable to me. Her Autism is very similar to mine and I was right there with her any time she was frustrated by not understanding another character. Marin was the most fun to read, they were so charming and joyful, honestly, you cannot be sad when reading him. He won't allow it. He cheers you right up.
Myst was wonderful, too. He did let his emotions win at certain points but was always able to work it out.
Kalaya... Can you step on me, please? She was amazing! She made me smile so much, there was a scene between her and Iris where I just could not stop smiling, it was so lovely. I love Kalaya. So much.

My final thoughts... This is an amazing book, it's a Tangled retelling with a diverse and queer cast. This book is an absolute must-read if you are a fan of tangled, tarot cards, magic, Kalaya (you are a fan, trust me on this), adventure and found family.

[lapetitepritt · Rating 4 out of 5]

TWO MONTHS TILL PUB DATE!

What first caught my attention while I was aimlessly scrolling Instagram and I stumbled upon the announcement post was definitely the fact that the main characters were both queer and neurodivergent, and that this book was pitched as a cozy fantasy.

As I have stated times and times before, I am not the biggest fantasy reader anymore, as I have become saturated with the genre and found it increasingly hard to discover stories I was actually interested in. However, I believe diverse cozy fantasy books could be the answer for me, and Tell Me How It Ends just goes to show exactly that, as it was a big win!

I don’t know where to start, because I want this review to be somewhat coherent, but my mind at the moment is just so full of my love for these characters. I am a huge fan of the found family trope, it might even be my absolute favourite trope, and this book has a found family that makes me want to curl up in my bed and cry for hours. In a positive way.

So let’s start by talking about Iris and Marin, shall we? I loved them, their development both as individuals and as friends, and I would gladly sell my soul for them. I have officially adopted them into my big bookish family, alongside Myst, Kalaya, Spirit and Yori. Oh, and the pirate crew as well, I hope we get to see more of them in future novellas and books!

But, back to Iris and Marin, as I was saying I loved them, and I loved that their queerness — and queerness in general in the book — was portrayed as the norm, I want to live in this world. I also particularly enjoyed that none of the traits of their sexualities and neurodivergences was stereotyped, and that they felt like genuine people, not just archetypes.

The plot was very simple, but I like these kinds of fantasy plots, and it kept me reading. It only dragged a little bit in the middle, and I would have liked a bit more pages during the final “heist”, but other than that it was thouroughly entertaining and I loved it.

My favourite thing has to be the inclusion of tarot cards in the book and the way the helped the plot move forward; I know next to nothing about tarot cards, but they are something that has always fascinated me, and I thin the author did a great job at making their presence and the readings smooth. I was afraid it would be to difficult for me to follow, or that I would become very bored if there were too many readings and stuff, but it was actually really nice.

As far as the writing style is concerned, it took me a while to get used to it, mainly because I had a hard time following some sentences, but after a few chapters it became very easy and I liked the banter between the various characters and the descriptions of scenes and places.

Overall, it was an amazing read and I would highly recommend it to cozy fantasy fans, people who like me don’t enjoy high fantasy, people looking for casual but well done rep, found family stans and to anyone who wants to read an entertaining book and support an indie author. There’s a misconception that indie means bad, but this book alone is the proof that there are some beautiful gems in the indie market, and you should definitely run and preorder your paperback or ebook copy of Tell Me How It Ends.

I can't wait for the sequel and prequel novellas + the sequel novel. I was so happy when Quinn announced this was going to be a series, because I need more of this cast in my life!

[ila · Rating 4 out of 5]

rating: 3.5 stars rounded up

want to start this review with a HUGEEE thank you to the author for letting me be apart of the arc team for this book!! as soon as i saw this book being advertised as a tangled retelling on twt i knew i HAD to get my hands on it as soon as possible and i am so happy i was given this opportunity <3
OK LETS BEGIN.

iris. that is all. thank you for coming.
KIDDING, but seriously, i loved her so much. she was so relatable and i loved to see how she developed as a person who was so afraid of her mother she never left home to someone who decided, in the end, that her happiness does matter and that she is allowed to pursue things and people that she loves. i also loved seeing her grow her magic abilities as the book went on and the scene of her on the ship was >>>
of course i also loved the other characters as well. myst, marin, and kalaya were such a lovely group of friends. they had such unique, funny, and charming personalities and complimented each other so well.

the rep of this book was also lovely! the cast was extremely diverse and included queer, poc, and neurodivergent characters. AND THE MAGIC OF THIS BOOK??? beautifully written and well thought out. i was never confused about anything which i appreciate so much in a book bc sometimes world and magic systems have my poor brain CONFUSED.

as much as i LOVED the things i loved, i do have just a few things i wish the book had more of/done different (these are all personal preferences so take them w a grain of salt)

i wish we could’ve seen a little bit more development for the other characters in the book. i feel like since iris had so much development in the book that it made the others feel lacking in a sense BUTTT i definitely do not dislike the other characters and i do understand that this was supposed to be iris’s story. so i hope we can see more from them in the future!! *hint hint wink wink nudge nudge @ author*
second thing, i feel like some of the conflicts/action scenes resolved a little too quickly for my personal likings. this caused my attention to be lost a few times in some scenes.
my last thing isn’t really a dislike but GIVE ME MORE KALAYA!! thank you.

again, thank you so much to the author for an arc of this book and i can’t wait to see more of their work!! woo

[Dr. Andy]

So excited for this!!

Like who does not want this after reading this: TELL ME HOW IT ENDS features LGBTQ+, disabled, neurodivergent, cultural, and mental health representation. The main character, Iris Galacia, is a lesbian tarot reader with anxiety and autism. The second main character, Marin Boudreau, is an aromantic asexual non-binary person with ADHD.

Grab signed paperbacks globally Here!

[splendour hyaline · Rating 3 out of 5]

disclaimer: i was sent an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. all quotes have been taken from a version that was unfinalised.

this is going to be a long one, with spoilers ahead!

i’ll start my review with some of the things that i enjoyed most in TELL ME HOW IT ENDS. the water spirit scene aboard the ship was super cute! it reminded me of the sea people sequence in the voyage of the dawn treader, and to be honest, anything that reminds me of narnia is automatically endeared to me. i also really admire li’s commitment to straightforward and on-page representation, and enjoyed marin’s consistent subversion/rejection of classic romantic tropes.

i think the biggest problem with this book, for me, is that it feels undercooked. it wants to dabble in political intrigue, but it doesn’t really dig far enough into this element to feel as compelling as it really could, nor does it tidy up enough of its loose threads, which is a shame because it feels like the first choice in particular was mostly made for the sake of holding onto its cozy fantasy reputation (& i really wish it hadn't, because there's a genuinely fascinating plot hidden somewhere in here!). i’ll drop a few lines of dialogue from the novel that i think embody this issue pretty well:

“It’s deeper than I can explain in a few sentences, but a brief overview contains Marin feeling too restricted by that lifestyle while having other values. I wanted to do something more with witchcraft than hide it all the time from my family. Myst is a bit more connected to his noble side, keeping some of the values, but he still has a strong drive against nobles treating the lower class as just that, lower.”

maybe the issues that kalaya is referring to are deep. but maybe they could have been integrated throughout the novel, or kept for the sequel, rather than breezed past near the end of the story with a quite self-aware ‘it’s too deep to go into right now’ fourth-wall justification. several narrative bombs were dropped throughout TELL ME HOW IT ENDS that i really wish had been more subtly integrated throughout the story so that they didn’t feel like decisions that came out of nowhere, the artefact subplot in particular. at the end of the novel, it’s clear that iris still doesn’t know the trio as well as they know one another. if their backgrounds really are“deeper than [Kalaya could] explain in a few sentences”, why not just leave that out for iris to discover and explore in the sequel?

something that’s also bugging me about the book’s front-and-centre cozy fantasy label is that a huge part of the plot actually hinges on fantasy racism (with the marginalised population depicted as subhuman) and the oppression that stems from this. following an attempted regicide, excava’s queen has ordered her guards to round up the kingdom’s caemi (beings with animal ears and tails - they also have heightened abilities that complement their animal counterpart) to deport or imprison them. kalaya - the wrongfully imprisoned witch mentioned in the novel’s synopsis - is one such caemi. not only was none of this made clear in the pre-release marketing and kind of conflicts with the cozy selling point (to me, at least), but i also feel that it was handled really, really… not well from iris’ point of view, particularly in the first few chapters:

“She would be made to forget caemi existed, and life would go on.

Wasn’t that wrong? Or was she the one out of line? Her siblings didn’t seem bothered by the world-changing issue, and her mother carried on with business. They were treating the situation as if a supplier had suddenly stopped selling to them, or transport ships were being delayed. Perhaps it wasn’t something she was supposed to be concerned about; she was a senti.”

there really isn’t nearly as much nuance here as there should have been. i get that iris was/is sheltered; i really understand that. but as a person of colour, i don’t have much interest in watching a white woman (who is doubly coded as the systemically ‘superior�� human race in this setting) discover racism, or wonder if members of the subjugated race in her country are “just taken home” after they’ve been arrested. i really, really wish that the marketing surrounding TELL ME HOW IT ENDS had been clearer about the very large and looming presence of race relations throughout the novel, because i felt somewhat blindsided by it, and i don’t think any level of isolation or sheltering in iris’ background or history really justifies iris thinking at any point that an entire race deserves to be deported or imprisoned because of a regicide attempt:

“The caemi were being deported by the command of the queen after her near-death experience, so was her call reasonable?”

very early on, marin (correctly, as it turns out) suggests that a caemi has been framed, but even if they had been responsible for something like that, the deportations still wouldn’t have been justified: we shouldn’t need to be given the possibility that this is wrong in order to sympathise with caemi. and then during the act three misunderstanding, iris again starts to believe that the queen was justified in her behaviour just because she finds out that marin decided not to give her information that probably would’ve gotten marin and myst killed, had it fallen into the wrong hands. but of course, marin is the one who has to apologise.

it was difficult for me, personally, to read something that revolved so heavily around the white protagonist in so many different ways, especially to the point that she thought she was owed an explanation about the queen’s scapegoating of their behaviour and secrets that genuinely put their lives in danger. on top of this, iris’ continual oscillation between whether or not the queen was “right” really just did not sit right with me.

referring to characters as “the senti” or “the caemi” also didn’t seem to do a lot to combat the systemic otherness of the caemi. i think that in a lot of instances, it would’ve been fine to just refer to characters by name, especially when both characters in the exchange were the same species (like iris and marin’s early interactions), or when there were multiple characters in the scene. by the time we get to myst, kalaya, and marin’s reunion - they’re all caemi, as we eventually learn - the novel begins to refer to them as things like “the purple caemi” or even “the purple cat caemi”, and it became very difficult to keep track of the characters. this being said, i’m somewhat willing to read this decision without paranoia (even if it really didn’t help with clarity) because li also uses terms like “the tall crew member” etc. in place of names.

i actually also kept waiting for czar to show up again in a meaningful way, or a reveal that he was being cruel to hide some secret purpose or rebel mission or whatever else the narrative might have been leaning toward, so i was disappointed when it was revealed that… he’s just a dick? and he’s not a dick around his secret girlfriend? i completely understand the intention here and desire to demonstrate the many ways that an abusive parent can tear a family apart from within, but i also think that his behaviour in that early chapter almost presented itself as a caricature and didn’t exactly help me believe that it was really just a result of his mother’s influence. it also made me feel like he was less a character of his own than that final narrative straw to influence iris’ decision not to return home.

as someone who is hard of hearing, i didn’t completely vibe with iris’ justification that she’s never heard of sign language before because she can’t give a tarot reading if they can’t hear. i know that it’s been repeatedly said that the patrons of the gambling house are rich, but there must surely be some deaf (or mute) rich people. if iris’ mother really was so set on building profits, i feel like the best way for her to have done that was to ensure the gambling house was as inclusive as possible to anyone who wanted to spend their money. this means that iris could have easily learned sign language as a way to give tarot readings to people who cannot verbally communicate; at the very least, i think she should have known what sign language is. i really do understand the idea that she’s been sheltered all her life, but this is certainly not to the extent of characters like rapunzel (to whom i refer because tangled was the novel’s primary comp as i read it), who had only known and spoken to mother gothel since she was young. iris has been coming into contact with people from the outside world for a very long time, which - to me - seems like she could’ve at least had a passing understanding of minority issues, and even diversity. ultimately, this lack of exposure somewhat risks implying that rich people can’t be born with disabilities that require the use of sign language.

i haven’t written anything here with the intention of tearing the novel or its author down, nor to discourage potential readers from picking up the chaos in the cards series: it took me a long time to figure out how to approach this review, and i’ve ultimately decided to treat TELL ME HOW IT ENDS with the same degree of honesty and respect as i would any other published title, so everything you’ve just read is a summary of how i felt as i was making my way through the novel. li is so young, and i think they have so much room and time to grow as an author - they’re making amazing contributions to the normalisation of queerness in fantasy spaces, and i am truly excited to see where they go from here, as well as how they’ll succeed in tightening up this series as it progresses. i’d like to thank them for the ARC, and offer my sincere congratulations on their debut.

[cait · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.

I want to preface this with the fact that I received an ARC from the author and all thoughts are mine.

First of all, I want to say that this is a good book. The representation it has is amazing, and I could feel myself relate to some characters. This is a good, cozy book to read, there are no high stakes, it is an adventure and reads like one. The world building was interesting, and you could see all the work Quinton put behind it. What attracted me to this book the most, however, was that Quinn kept saying on twitter their book had tarot. And. I mean. Tarot. TAROT. As an amateur reader, I admit I was lost sometimes, what with all of the cards drawn and explanations, but it was without a doubt, the most interesting part of this book. It is also something I had never seen before—while some characters in books did mention/use tarot, it was never the center of the stort. And here, it is, and it's what makes this book unique.

Now, why did I rate it 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4? A simple matter of preference. I am more used to fantasies with high stakes, and maybe cozy fantasies aren't really for me. I also have to say the writing and dialogues felt a bit stiff at times. But other than that, it was a great book, and an amazing debut.

[alex ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5/5 Stars)

Note: I received an eARC from the author and consider them a cherished writing friend.

Quinton is revitalizing the YA genre, and everyone needs to get on-board right now. A stellar debut with wonderfully fleshed-out characters and, despite my personal lacking of tarot knowledge, an amazing integration of tarot within the narrative!

Although I have long since outgrown YA as a genre, I would have absolutely adored this novel when I was a teenager; it is fun, has a wonderful sense of adventure, and is really a beautiful study of how the main character—Iris—grows. We go along her journey and learn about her world, captivated by the personalities she meets along the way! Marin, Myst, and Kalaya were all wonderful (although the amount of times my eyes mixed up Marin and Myst is a higher count than I can admit).

The way Li integrates the wondrous magical world through characters and conversations felt seamless and atmospheric, making it very approachable for non-fantasy readers and a refreshing breath of air for those of us who consume a bit too many fantasy novels. The world itself is diverse, and the characters are allowed to inhabit the pages, honest with their identities.

Although I wish there was a bit more struggle to achieve certain goals, there were moments where I felt that the plot moved along too easily for the character, which lent a bit to predictability (which, IMO, is absolutely fine to have in any novel). And, with a larger supporting cast, there are places where I felt we—as the reader—needed more time to really sit in that space and connect just as Iris did. Despite that, the characters do develop and have the space to continue to grow as Li continues to write their story. The ending was a moment for Iris to let go and start her journey free to focus on herself and what lies ahead.

I absolutely recommend this to everyone looking for a cozier fantasy and wanting to sit with delightful characters. The attention to detail and love of the craft is so apparent reading TMHIE, and it is truly an exemplar of what the YA writing craft is meant to be.

Be sure to pre-order :) And keep an eye out for a cover reveal (which I totally don’t have anything to do with)

[Brandi]

I hardly ever read YA but this sounds like it could be a fun time. The synopsis I saw on Instagram: "a sheltered lesbian tarot reader meets an asexual nonbinary thief who offers a large sum to leave home and go on a rescue mission to save an imprisoned witch in a castle."

[Belinda Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Firstly, a huge thank you to the author for this ARC copy! This book was so lovely and wholesome to read. I actually don’t think I’ve sat down and read a cozy sort of fantasy before, so this was really refreshing.

All of the characters were so interesting and I loved Iris and Marin’s friendship! I hope the side characters we met throughout this book make a return in the future because I would love to learn more about them. I feel like we only got to meet them very briefly, which I understand because of the story, but I would’ve liked to get to know them a bit more!

The representation in this book was outstanding. I really appreciated how diverse the cast was!!

I know a bit about tarot, but this book taught me even more! I’ve never read a book where tarot is such a huge component, I found it really interesting and informative. It just made the magic in this book feel even more beautiful!

If you’re looking for a cozy fantasy with a diverse cast, this is the one for you!

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to read this earlier this year. TMHIE is a whimsical, magical book filled with adventure, lovable characters and diverse rep. You really become immersed in Iris' world and story, and it's a perfect coming of age and wholesome, perfect fantasy read. I could go on and on but I'll leave this short and sweet!

[Rita Rubin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Quinton Li for the free ARC.

Tell Me How It Ends is charming, entertaining and impeccably written. This is a fresh new entry to the fantasy genre, led by a stellar protagonist by the name of Iris. I really enjoyed all of the characters in this tale, but I thought Iris was the standout. Her character and seeing how she grew over the course of the book really captivated me.
Quinton Li is a rising talent and I look forward to seeing where they go from here.

[Spiri Skye · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book had GREAT representation but the writing style wasn’t for me personally. I saw a twitter moot talking about a queer tangled retelling and ran to sign up for an arc and then devoured it in a day.
There’s a lot of queer, POC & neurodivergent rep as well as a Deaf character and characters that use sign language! So many people are going to see themselves represented in this book!
It does feel like a cozy fantasy, I like the magic especially with the spirits & tarot cards. However the dialogue was a little formal/stiff. I think that was just the normal dialogue for that book but it actually kept taking me out of the story. It was also a bit slow at times with long chapters.
I did really like the overall ending and could see this being a series

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book for free in exchange for a review and support promoting the book as part of the author’s street team.

To be frank, this isn't a book that's in genres I normally read--I don't generally seek out young adult fiction or cozy fantasy. I don't even read a lot of secondary fantasy. And yet, I really enjoyed this one! I was attracted to the premise, and because the author is such a cool person and a great writer. So I took a chance on it, and I'm glad that I did.

I found the characters, the writing, and the plot (despite its darker undertones) quite charming. It was a little like being along the ride on a road trip, privy to the ways that exceptional circumstances caused Iris and Marin (and, later, others) to bond. No matter what you come to the book looking for--an adventure, the representation, the themes--what you will stay for is, without a doubt, the characters. They were each unique, and even the ones introduced much later into the narrative had unique characterization.

Also, I am a sucker for characters whose absence colours the narrative--they are gone, but they are far from forgotten. TMHIE had that, and it was executed well! Marin yearns to see his missing friend again, and Iris wonders at who this mysterious person is/was. Despite her absence, the character's impact on the story is felt throughout.

All in all, even if this is outside your normal choices in reading, I would recommend picking it up. It's charming, it's fun. It tackles some serious topics, but lets the characters grow with how they think about them, particularly Iris. And you won't regret the journey.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw the cover for this book and decided I needed to read it based on that alone. The premise seemed right up my ally too, a queer cozy fantasy with witches and tarot sounds amazing! This wasn’t cozy, though. I waited for half the book for it to be that and it never was. I did end up liking the book, but I had gone into it wanting it to be a cozy fantasy and waiting for it to get there kind of took me out of the story. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I went in with the correct expectations. This book was more similar to SoC, but more YA than anything cozy. The rep was amazing, the premise was fun, how it left off was good, the characters were well written. Overall I ended up liking it!

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recieved an eARC for an honest review.



This was a perfect cozy read. It was soft and wholesome, but still fun and exciting when it needed to be.

Lets start to say that I absolutely loved the rep in this. It always brings me so much joy to have a book set in a queernormative world. The main character grew up so sheltered that she didn't really know about queer identities and the way the characters explained theirs to her was done so masterfully.

“Flirting, yes. Courting, no. I’m asexual, and somewhere on the aro spectrum. I’m not very interested in that kind of thing.”

In the same way the MC is not really familiar with friendships either and it gets explained like this:

“Well, that’s what I think. Friendship is when you can spend time with others and you feel happy doing it. When you enjoy spending time with someone. In comparison to…” It sounded as if Marin wanted to continue, but stopped themself. “If you want, we can be friends.”

Both instances are done with so much understanding for someone who might not know what it means. Like an open invite for the MC to be herself.
In the same way is the talk around disability done very well. It made me feel very welcomed to read this book as a disabled person.


In general I loved how this book described things. Almost every single hug that happened in the book I've got bookmarked because they all made me feel so good and I just wanted to keep coming back to them.


I also want to talk about how fun the magic system was in this book. There were many ways this magic could manifest in the world of the book and we're introduced to them one by one throughout the book. But next to that the MC also grows in her on capabilities that made it very organically come together with the worldbyilding.


The plot had the right vibes of simplicity to keep it cozy and easy to follow, but that didn't make it boring at all. There were definitely still plottwists I did not see coming. The balance was on point and made it become a fun light read.

Rating 4.5 stars rounded up.

[Sasa]

this is not for me. the writing is too juvenile and the well-intentioned messages are really ham-fisted, coming one after another. i lost count after the 5th anime monologue about found family, opportunities, and life within the first 21 pages. lgbt+ youth who enjoy tarot might enjoy this.

[Meliss · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF @ 51%.

Unfortunately, my autumn/spooky season reading is not off to the best start with this one. I just didn't like the writing, felt nothing towards the characters, and felt no desire or motivation to keep reading.

[blok sera szwajcarskiego · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5⭐️

[Carolina · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Book Junkie Journal · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Lucy Gould · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book! I felt my attention lagging a bit but that was overshadowed by the intricate characters. I liked getting to know everyone in the story.

*I received an e-arc from the author and this represents my honest opinion.*

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel a little mixed about this, so to figure out my rating I'm gonna break down where it works and doesn't work.

I think the biggest flaw is in how Iris interacts with her family, or rather, doesn't at all. I understand that a big character point and the source of her internal struggles is from being so isolated at home and having a relationship with her family that lacks an emotional bond and is solely rooted in her success in the family business. However her conversations with her brother and mother are so stilted I didn't get any of that emotionally. It just felt laid out without really feeling fleshed out. Which is a shame cuz that's a huge part of the conflict in the book. It was so stiff it affected her interactions with Myst and Marin as well at the beginning too, right up until she has her tarot reading with Mikael. And despite the importance of her conflict with her family to the plot, we don't get a a lot of them in the story. It felt like the oldest brother should have inserted himself more, intervened more, just to further strengthen the similarities in their emotional journey in this book. And the other siblings are literally just names to me. I wish that even if they weren't huge characters we got more of their personalities too.

I also find it a bummer to not have the queen be an active antagonist in this. While her actions are the source of Kyross' political strife we don't get to see her or interact with her in this one. The quest to rescue Kalaya is the driving plot, but it feels too detached from the rest of the world. We get to see the consquences a bit with the arrest of the caemi and how people respond to it, which was a strong aspect I feel, cuz it showed how the Queen's decree quickly spread the bias against the caemi and influences a wide range of bigotry in it. However we never get the source behind it. I want to see, like, not the reasoning behind her decision, but a show of there is a face, an active choice to throw an entire group of people under the bus for personal gain. A within a person on the page I just felt a missing weight to that. We also don't have a clear idea of how Iris and Marin's rescue mission will continue to change the poltical landscape here. I would have liked a hint of where the series can go from here.

That being said, things really warm up once Iris becomes a more active player in her quest. I enjoyed the shenanigans on the boat, and despite the shaky start, I really loved how her and Marin's and Myst's friendship grows through the book. Iris also genuinely shows a lot of character growth in a way that fits well with the story beats going on. There is a lot of emphasis on how communication and the lack thereof, can affect people, and I thought the author handled that nicely. I also overall liked the world-building and the magic surrounding spirits and tarot and I am excited to see what Syriphia is going to be like in book 2.

And so. despite the weak start, I did like reading it. While I spent a lot of time overexplaining my issues, I think it really came together. And since I do still want to continue the series, I think that Tell Me How It Ends was a good read. If you want a fantasy with a cool focus on tarot and an emphasis on how our bonds help define and break down our identity, I think you should give this a shot.

[rowan]

DNF @ 20%

I like tarot as narrative device, and this seemed fun, plus the blurb says "Perfect for fans of Legends & Lattes and Our Flag Means Death" and those are both things I enjoyed. I don't usually fall for "Thing X is like Thing Y and Thing Z" marketing; I just thought Our Flag Means Death But With Tarot And Lesbian Witches would be fun. Alas, it was not.

At first, I thought maybe this was just not meant for me: it feels like the intended audience is younger than I am... much younger than I am. But I've read and liked/loved YA/NA novels, so, y'know, what gives? And so my main issue, and the only thing I'll talk about because I barely got the hint of a plot by the time I hit 20%, was the writing style.

I just got done reviewing The House Witch as being written in a second-draft, casual fanfiction sort of style, and this is even worse than that. It's... juvenile. Things get overexplained, especially about the worldbuilding. The dialogue reads very stiff and stilted, and I'd maybe get that if it was just the MC (who is autistic -- I'm not saying I'd expect stiff & stilted from an autistic character, I'm just saying I'd accept it as a style choice), but it's basically every conversation. None of the characters have any personality because the writing makes puppets of them; they're just in scenes to deliver dialogue and info dumps. There are strange choices as far as punctuation, words/expressions, and general word order that made me go "Well, maybe the author's first language isn't English," but that's only an explanation (and I don't even know if that's true) and not a reason to publish as-is.

It takes a lot for me to give up on a book, especially so early on, but here we are. Life is too short.

Anyway, DNF, WNRTF (WillNotReturnToFinish).

[Sirah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Iris has spent most of her life working in her mother's casino, most recently as a tarot reader. When a few unexpected guests arrive, Iris is whisked away into an adventure for the first time in her life.

I have so many mixed feelings about this book. First, I love Iris, and really all the characters. The ideas that went into making these characters believable and lovable are just precious, and I love them. However, Iris is meant to have some sort of character arc in this book, and it ultimately fell flat as she failed to have any agency. I get that she's neurodivergent-coded, but that someone has to literally tell her the answer to her character flaw, and she still has to be pushed toward making the right decision, well, it wasn't nearly as powerful as it should have been. I really enjoyed the first half of the book. The world building was a lot of fun, the experience of leaving the casino for the first time, and even some of the heisty measures that went on, all were delightful and fun to read. But what happened? The second half of the book was like six short episodes that buttoned up way too easily to be interesting. The solutions were too convenient, and the emotional ride I was meant to experience didn't have enough precedent to make me feel anything. I really don't know how to rate this book since I can only recommend the first half, but I do really like the first half and the main concepts ...

[Becci · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.75 stars. I truly wanted to love this but it might be one of my most disappointing reads of 2024 so far. There are many many things with potential or that were handled well, unfortunately it didn’t make up for the reading experience for me.

On the one hand:
I love the premise
I always enjoy seeing tarot used in fiction and it’s so prominently featured
The casual and consistent communication and respect surrounding pronouns is so refreshing
The disability and neurodivergence rep is also strong, which I love..

However on the other hand:
I couldn’t connect with the writing style at all, which held me back from connecting with the characters.
The social interactions and internal thoughts of the characters were really one dimensional and robotic.
Then in contrast, some of the actions are cartoonishly exaggerated (I’ve noted grinning & thumbs up three times, as well as smacking her forehead dramatically when someone outed her real name).
The voice in my head as I read is also sounding monotone, flat and stilted but I can’t put my finger on why.

The result was me just reading without absorbing or wanting to put the book down and read something else, which I ended up doing many many times. It took me over 2 weeks to finish. Really disappointed in my reaction as this book sounded so good to me in theory 🥺 if it wasn’t one of my book club and challenge picks, I would have DNF.

[joey · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Tell me how it ends! It ends with me crying because this is so wholesome and I love all of them so much!"

Partiamo dal fatto che i tarocchi per me sono estremamente affascinati anche se non ci capisco una mazza ma posso dire con assoluta certezza che questa storia mi ha conquistatә dall'inizio alla fine.

Certo, c'è da dire che la madre è stata la parte più difficile da digerire perché se avete letto questo libro sapete sicuramente di cosa sto parlando. Ma a parte questo, Iris l'ho amata dall'inizio, ci sono stati molti momenti in cui avrei tanto voluto abbracciarla e dirle che tutto si sarebbe messo a posto, ma non è servito perché con lei c'era Marin. Ah Marin, che personaggio. L'ho amatә. Ma poi tutti gli altri devo dire che si sono rivelati grandissimi personaggi. Il trio Kalaya+Myst+Marin... magari avessi amici del genere. Ma anche avere un'amica come Iris non sarebbe affatto male, insomma usa anche i tarocchi!!

Sono estremamente curiosә di sapere come continua la storia! E sono alquanto felice che quel membro della famiglia si sia rivelato una persona per bene!

Ho ancora un libro suo sul kindle e sono molto curiosә di leggerlo anche perché è più thriller/mystery e io vivo per quel tipo di libri (assieme al fantasy)!

[ceilidh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before I review this a quick disclaimer that I received an eArc of this from the author and am part of their street team for the book!


"Tarot is a funny thing to trust, isn't it?"

The premise of this book has HAUNTED ME ever since I saw Quinn post their announcement about it, so I was ecstatic to be accepted into the street team and be given the chance to read it even sooner! I tried to wait, to finish the books I was half way through, to just read a quick chapter to get a feel for the book, but from the moment I met the characters (especially Marin) I HAD to keep reading. Three days later and here I am trying to coherently capture the way this book made me SCREAM. How am I doing so far?????


"When it comes to friends, it can be a day or a year before you feel like you're friends. It all depends on how you feel when you're around them."

The CHARACTERS my LORD. Firstly there is so much awesome queer, POC and neurodivergent rep packed into this book! Special shout out to my main aroace ADHD enby, Marin, who is the platonic love of my life and the character I aspire to be in my every day. The MC Iris is still figuring out all of her labels (though the author confirms she is an autistic lesbian with anxiety!), but with the help of her friends you just KNOW she's gonna get there! The relationships in this book are so vivid and well drawn. There is so much emphasis on the way they work together as a group and its really beautiful to watch it all play out in the final struggles. The way they care for each other, help each other, and even fight with each other, has the softest touch and really draws you in like any good found family does.


"She didn't have control... but she had the cards in her hands and the cards were always right."

The magic in this book, especially the way Iris delves deeper into the divination powers of tarot, is so beautifully whimsical! The two races, Senti and Caemi, have different relationships to magic, and I loved getting to experience the wonder of each of them through the eyes of someone who has always been kept away from meeting her potential with it! Iris was such a perfect character through which to explore this world. And of course, when she finally meets her mentor/big gay crush Kalaya, the whole world opens up with new magical possibilities!


"Getting past what we saw in the dark is not about strength."

Final thoughts! This book is a wild adventure that will steal your heart and give it back full of love. I didn't expect to become so obsessed with it in such a short time but I have been non-stop screaming in the street team spoiler chat and reacting in nothing but Marin emojis for three days straight. You should read this book if you love Tangled, queers, finding yourself through an impromptu adventure, and people holding each other up when their trauma beats them down.

Content warnings: family based trauma, imprisonment, fantasy racism

[Glitter Reversi · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing and inspiring journey!
I became easily attached to Iris and Marin, and also Myst after I met and understood him (I see him as one of the deepest characters here for sure). Overall, the cast is a strong point! ...I really need a Kalaya in my life, please!!
The novel's world is perfectly mysterious and magical, as well as the omnipresent element of tarot cards, of which I'm a fan. The queer representation is also a super appreciated element of course, and the alternation between straightforward language and free interpretation was very nice.
Can't wait to see what's next in the series!

[alex · Rating 3 out of 5]

3⭐️!

This book was… average. There’s no better way to describe it then average. Not amazing, not bad. Just meh.

There were times where I was enjoying this book then a lot of times where I was bored, this felt like one massive build up and no pay off. The whole major build up of the book was over in like 50 pages and wasn’t even that great..

I did however enjoy the lgbtq rep, the friendship aspect and the light fantasy in this book. There was one part of the book I liked where they had to go on a boat, and I also enjoyed how this book incorporated tarot cards.

Overall nothing spectacular but still glad I read it.