A review by katiedid404
Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood

funny lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

4.5⭐️ - listen, I watched The Queen’s Gambit and honestly found chess to be insufferable after that. This book, however, has changed my mind. 

It was SO CUTE. Mallory, ex-chess prodigy, finds herself in a bind and has to get back into the chess world after a particularly traumatizing history with it in order to support her mother and sisters. enter, Nolan Sawyer, chess world No. 1, current world champion, and king of my heart. Mallory plays Nolan once in a charity event, beats him, and after that she can’t seem to get rid of him…

throughout the book, with Nolan’s help via his insistence on her happiness and well-being (king sh*t), Mallory learns that the world doesn’t always have to be on her shoulders, that she can just be a sister and a daughter and a friend without feeling responsible for everyone and everything - that martyrdom is more self-serving than selfless. 

the ONLY reason this book lost a half of a star for me is because the entire situation with her friend who left for college and went MIA and ghosted her but then tried to accuse MALLORY of ghosting HER genuinely triggered a deep, deep fury in me. 

Outside of that, the book was so cute and fun and the epilogue had me GIGGLY. I’ve never wanted to play chess more, so if anyone knows of any bad boy chess champions with a heart of gold, please send them my way ok?