Ali Hazelwood is an author that somehow always writes the most addictive and blush-worthy books every single time. I read both The Love Hypothesis and Below Zero and adored both of these books but Check & Mate is now absolutely on top.

This was such a cute and squeal-worthy book, and I kid you not that it had me blushing and covering my face at times. I love when romance books actually immerse me into the story and have me full on going through all the emotions that the character is going through, and this book is a perfect example of that. The romance in this book was top tier, it includes a main character that is a bit oblivious to love, the guy falls first, the romantic interest is a rival in ways, and so much more. It really had everything that I could have wished for from a romance book. Plus the chess setting was soooo perfect.

Not only is the romance perfect but so is the focus on women in chess, and how it calls attention to the sexism in these men-dominated sports. While I am no expert on chess, nor do I have any clue how to play, I have come across a few videos and commentary from chess games. During a specific one, I noticed how the wording was always almost backhanded when talking about a woman chess player who was going against a male chess player. So I knew of the sexism in the chess world, but this book just brought a whole new and focused light onto the issue.

Overall this was a swoon-worthy, dreamy, and feminist book on a chess romance that any Ali Hazelwood reader will love!

My chess-nerd heart adored this! I seriously want to whip out my chess board and play right now. This book really captured the game well, especially in a professional and competitive setting, and it added a lot of nuance to the plot and character relationships.

The rivals to lovers was so entertaining! Nolan is a dark and brooding guy, but he's got a softness and nerdiness to him that I felt drawn to. I also loved his fascination with Mallory; it was the "he fell first" trope at its finest! I was expecting a bit more romance based on Hazelwood's other books, but I still thought their journey together was entertaining and meaningful.

Mallory is a smart, flawed character with a lot of responsibility on her shoulders. She is selfless to a fault, and I loved how this story was about her discovering herself again after some traumatic things in her past and putting aside everything for her family. She has great growth throughout, and her journey felt like the forefront of the story, even above the romance. I grew to love her, even for all her flaws.

I couldn't put this book down and read it in a day. I think Ali Hazelwood did something fresh and new, and I hope her readers will still enjoy this one, even if it's YA/NA instead of Adult.

Writing Aesthetic/Style: 4
Plot/Movement: 4
Character Development: 4
Overall: 4

Thank you, Penguin Teen, for the arc!

Trigger/Content Warnings: parent cheating recounted, parent death recounted, parent chronic illness, swearing, innuendo, mild sexual harassment and sexism, detailed fade to black

This book gave me major Queen's Gambit vibes and I'm here for it!

Mallory is over chess but her best friend begs her to play in one last tournament. But when she slays the Chessmaster Nolan, things start to get interesting!

Super cute YA read that I enjoyed and definitely recommend!

Check and Mate by Ali Hazelwood is a cute YA a book about Mallory, a young adult who wears the weight of the world on her shoulders while trying to support her mother and two younger sisters. She used to love chess, but stopped playing after after a traumatic incident (which readers will learn about as the book progresses). Her bestie Easton ropes her into playing in a charity tournament and Mallory ends up shockingly beating the #1 rated chess player, Nolan Sawyer. The rest of the book follows how Mallory’s life turns upside down and how events unfold as she navigates situations she never thought she would be in.

I thought this was a cute book! I have enjoyed other books I’ve read by Ali Hazelwood, and was excited to get this as an ARC. While it is technically considered YA, it was spicier than I thought it would be. Nothing graphic but just more open about sex than I thought a YA book would be. I just be getting old (LOL). Anyways, this was a nice easy read that kept me entertained and wanting more.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publishers, and author for granting me an ARC. This book is expected to come out in November 2023.

I was so excited to receive this arc as Ali Hazelwood is one of my autobuy authors! I really enjoyed this novel as I do play chess and it's so rare to see books cover the sport. I will say the start of this novel was pretty slow for me. I'm used to Hazelwood's adult novels where the romance/pining begin almost immediately. The start of this novel gave us a lot of information about Mallory's family which was needed for the rest of the book, but I would have enjoyed seeing more of Nolan's life as well. I thought the romance and friendship between the two was natural and cute. The only thing I wish I had seen at the end was the full chess match between Nolan and Mallory but the epilogue was great as well! 4 stars, definitely going to be ordering a physical copy when it releases.

Mallory gave up on chess years ago. But when her best friend drags her to a charity tournament where she accidentally defeats the current world champion, it seems that chess isn't done with her...

This is such a beautiful romance! I know very little about chess so I can't speak to the accuracy there, but I adored the characters and the romance was intense. Loved this book from start to finish!

Thank you to the publisher for providing a review copy

Overall I enjoyed this! Simply put, if Ali Hazelwood writes it I want to read it. I loved the both Nolan and Mallory. Their relationship both as friends/more? and as competitors was really fun to read. I know absolutely nothing about chess, but was still able to understand what was going on and enjoy it!

The two things that make me rate this how I did are 1) I really do not like when authors use so many pop culture references and 2) the fight that Nolan and Mallory had was kind of out of place? I hated that he threw “I love you” out there just like that and then they never said it to each other again. I think Mallory was justified to be mad at Nolan, but she also went from zero to one hundred with how she started insulting him.

I loved this so much. It was snappy and the dialogue (and Mal’s inner monologue) had a zing to them that made me smile so much. This is my favorite work of Ali’s yet.

Never did I ever think I would love a romance where chess was practically a main character. I knew nothing about chess (and still know nothing about it now other than white starts first). Games and move names were mentioned a lot. I don't know if they are real or if Hazelwood made them up. I don't care either way. Somehow, I still had fun reading about it all. It was an interesting, unique theme and setting throughout the book. 

Adding to the fun was a great main character. Mallory is the narrator for this book and life is tough for her. She's taken over the role as main provider for her family. Her mom and two sisters depend on her for a multitude of things and the stress of it all ways on her. Mallory gave up chess years ago and has no desire to return to playing for reasons that are partially hidden from the reader at first. Mallory's dedication to her family, even when it was a hardship, was commendable. I loved what being thrust back into the world of chess meant for her growth as a character.

The romance between Mallory and Nolan was entertaining. Nolan's POV isn't included, but I didn't mind that. I liked reading his intentions through his actions. All the things he said and did were clear and impactful. I adored how their relationship slowly progressed and built. There was an expected sweetness to it. I don't know how the explain that comment since I would expect a YA romance to have some sweetness, but these characters don't initially come across as sweet. 

There are a bunch of other great characters in this book as well. Mallory's family was a lot of fun. She's got two younger sisters who can be a handful in different ways. Her mom has some medical issues and is there but a little absent until she's really needed. Nolan has some great friends in the chess world and Mallory ends up making some of her own. They all added so much to this book.

I do have one other thing I want to point out to prospective readers. Check & Mate is being marketed as a YA debut for Hazelwood. I disagree with this categorization for a few reasons. Mallory is 18 years old, has graduated from high school, and has already moved onto a career path. There are no open-door sex scenes, but Mallory's sex life is referenced and alluded to many times throughout the book. She also likes to use mature language that some YA readers or parents would be uncomfortable with. I think the topics in this book lean more towards NA than YA. Maybe this does fall in Mature YA, but it with its themes it read more like NA to me. That's just my 2-cents, though. 

Anway. I loved this book. I wouldn't mind seeing Hazelwood write more to this demographic.

I had a great time reading this book. The characters, the plot, everything was so good. I’ve never been interested in chess and it honestly never crossed my mind that people make a living playing competitively. It’s truly a testament of how talented Hazelwood is because I was INVESTED in these characters and a game I’ve never thought twice about. I even looked up the current best players in the world and different tournaments. She could write about anything and I’ll immediately be interested in it.

Mallory and Nolan’s relationship was the perfect slow burn. I’m such a sucker for the ‘he falls first’ trope. He was completely devoted to her from the very beginning and it was actually ridiculous how long it took Mallory to realize it.

The only thing I didn’t like (and why I’m giving it 4 stars instead of 5) is that it’s fade to black. Why is this book marketed as YA? They’re 18 and 20 years old. It reads very much as NA and the fade to black feels so out of place. I was actually a little upset when I realized it cut to a new chapter.

Overall I think this was such a fun book and will be recommending to anyone who will listen to me.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC to review!

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for providing me with an eARC of Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood in exchange for a fair and honest review.
4.75/5 stars
0.5 chili peppers

Check & Mate is Ali Hazelwood’s debut YA Romance releasing November 7th, 2023. This book follows 18-year-old Mallory “Mal” Greenleaf as she enters the world of competitive chess tournaments. Mal started playing chess at 8 years old, but after a family tragedy, she stepped away for good when she was 14. Or so she thought. After 4 years of not touching a chess board, one game against the world champion Nolan Sawyer, AKA “Kingkiller”, changed everything for her. Thrust back into the world of chess, Mallory can’t help but get sucked back into her love for the game, and the high of winning a match. But behind the scenes she’s trying to keep her return to the chess world from her family, and her mind from wandering to thoughts of Nolan.

Firstly, I want to say that as a 25-year-old, I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t particularly gel with YA books anymore, but if I go into them with the expectation that they are written for a younger audience, I usually can enjoy them as much as an adult novel. In this case, I think this was a really great YA debut. Mal is still young but had to grow up pretty fast. She has a lot on her plate, and we get to experience her very realistic stress and anxiety at this age. She has two classically annoying younger sisters who she both loves and hates, a best friend who she bickers with like an old married couple, and typical teen infatuation with the world champion chess hottie. While there were a few moments of cringey YA-ness (mostly in the very beginning), it was otherwise not childish or difficult to connect with.

One thing that I think was quite nuanced in this book was how sexually open Mal was. We love to see LGBTQ+ representation and a woman who is not afraid to choose what she does with her own body. My one caveat was that I felt just a bit weird reading about the various sexual exploits of an 18-year-old. Yes, she is technically an adult, but just barely. I think in that regard the novel should definitely be classified as upper YA, but otherwise the themes and writing are perfect for a YA audience.

All of Ali Hazelwood’s novels (so far) have been about women in STEM. This book follows a similar formula. While Mal is only 18 and is not yet “in STEM”, she works on cars and crushes it at chess, which fulfils the same nerdy female role that I’ve personally loved from the previous (adult) books in Hazelwood’s backlist. And this book is certainly nerdy. Like me, if you are not a fan of chess, this novel might be difficult for you to get into at first, but it’s absolutely worth it to stick with it. Chess is not only the <b>MAIN</b> plot of the book, but this book is heavily filled with chess moves, jargon, and snippets of matches. I can see where it may get a bit tedious, but once Nolan Sawyer comes back into play at around the 25% mark, it starts to pick up and definitely started to suck me in. I think overall the book is more YA Fiction in tone than YA Romance, as the romance aspect is very much a smaller side plot. I would say comparable to Emily Henry Adult Romance’s, and how they have a lot of plot that is not dependent on the romance.

Now, did this book follow the same formula of having an initially less-than-friendly, inhumanly tall (see quote 1 below), dark-haired male in a position in power who is ultimately a big softie for the main character like in all her other books? Yes, yes it did. Was it still just as enjoyable to read about? Also absolutely yes.

It also, of course, has the classic misogynistic side characters that we see in Hazelwood’s other novels (and unfortunately also in the real world). I do, however, need to point out that the main sexist jerk in this has the last name “Koch” so that was thoroughly enjoyable to read each time he was on the page (see quote 2).

Quotes:
1 – “I look up, and up, and up, and up <i>even more</i>, and –. My stomach drops. Nolan Sawyer is staring down at me, a faint scowl between his eyes.”
2 – “I’m not saying he’s the worst human being in the world…but Malte Koch is, quite frankly, the shittiest person I’ve ever met.”

Overall, this book is a love letter to chess, with a sprinkle of romance on the side. And I honestly loved it. I think if I knew how much chess was going to be in the book, I would have been more apprehensive to pick it up, expecting to be bored or confused, but it was truly incredibly enjoyable and well written. An easy 5 stars.

P.S. for anyone that was wondering; yes, Ali Hazelwood once again manages to subtly sneak both galaxy print and a cat into this novel, staying on brand.

Spoilers below - I do have one big gripe about the ending. But as it’s the ending, it’s of course spoilery:
<spoiler>The ending felt SO abrupt. I had wondered if she was going to end it as abruptly as she did, as my eBook told me I was at 99% and they were only just sitting down for their match. Part of me likes that we didn’t get an unnecessary sleuth of information about the 12 matches, but also it felt so sudden ending it there. Of course, there was a brief epilogue that helped smooth things over but it didn’t particularly satisfy me in the way that I wanted. I’m very curious to see what everyone else thinks. </spoiler>

I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book, provided by Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I really like he falls first. Like really like it. Ali writes he fall first very well, and I really enjoyed this book. I learned way more about chess than I ever wanted to know writing this book haha! This one is different than her other books because this one is YA/NA and there's no sexy times. But that's ok - it's still intimate and steamy with tension, tension and more tension.

Mallory was so stubborn. I mean I get it, she feels responsible for a lot and feels like she needs to take care of her family. But DANG. She pretty much put her life on hold. I think my favorite part was the epilogue where it was written as a news report - and how they kept their lives low profile!

I love Ali Hazelwood and this is the only book that I have read by her that I have not given 5 stars. Her YA book just did not work for me. I love her adult stuff but this was just lacking the normal Ali Hazelwood charm. This felt on the younger side of YA. I really wanted to love this but it just was a miss for me.

4 🌟
The cover is so cute and I was so excited to read Ali's YA book! I never read a chess based romance so this was definitely new too me and I enjoyed it! Academic romance hits different and I love when the fmc and the mmc are educated and something about characters being intelligence hits different! The story is definitely fast paced and easy to follow as well as the chemistry between Mallory and Nolan is so cute 🥺. Rivalry to lovers and the slow burn definitely added that tension to a next levelllll. One thing that bothered me a bit was the mentioning of tiktok and pop culture (Riverdale, Cole Sprouse, timothee) caught me off guard LOLLLL. OVERALL I definitely enjoyed the cute YA book! I think it's a mix of NA/YA???

Mallory Greenleaf used to love chess. It was her whole life until something happened that made her step away. Suddenly chess was tangled up in something painful for her and her family. But a favor for a friend thrusts her back into the world of competitive chess years after she cut it out of her life.

Parts of this book broke my heart and other parts made me guffaw. It took me on an emotional rollercoaster and I actually cried while Defne and Mallory were discussing sexism in chess. The juxtaposition of everything Mallory was going through was beautifully done.

I found it incredibly satisfying to follow along as Mallory fell back in love with chess while healing her past traumas. And it was an added bonus to see her kick ass in a male-dominated field where sexism and double standards seem to run rampant. From a romance perspective, I really enjoyed the progression of Mallory and Nolan - it felt so natural and realistic for their characters.

As someone who mainly reads adults contemporary romance and not a lot of YA anymore, I found this book to be a fucking delight. I actually prefer it over Ali Hazelwood’s adult romances.

Four stars ⭐️ I really enjoyed this! Definitely my favorite book that I’ve read by Ali Hazelwood so far.

Check & Mate follows Mallory, an eighteen year old who is taking care of her family and gets pushed by her best friend to play chess, which she hasn’t played in years, at a charity event. She agrees and gets set up to play against the Kingkiller, Nolan Sawyer.

Nolan is the number one chess player in the world and to everyone’s surprise, Mallory beats him.

Beating Sawyer brings Mallory a great job opportunity that she can’t pass up and she soon realizes that she will have to see Nolan, way more than she thought she would.

I had so much fun reading this and I loved seeing Mallory fall back in love with chess and fall in love with Nolan. To be honest, the best part of this book was Nolan.

The only reasons why this wasn’t a five star read was because this was a slow burn and once we got to the romance part, I just wanted more? I wish Hazelwood would’ve included a little bit more of their romance, since she did so well at building up their friendship. Also, this book didn’t feel too much like a YA for me, except for the conflict at the end. I didn’t particularly love the way that was handled.

PS. This didn’t bother me, but if you don’t like pop culture in your books, this one is probably not for you.

Huge thank you to NetGalley and the publisher/author for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Ali Hazelwood, the publisher, and Netgalley for giving me an eARC of Check & Mate in exchange for an honest review.

I LOVED this book. Mallory has not played chess in years. However, after beating Nolan, who is ranked as the number one chess player in the world, during a charity tournament, she is talked into once again joining the chess world.

I adored the fact that this was a slow burn. The pacing was perfect. It was not unnecessarily drawn out, but rather events took place at just the right time. I also really appreciated Mallory's journey with grief and hardship. She may not be perfect, but she is real and I have a feeling that almost every reader can find a way to relate to Mallory in some way. I also loved her sisters, they are iconic, and in so many ways describes what it is like to have siblings.

10/10 would recommend this book to all, especially fans of Ali Hazelwood. It is refreshing to see Ali write about topics other then stem (all of which I also love) while still having this book feel like something that Ali would write. I cannot wait to see where she goes next with her writing career as she has a bright future ahead of her!

4 ⭐️

now let me start off by saying, it’s 100% YA, but I still loved it. hoenstly I know some people are super fans when authors add trendy things into books, but for me, in this book, it worked. it wasn’t too much or over the top or annoying. it just worked (again it worked for me).

this book made me smile & laugh & I loved every character throughout, not just the main characters, but everyone involved. the MC’s were so sweet & I really loved Mallory & Nolan. at first, I thought we’d get more of grump vibes from Nolan, but I loved him right when he showed in the book. this book was very “hating game meets queens gambit” to me. & I think that’s why it drew me in so much.

I love how Ali writes books about fmc’s succeeding in a man’s field, because even today this is still very much a thing in certain career fields. she seamlessly makes the woman to succeed, while also showing the mmc being 100% supportive. I love that & it gives me all the warm vibes.

it was a slow burn, strangers to friends to lovers, past traumas, brilliant minds, sports romance (bc yes to me chess seems like a damn sport! LOL)

I also want to put a note about the fact that I heavily related to Mal & her relationship with her father. I understood in a lot of ways why she felt the way she did & felt a connection to it because of it.

This was such a cute read. Might be a bit contributing, but I think I loved this more than her other books. Felt like a mix of Queen's Gambit with your typical dose of Ali Hazelwood. I really enjoyed this book and it makes me wish I know how to pass chess cause it just sounds so fascinating. Will definitely be on the lookout for this book on release day!

Ali Hazelwood does it again! Her YA Debut is everything we love about Ali Hazelwood- the witty banter, the buildup romance, and the smart settings- minus the r-rated content :) I loved this book that opened my eyes to the world of chess. I learned a lot and also had a fun time reading it. I highly recommend this book!