Book Title: Interview with the Tarot Reader
Author: Kathy Kaye
Publisher: Vanguard Press, Cambridge, UK
Cover Artist: Image licensed from Adobe Publishers
Release Date: May 29, 2025
Genres: Contemporary F/F Romance, Slightly Speculative
Tropes: Intrigue, romance, spiritual insight, wisdom of the universe
Themes: Human connection and loss, coincidence and destiny, self-discovery
Heat Rating: 3 flames
Length: 40 000 words/201 pages
It is Book 1 of 3. Books 2 and 3 are being written. Book 2, The Tarot Connection, will be published in mid 2026.
This book ends on a cliffhanger.
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A captivating tale of love, fate, and the power of the unknown.
Blurb
In the heart of San Francisco, two strangers find themselves inexplicably connected in a moment that transcends time and space. As they navigate this unexplainable bond, they are drawn into a world of mystery and self-discovery that will change their lives forever.
Interview with the Tarot Reader weaves a captivating tale of love, fate, and the power of the unknown. Join Marie Cameron, a renowned tarot card reader, as she delves into the depths of the human soul and uncovers the secrets that lie within. With a blend of intrigue, romance, and spiritual insight, this novel will leave you questioning the boundaries of reality and the true nature of connection.
Interview with the Tarot Reader is a mesmerizing journey, where the answers you seek may be found in the most unexpected of places.
Twenty years ago
Marie sat at a table with three other businesswomen from her floor, all celebrating Rachel’s—their shared receptionist’s—engagement. “We must have champagne,” Marie said smiling. “And I’m buying.”
Suddenly an argument erupted at a table near them. A woman sitting with a couple and a young girl rose abruptly and walked off. “Lynne!” a woman from the table yelled after her. “Lynne!”
“That doesn’t look good,” an accountant with Marie’s group commented as she watched the woman leave, as all at Marie’s table watched her leave.
“No, it doesn’t,” Marie said, rising. “I’ll be right back. With champagne.”
The woman from the arguing table rose as Marie did and walked in front of her to the bar area, Marie noting her determined stride. More to come, she thought.
The woman confronted Lynne, now sitting by herself on a stool. “You did it again! Every time.”
“Too much drama,” Lynne said. “Please keep your voice down.”
“Cassandra’s upset now,” the woman said. “She just wanted to know how Vicki is. We ask about her and you get defensive.”
Lynne shook her head.
Marie, overhearing the conversation, glanced casually in the direction of the two. She ordered the champagne to be brought to her table, and waited as the bartender took her credit card.
“Vicki is a good person,” the woman continued. “She was in love with you.”
Lynne put up her hand. “I’ve been over it a hundred times. We had issues. She left. End of story.”
“And that’s what you want?”
“Leaving is what she wanted. I’ve come to terms with it. I’m fine.”
“No, Lynne, it’s not fine.” The woman’s voice rose again. “This is you. Again. You bolt without moving. Abandonment in place. That’s why they leave.” The woman strode off, back to her table, brushing by Marie as she passed.
Marie was shocked at the anger. And the accusations. She signed for the champagne then looked in the mirror behind the bar, seeing Lynne with her head down. Lynne removed her black leather jacket, ready to sit there awhile, Marie presumed.
Marie signaled the bartender again and said softly, “I’d like to buy the woman over there a drink. She seems to be having a difficult time.”
“That would be a Rombauer Chardonnay.”
“Good choice,” Marie said. She looked once more in the mirror, Lynne still with her head down. But then she looked up, catching Marie’s eye. They held their gaze. Marie fumbled with the pen, signed for the drink, gathered her credit card receipts and left.
Lynne eyed the glass of wine coming her way, the bartender nodding in Marie’s direction as she rejoined her table.
Later, after finishing two drinks, Lynne asked the bartender: “Who was that who bought me a glass of wine?”
“The woman over there,” he said.
Lynne turned, seeing Marie’s table getting ready to leave. “I know that. What is her name?”
The bartender hesitated, perhaps mystified she didn’t know who she was. “Marie Cameron. She works here in the building. She’s a tarot reader.”
Lynne was shocked. And amused. “A…what?
“Tarot cards. She has an office upstairs.”
Lynne glanced over her shoulder again, a smile forming. “That woman, who looks like a bank executive, is a tarot card reader?”
He nodded. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard of her. She’s done readings for some famous people. She read the Dead.”
“You mean the Grateful Dead?”
“Yeah.”
Lynne shook her head.
“You ought to try it,” the bartender said, “a reading. My wife and I did. Changed our lives.”
Kathy Kaye is a former writer and editor for the American Medical Association, Harvard Medical School, and Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. She received a degree in English Literature from Illinois State University and completed a certificate in Wine Technology at South Seattle College’s Northwest Wine Academy. For many years she was co-owner of a small vineyard in eastern Washington State. She resides in Shoreline, Washington.
Kaye is currently writing two story series: the Warehouse Winery Mystery series, a police procedural, set in Woodinville, Washington, where, in real life, she sold winemakers the grapes she grew; and the Tarot Reader series. Interview with the Tarot Reader is book one of three in this series. Book two, The Tarot Connection, will be published in 2026.
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