I really enjoyed reading this Tarot storytelling style book. The stories were short and sweet. Each card was part of the story; informative and a fun read. The picture for the Five of wands is wrong but awesome book never the less. I’d read this to my kids and I’d certainly enjoy listening to this book. This is a great book for someone learning the tarot and enjoys fairytale.

There are many tarot books out there that explain the meanings of the cards but this one tackles the tarot in a unique way. For someone who struggles to remember the meaning of tarot cards this book gives a great way to learn by weaving a narrative through the cards in the RWS tarot deck.

ARC NETGALLEY REVIEW

Right in the beginning, the origin of Tarot is a more modern version, and religious based belief. As with a lot of current books, this book is just again a copy of ever other tarot want to be clout author.
I’m qualified to say this as I’ve been reading for 30+ years and am a 6th generational tarot trained by my ancestors.
DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS UNLESS YOU FOLLOW THIS WESTERN AMERICAN CLOUT CONCEPT

This book of the stories behind each tarot card is a must have for experienced and novice tarot lovers. It discusses the story arc of the major arcana but gives detail on common interpretations and meanings behind the cards. Author Allison Davies does a great job of offering the stories in a simple yet informative style.
The full color illustrations are pretty and it’s an easy title to pick up and read in any order, based on the card you want to read about. This would make a great gift for any tatie lover.
If you are ready a digital copy, I’d recommend a larger surface like a tablet vs a phone. Having color as an option is also a must.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my ARC copy of this book. This was given in exchange for an honest and fair review.

This is a great compilation of stories behind each card in the tarot. It details the major and minor arcana and includes the tales behind every single card. The book also includes lovely illustrations of each card and key details related to each card.

A delightful collection of the history and stories surrounding a major tool for spiritualism. Useful for beginner and experts alike, with this book there is always something more to learn.

An interesting and enjoyable read, this isn't your usual 'how to decipher' tarot, but rather tells a story about the meaning behind the cards. Which makes more sense to me, because the,tarot after all are not about telling you what will happen, but rather the options open to you when finding yourself on a certain path.

3.5 rounded off to 4 stars.

"In an introduction to the tarot unlike any other, join storyteller, tarot reader and teacher, Alison Davies, and read 78 unforgettable tales behind all the cards in the modern tarot deck.

Every tarot card has a story to tell and is rich in symbolic meaning. In this gorgeous book for aspiring and experienced tarot readers alike, expert practitioner Alison Davies brings the stories of the cards alive. With key words and themes to help you understand the meanings of the cards, use this storybook as a tool to learn the tarot, or take your tarot readings to the next level.

Follow The Fool on his journey through the Major Arcana as he travels down the path of life, meeting iconic characters along the way such as The Magician, The Hermit, Death, and The High Priestess. Follow the stories of the four suits in the Minor Arcana, and watch three sisters rise to power in the Suit of Pentacles, and a world-changing idea is born in the Suit of Wands.

Stories give us context, context gives us knowledge, and knowledge is empowerment. Enhance your tarot practice, and learn to understand, decode, and apply the wisdom and meaning of the tarot in your life through the power of these stories."

It's the story that helps in the understanding.

I’m new to reading about and studying Tarot, so I don’t have much to compare with but this book was so neat and I was surprised by what I learned! I thought this book was going to be a “how to” guide, and that it would be like little guides about each card, but what I didn’t expect was the full tale/ story behind the cards!! I also had no clue previously how connected all the tarot cards in a deck are and how they relate to one another.

I never knew before how much art goes into reading and interpreting tarot cards, and it really was a fun hobby read. I even bought a deck of tarot cards to have fun while reading through it! Thanks NetGalley, Leaping Hare Press and Allison Davies for the arc for me to read and review voluntarily.

This books tells 5 tales following the cards of the tarot, one for the Major Arcana, and four for each suit of the Minor Arcana. It has been an enjoyable read for me, and sometimes insightful as the author’s interpretation of the cards may differ from my understanding. The tales are simple and easy to follow, I would recommend this book most for relatively early tarot learners.

Probably the only thing that is lacking for me in this book is that the tale of the Major Arcana felt rather fragmented, jumping from card to card, as opposed to the Minor Arcana tales which are more seamless. Other things of note include the author’s view on the suit of sword is quite different from other books I have read, and that some depth from each card have been shaved off to accomodate the creation of these simple but meaningful tales.

eARC provided by NetGalley & Leaping Hare Press.

This was very interesting to read. I never knew all the meaning of the Tarot cards and I definitely didn't know the back stories. This was very good and very well researched.
I just reviewed The Tales Behind Tarot by Alison Davies. #TheTalesBehindTarot #NetGalley
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I really enjoyed this book, the pictures and the story behind each card gave depth. I felt this was a perfect quick read for me and it was interesting. I enjoy reading about tarot and would read this book again.

What a fun twist of ways to interpret tarot. I enjoyed reading the history behind each card and each having their own mini tale to tell, this has helped me better understand how i can interpret the stories behind my own deck. I only wish there was slightly more themes and directions the cards hold as they’re are a bit too direct for my liking and can find that it wouldn’t relate to my life at all if i pulled that card so wouldn’t be much use as a guide book if intended as such

Such an interesting way to present the tarot. I feel that this would be a helpful way for new practitioners to learn the cards and themes of the major and minor arcana.

I found this really interesting, I don’t know much about tarot cards, so to me this was fascinating.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

Very lavishly designed and illustrated, full of fun information while not overstaying. I would recommend it easily, though I had hoped it might be a bit meatier than it actually managed to be. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity with this title.

If you like using the tarot this is a lovely book which gives the story behind each of the cards and the links between them. With illustrations from the Rider Waite tarot deck this gives us insight into how to read or view the cards. Easy to understand and a joy to read, this would make a lovely gift for the beginner or advanced reader
This is a great reference book to keep on your shelf and go back to again and again

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced readers copy in exchange for my honest review

I have been looking for an excellent reference book to go with my tarot cards and this is the one that I will be using! It is so much easier to remember what a card means once you have an understanding of the story being depicted on the cards.

tl;dr: It's a cute idea for a book. Simple, not deep or expansive, but not a bad companion/resource for beginners. If you're intermediate or more familiar with the cards, this book would likely not teach you anything new, but could still be entertaining.

Not tl;dr:

The author writes up a story for cards, a literal Fool's Journey, as the Fool himself (the cards/book is cis-het) travels across the land and comes across all the adventure, characters, and wisdom in each card. The suits then have their own individual stories from ace to king, starting with the pentacles (three sisters learning about wealth and abundance), swords (a young apprentice experiences heartache for a prince who rejects his crown), cups (a young woman and man search for family, meaning, and love), and wands (a man works to see his idea to fruition).

Each major arcana card has: the RWS artwork, the title/name of the card, several keywords, an about three page story, and a final phrase of wisdom from that card. The minors have card artwork, a few keywords, and about a page of story per card. I do wish the minors had a final summarized phrase of wisdom like the majors did though.

While I think this book is unique and a nice twist on the standard tarot books, and can work quite effectively as a way to help learn the card meanings, I did have some nit-picks. The stories themselves felt too short and lacking. Especially for the majors, while despite being more lengthy than the minors, didn't have much in the way of detail or direction, and was very repetitive. Several cards seemed to have mixed themes from cards that came after them as well. So with the Fool learning lessons with each card, it felt weird to have him learn/understand lessons that should come from cards he had yet to visit. In that sense, it feels like another round of polish and slight rewording could catch a lot of them, and make the lessons more thematically relevant to the card you're reading.

I also was a bit bothered with the Hierophant specifically. The author limiting the meaning to spirituality and prayer only, and effectively ignoring the core element of "teacher/tradition" I think loses a lot. It's a card about mentors and ancestral wisdom, not just faith. (Mostly my own personal nit-pick, just because it's upsetting to see how hated this card is in the tarot community, just because of the religious imagery.)

The surface-level-ness of the stories, mostly with the majors, was disappointing, but if I turned off my more critical side, it was still a neat way to go through the cards. And for beginners, I think this can be a great way to help get familiar with the meanings and understand the story-like nature of the cards.

I probably sound more negative than positive, but overall they were cute stories to read. And I did enjoy how the author brought in the lessons and meanings with each card and weaved things together. I liked the minors more so than the majors, just because the majors felt more disjointed, but I'm still glad I read the book. (Had the minors been similar to the majors, I would've given this book 3 stars. But the uniqueness of the minors kept this book interesting.) The layout and organization of things was nice too, and I appreciated the introduction walking you through the history of tarot (THANK YOU for acknowledging the artist! Shockingly RARE in tarot books/the community!) and the open-mindedness of the cards meanings/interpretations. The author also brings in the imagery of the cards too, along with symbols and their meanings, which I think could be helpful for beginners as well.

I think this book is quite beginner friendly. If you've been struggling with the meanings of the card, connecting things to IRL situations, and the like, this book might be worth checking out. It approaches the cards in a way that's not commonly done, by having these fantasy stories to understand and journey through the deck with. I think that makes it more creative and fun, and you can easily transfer these ideas into making up your own stories with the cards, which the author does invite you to do :)

Note to the author/editor:
The Five of Wands shows the Four's artwork.

The way started learning tarot was by drawing a card a day and then studying it with the little book that came with the deck. Alison Davies' The Tales Behind Tarot takes that disjointed method and stitches together the ENTIRE story of the tarot, moving from card to card in a epic narrative that makes sense of the entire deck, and each of the individual cards. The layout is fantastic, with full-color illustrations of each card from the Rider–Waite deck, and then a multi-page deep dive that explains the card's meaning and contextualizes it's place in the larger Hero's Journey. This is a great book for beginners and seasoned tarot readers. It would make an excellent gift. ]

Thank you to to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group –Leaping Hare for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.