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Writer's pictureMia Evans

Check & Mate Review

Updated: Nov 14, 2023

By Ali Hazelwood

Star Review: ★★★★☆

Blurb

Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. Every move counts nowadays; after the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory's focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious "Kingkiller" Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess. Nolan's loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone. What's even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory's victory opens the door to sorely needed cash-prizes and despite everything, she can't help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist.... As she rockets up the ranks, Mallory struggles to keep her family safely separated from the game that wrecked it in the first place. And as her love for the sport she so desperately wanted to hate begins to rekindle, Mallory quickly realizes that the games aren't only on the board, the spotlight is brighter than she imagined, and the competition can be fierce (-ly attractive. And intelligent...and infuriating...)


Genre: Young Adult Romance


Read if you like: ♟️Enemies to lovers ♟️He first first ♟️Family drama ♟️Queer characters ♟️Virgin hero


My Thoughts: I've been incredibly excited to read this book because like the heroine in this book I had a father who is very good at chess and taught me at a young age. While I am nowhere near as good as this girl, I have played in some tournaments so it was a fun setting to read about. My favorite thing about Ali Hazelwood's books are that she is smart and her books are always super well-researched. I know that if I am reading a book by her she will know what is is talking about when it comes to the community she is writing about. Her characters are also always smart and interesting! I really enjoyed Mallory and Nolan's story. The things they had struggled with were different but they both had regrets and guilt and I liked that they could help each other with that. Nolan is very much an Ali Hazelwood hero so if you loved all her previous heroes you won't be disappointed. Mallory and Nolan are both very grown up and smart, which as an adult reader is really fun to read! However, with this book being published as YA I think some younger readers will struggle to connect to these characters. Mallory in particular deals with very adult problems that might not be relatable to younger readers. Additionally, as a psychologist I adore reminding people their frontal lobes aren't developed. However, I don't think an 18 year old who hasn't taken psych classes would be doing it and younger readers may be confused by that type of terminology. However, I don't think this is Ali Hazelwood's fault. I don't think there is a good genre for romances written about characters this age. There is the label new adult but it's not nearly as popular as YA books are. I am also of two minds because I love that more younger girls will get to learn about chess and be introduced to the idea of stereotype threat. This is a book where I will be really interested to see what others think particularly younger readers. For me personally, I really enjoyed it but would have loved for it to be an adult book so it could have had a similar level of spice as her other books. I am, however, in love with the little pictures of chess pieces on the pages and had a lot of fun with the setting!



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