Title: Check & Mate
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Publication: November 7, 2023
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Son’s Books for Young Readers
Genre: Romance, YA Fiction
Pages: 368
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SYNOPSIS: (From Goodreads)
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—especially Mallory. 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 hotter than she imagined, and the competition can be fierce(-ly attractive. And intelligent…and infuriating…)
REVIEW:
Remember when I said that I had taken a year off of reading to go to school? Well that also included taking a a year and 1 month off of my beautiful wonderful book club that my bestie and I run via a app and zoom monthly. Fast forward to Aug and I am a licensed and practicing Paramedic that was actually able to participate and read the book for the month of Aug. I was so excited. I had read two books by this author already and actually owned the book and had it on my waiting shelf to read. I couldn’t wait to dive in.
Mal was a child prodigy” in chess. She was an amazing player. She picked it up from her father who was a Grand Master in chess. However, one little secret, a divorce and a drunk driving accident took all that away from her. She became the leader of the house due to everything as well as her mother’s failing health. She worked in an automotive shop. Until one day her friend talked her into a charity chess tournament. Things kind of changed for her when in the tournament she beat the #1 chess player in the world. She was suddenly something that people wanted. Losing her job, her family’s finances in shambles and her sisters having things they wanted to do paired with her mother having a relapse and needing better drugs for her RA, led her to accept the offer she received. My oh my this book. First of all, full disclosure, I read the entire page the day of book club because I am a huge procrastinator and chose to read 60 pages and then binge read the entire thing in a day. However, that wasn’t that hard because the book was decent. I rated it three stars only because of some plot holes and the rushed feeling at the end.
I will say I know how to play chess in the loosest terms. Like I know what moves were etc what I do not know is the rest of the plays that the book talked about. I was having to google things so that I could find out what they were actually talking about. I thought that the romance between the two main characters was sweet. It was a just sort of happened romance. Like you knew something was going to happen then one day they are just kissing in front of everyone and no one is surprised. I think that the author needed to give us more of an ending. Like I said it felt rushed. they imply that Mal won in the end but I really wanted a run down and a chapter about that game. They did every other game but I think the big game really deserved its chance to shine. True to form the author keeps with her STEM world and writes another decent book. I have two more by her on my shelf and they will probably be read soon…… I hope.
