Synopsis:
In Check & Mate, a clever and swoonworthy YA debut from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis, life’s moving pieces bring rival chess players together in a match for the heart.
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… )
Review:
I swear Ali Hazelwood puts some type of magic in her books because every single one I’ve read so far has been a five star read. This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea and I’m actually rating it quite a bit higher than its average rating, but I’m a sucker for a sweet contemporary romance.
I know absolutely nothing about chess, I can just about name the different types of pieces, yet Check & Mate had me hooked. Even though I didn’t understand what was happening during the matches, I loved every second of this book. It hasn’t quite inspired me to learn how to play chess but I did find the mention of the research of women in chess and how they perform differently depending on who they believe they are playing against extremely interesting. I love that Ali Hazelwood’s books often relate to real life research projects.
It’s so refreshing to have a bisexual main character that doesn’t have to prove their sexuality. Not a single person questions Mallory about whether or not she actually likes girls and her family and friends were accepting without making a huge deal out of it. Her younger sisters especially had some very funny lines about it.
I won’t talk about the romance too much as I don’t want to spoil what happens, but the angst is off the charts. Even from Mallory who doesn’t realise her feelings until pretty late into the book. Nolan was an open book though, that boy was in love from their very first match.
The real winning relationship of Check & Mate was Mallory and her sisters. She’s got a chip on her shoulder when it comes to her family and the whole trope of the ‘older sister that feels like she has to look after her family’ was done so well. Their relationship felt very real and the portrayal of the different dynamics were great. Her little sisters in particular were my favourite characters of the whole book. You knew it was going to be a funny chapter if they were present.
I absolutely adored Check & Mate which probably doesn’t come across too well in this review. I left it too long after reading to write this review and, as usual, I didn’t make any notes. I’d 100% recommend Check & Mate if you’re a fan of sweet romances with complex characters.
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