Title: Check & Mate
Author: Ali Hazelwood, narrated by Karissa Vacker
Length: 9 hours and 31 minutes.
Genre: New Adult Romance
Is this book part of a series? No, but I wish it were.
I discovered this book via... Goodreads (A monthly release list).
Published: November 7th, 2023
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...)
How freaking cute was this?!?! I adore Hazelwoods' books for their smart, sexy and loyal male leads. Nolan was fantastic, if a bit backwards about making his feelings known. Mallory is high strung, driven and stressed. She seems to use sex as a way to blow off steam, not as a relationship... I kind of loved that Nolan never made her feel bad about her attitude toward sex. She is loyal, loving and fiercely protective of her family- maybe too much so. Giving up on her dream out of guilt, she swore off chess and was going to be an auto-mechanic. I think it's adorable that her first interaction with Nolan was at a tornament that she only entered as a favor to her bestie. And that she promptly ran away from him. Nolan is reserved, analytical, and protective of those he loves. Every move he makes makes it kind of obvious he feels something for Mallory... but is it love or just the desire to play again? Mallory doesn't have the mental bandwith left over to even try to figure this out. And thus, misunderstandings ensue (honestly, who's surprised?).
The characters were great- even Mallory's bratty sisters. I loved their interactions- in fact, I wouldn't mind seeing more from Nolan's friends or Mallory's teammates. This was a great premise, and the story had a good flow making it a fast, fun read that still made me cry sometimes. While it wasn't my favorite by Hazelwood (The Love Hypothesis still has my heart), it was pretty fantastic. I will warn you there are a lot of pop culture references.... like, a lot. This made it harder for some readers to enjoy, but I didn't feel like it was too much considering the age bracket we're going for here.
Speaking of age bracket... I am not completely sure I am comfortable with it's YA label. Mallory is sexually active- and makes absolutely no effort in masking the fact. That said, it's not like we have page long sex scenes (they are shorter with maybe level three spice). There's also language, some gaslighting, and references to mental health issues. I feel like this is more of a New Adult book ( between eighteen and twenty-five).
The book is out. Have you read it? What were your thoughts?
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