Schackmatt

by Ali Hazelwood

Aldrig mera schack. Schack var det som krossade hennes familj för fyra år sedan och Mallory Greenleaf har lovat sig själv att aldrig mer spela ett parti eller röra ett torn. Nu har hon gått ut high school, tackat nej till stipendier från tre olika college och försörjer mamma (frilansande vetenskapsjournalist med skov av reumatism) och två syrror som bilmek. Men det finns en person hon inte kan säga nej till – hennes bästa vän Easton. Easton som om två veckor kommer lämna henne och dra iväg till college. Så när Easton vill ha med henne på en välgörenhetsturnéring i schack (med fika) ger Mallory med sig. Ingen i familjen kommer att få veta, och en gång är ingen gång. På turnéringen ställer också några stormästare upp för den goda saken och plötsligt sitter han där: Nolan Sawyer. Han kallas The Kingkiller, är regerande världsmästare med rykte om sig att bete sig våldsamt när han förlorar, ett schackgeni man hört talas om även om man inte spelar schack.

Genres: Romance, Young Adult, Contemporary, Audiobook, Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Enemies To Lovers

400 pages, Paperback

First published November 7, 2023

About the author

I'm Ali, and I write contemporary romcom novels about women in STEM and academia. I love cats, Nutella, and side ponytails. I'm also currently learning to crochet, so as you can tell I'm a super busy gal with an intense and exciting life!

I only use Goodreads as a reader, to review and hype books that I've loved (many of these book are ARCs received from fellow authors).

Reviews

[SK · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have a love-hate relationship with Ali Hazelwood's writing and please excuse me if this review gets a tad too expressive 😊 I was really excited to read this but the whole experience was a massively disappointing one.

It started off decent and interesting. I liked Mallory, her looking out for her family and siblings was something that resonated with me on some level. I liked her relationship with her sisters and how selflessly she gave for years and years. Sabrina and Darcy were okayish. I liked Sabrina better, as Darcy was all over the place. Look, I know it's not a fair comment given she's just 12 but am gonna tell you why she pissed me off, or rather Ali's writing pissed me off.

I found the book after a 100 page mark to be boring and getting worse. Although I liked the chess elements and it was interesting enough to keep me reading, but I didn't sign up for chess alone. I thought I was promised romance too, on which I'll elaborate further.

First, I'll come to Nolan. Was he there in the book? Oh, he was? Where? Oh, he was the love interest. Was there a blossoming love? Oh, there was... Where? Basically, he was so basic, he is forgettable. He has the personality of a rock. The man has no expression. I couldn't care less if he had something to say or not, which mostly he does not. He just pouts, glances, glares and that's his day.

The romance did not come across as romance, or even a budding one at that. Mallory and Nolan had minimal chemistry. They came across as colleagues throughout the book and nothing more. Their interactions were made to appear as something deep but it really wasn't.

Coming to my not so favorite topic- Ali's writing. I know it's her first YA book but it came across as trying TOO hard. The overloading of unfunny jokes was just cringe worthy. The gen Z references were never ending. But the worst of all was how she wrote about sex.

Now, I know this might be perceived as unpopular in today's world but YA does not need to have a lot of sex talk in it. Few sentences, one or two paragraphs talking about it in a mature and tasteful and educational manner is fine. But when the 12 year old character starts pestering the adults to talk about their sex life while talking about her adult sister's sex life to a man she just met, is just creepy, and sends a wrong message. Sure, teens talk about sex and make sex jokes- but amongst themselves. Not to some random guy they have just met!! Also, why is there so much sex talk in this book when the targeted audience is not NA. I might be a bit old school here but I stay firm in my position- LET YA BOOKS BE YA!! Authors must be cautious in how they deal with sex in this genre. You either fade to black, have a short but non descriptive- tasteful scene, or just let it be for an educational and learning purpose.

Ali Hazelwood might have the talent to write but she did not have the substance to write.

The decision to read this book is your own, but this one was not for me and in my view, there are much better books out there.


~•~•~
Now this one looks refreshing and promising. Doesn't seem like the TLH 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0 so all good. Besides the cover is too cute to pass off

[Ayman · Rating 4 out of 5]

when you haven’t played chess in years, randomly play a tournament for your friend, accidentally beat the #1 champion in the world, and now he’s obsessed with you 🤩

i don’t even like chess but now i wanna play (to fall in love with my tall, dark, and handsome rival) 🫣

ughh the souls of these main characters are cosmically intertwined and are forever bound to be with one another in any universe‼️

if you are the burnt out older sibling, this book is for you 🫵🏽 mallory is such a relatable character. at some points i was asking myself “is the author writing for me? or about ME?!” ⁉️

nolan GOODNESS GRACIOUS! romance is ALIVE! he is so effortlessly down BAD for mallory. wants to study her. wants the world for her. wants her to be his 🫴🏽 this man would move mountains for his girl before she was even his girl. 🧎🏻‍♀️

my favorite scene is when she takes care of him when he’s sick because he’s so delirious thinking that he’s in a dream and there’s no possible way that the girl of his dreams is nursing him back to life. my lord it was too cute and romantic. 😭

[rêverie · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 ⭐️ 's. tldr if the queen's gambit was made for y/n by a millennial

edit/psa:
1) i AM the audience for this novel - im a teenager
2) no i didnt hate read this and even if i did that was my choice stop acting like im dictating what you read
3) these are my opinions if you enjoy reading about scalp asmr or jungkook fanfic then good for you but dont comment and attack my stance when ive made it clear

mentioning ao3, tumblr, percy jackson gifs, jungkook, zendaya, harry styles, billie eilish, bts, paris hilton, dragon age, timothee chalomet, malala, candy crush, taylor swift ca. 2016, thanos, the hunger games, lilo & stitch, you (the tv show), riverdale, jughead/cole sprouse, jeff bezos, twitter, snapchat, michelle obama, tinder, michael phelps, donna tartt, tony stark, christian dior (savage), discord, bruce wayne, corpse bride, bob ross, scalp massage asmr is not hot.

(pls appreciate the time i took screenshotting each page with a reference to include here 😘)

[Ali Goodwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars! I’ve loved Ali Hazelwoods past books & was so excited to read a young adult book by her! It was so fun getting immersed in the world of chess!! A career/sport that I knew little about.

I love that the characters felt like complex characters outside of just their romance plot. Mallory’s got a tough family backstory and home life and two very fun little sisters. I also loved Nolan! He’s a chess god, incredibly handsome, and so sweet 🥹 🫶🏻

BUT I had 2 big complaints. Mal definitely had some self destructive tendencies which felt similar to the miss communication trope to me (in that it was very frustrating & I feel like there are way more interesting conflicts out there). And secondly! The ending ended so SO so abruptly. I was so disappointed. I wanted more from the romance and chess tournament in the end. Even a better epilogue would’ve worked for me.

Overall a cute chess filled young adult romance ♟️ 💗

[Maditales · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dear authors, please stop talking about Tiktok, AO3, Riverdale, Cole Sprouse and Timothée Chalamet in your books. Thank you.

Update:
Just found out this book is the story of Anna Cramling and Magnus Carlsen but with romance? Idk how I feel

[Haley pham · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 babyyyyy

[lisa ★ · Rating 5 out of 5]

i think that, as a society, we should eliminate every man from dark romances and replace them with smart-ass men like nolan sawyer, thank you very much.

[Claudia Lomelí · Rating 4 out of 5]

AWWW, this was cute.

Gracias a BookUp por la copia avanzada. Ali Hazelwood nuevamente me demuestra que escribe a mis novios literarios perfectos, me enamoré de Nolan Sawyer. No diré mucho, tendrán reseña (obvio sin spoilers) en mi wrap up :).

[Heather Mclarry · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️ Definitely had fun reading this but it’s not my fav. Nolan is a cutie pie and deserves the world. Also I’m confused on what qualifies a book as YA LOL

[Alexa Raye · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARE. YOU. KIDDING.??? This was perfection. 🥹 I grew up playing chess religiously so naturally, I ATE THIS UP. Ali is a queen & will forever be one of my favorite authors 🥰

[saffiyah✧ఌ · Rating 1 out of 5]

yeah i still haven't finished this review BUT i came back here because i realised that this book is already outdated: twitter is now x. we will all ignore that nobody calls it x and agree that the references were stupid and unnecessary. i also threw in a bunch of random sentences because why not?

__

guess who's back

back again

saffiyah's back

with an updated 1 star rating that shocked none of her friends (yes it's plural, don't act so surprised)

yes i still have not finished this review, which means that every time this pops up for you, it will be slightly different than the last time you saw it, and this review will haunt you just as this book haunts me.

“Until you work up the courage, it’s Schrödinger’s fucking”

warning: there may be spoilers in this review, i say ‘may’ because i can't be bothered to go make sure that there aren't. it shouldn't matter unless you plan on reading this book (which you won't after reading this review) but this review also may convince you to hate-read it (which is honestly totally understandable) and if you plan to hate-read, then go into the book equipped with the knowledge that this review will bring you (i say "knowledge" like i don't already have a lack of it) and i also hope that you laugh at my misery** because what else am i here for?

yes i did get rejected for this arc, and no i am not still salty about it.

__

mwahahaha i'm back for part 2 bitches - enjoy my incredibly detailed thoughts all chucked into one paragraph. i had less than 5000 characters okay

*deep breath* mal was very meh. nolan = adam carlsen 2.0 and i think i need a restraining order because he creeped me out with the whole talking about sex with her teenage sisters and telling mal what to feel and his whole backstory was that his grandad tried to kill him and then it's just never touched upon again. oz=hilarious. if my personality doesn't scream "defne" i have failed life, surprising exactly no one. sabrina was such a bitch she needed a good slap - her only redeeming quality was the schrodinger joke. the blabbermouth sister was forgettable considering i don't even remember her name (tis darcy). and koch was a misogynistic dick who was a very hateable villain. i might be dumb but i guessed that twist with him AND the solution to that twist miles away, lmao saffiyah 1 book 0 (although i bought and didn't dnf this shit so who's to say who's winning - although it is definitely unfortunately the book). and with easton i don't get it, why was she absent for like half the book? when she was first introduced i thought we would actually see their friendship and then she just ghosted her when she went to uni, girl what was the point of that? and there were more characters that i just could not care less about *exhales*

__

someone told me that they love the lists in my reviews, and i crave validation so here we are with all the things i hated:

1. large hands...

“taking his hand. It completely engulfs mine.”

“i’m wearing his gloves, because it’s freezing and i forgot to bring mine. they dwarf my hands, and nolan smiles at the sight.”

“large hands wrapped around my queen” - no i will not be providing context

“the purposeful way his large hands close around the chess pieces” - her search history rn: “10 different ways to tell your readers that a guy has big hands”

2. he's tall, dark-haired and sarcastic, and he might as well be adam carson with a new name- oh wait...

3. yes, there is no smut, but anytime sex was mentioned it was just incredibly cringey and awkward - wait, scratch that, this entire book was cringey and awkward and made it feel a whole lot less of a ya

4. that ending was so rushed and so stupid because she just summarised the most exhilarating part of the book IN A NEWS ARTICLE aka the most boring form of literature ever

5. incredibly weird dialogue. there was a whole page and a half about her sister's farting. and if you don't believe me yet, screw you and read this

“yes, mallory. unclench your butthole”
“i haven’t used the c-word in three years”
“rooks, amirite?”
“when he swallows, his throat bobs, a strong, mesmerizing movement that i notice because . . . i’m going bananapants?”
“oh, fuck. no no no. oh, fuckity fuck fuck”
“do they have a manager I can pull a karen with?”

how does anyone expect me to review this shit?

my attempt at an actual review (spoiler: it's not good):

so do i actually remember the plot? was there even a plot? no and no. but what i do remember is that these things were mentioned in the first 2 pages:
“i am reliably informed that you’re a gen z sex symbol” first sentence btw
“probably reading bill nye erotic fanfiction”
“i am expecting to see zendaya. harry styles. billie eilish. the entirety of bts, crammed on the couch of whatever late-night show the youtube autoplay algorithm decided to feed me”
“they went viral on tikTok”
“chesstok”

and i remember telling myself to dnf right there, but continuing to read because it is free of that cringe shit we call smut that is heavily featured in every AH book apart from this one (twas still cringey tho)

now, you may ask "why saffiyah, why do you continue to torture yourself with the shittiest books ever to be crafted by authors at 2 am with an empty head and no thoughts?"

and to that i say, because why not?

why not be a masochist reading the worst books ever written just to write an even crappier rant review in the hopes that someone might laugh at my pain? why not? give me one good reason as to why i shouldn't...

i'm going to ignore that perfectly reasonable reason

see i may have pulled out my hair, and i may have grown some grey hairs at my very ripe age of - wait i'm not telling you how old i am - whilst waiting in agony for the book to finally come to an incredibly unsatisfying end but that is okay

“why?” you ask in tears because of my pain, “why is it okay for you to suffer through a literary atrocity just for us?”

well to that, i could write a really deep, meaningful sounding paragraph along the lines of what was originally written here (which in hindsight gives me second hand embarrassment - hindsight is such a bitch) but tbh it's mainly because i find happiness in complaining because it is fun.

and i know that 2 out of the current 922 friends that i have (when the hell did i get 922 friends?) will enjoy reading this review, and read this review in it's entirety (yes i might be underestimating your attention spans) and for that i will persevere through book hell. (edit 1: now i have 1024 friends) (edit 2: anddd we're down to 906)

anyway you just read some random paragraphs that i wrote as an excuse because i have no review and because i have no proper recollection of this book. so to reward you for reading up to here and not throwing your electronic in frustration (although i can't be too sure about that), here are some cringey references that i found whilst suffering through 3 literary monstrosities (all of which i have written a review on for those of you who would like to witness more of my pain. oh, and if you find them, like them, comment on them, and send them to your mother). (edit: rereading said reviews is giving me second hand embarrassment so please don't.)

anyway the funny bit is here so sit back, relax and watch the shit show begin!!

“sabrina has fully embraced the vsco aesthetic”
“i’ve never not seen her once a week to play dragon age, or talk about dragon age, or watch dragon age playthroughs. maybe we need new hobbies.”

“guys” zach comes up to us from behind. “don’t freak out, but i’ve spotted some preeetty big names walking around. i’m talking international.”
easton lets out an exaggerated gasp “harry styles?”
“what? no”
“malala?”
“no”
“oh my God michelle obama? do you think she’ll sign my pocket constitution?”

"No more Timothée Chalamet posters staring creepily at me from the walls."
"Ed Sheeran body pillow"
"Leninist Marxism, or having a foursome with her dorm RA who happens to be a sapiosexual furry."
"it’s like that time i accidentally sexted mom"

They make it sound like Sawyer’s Thanos and Koch’s Tony Stark.”... “Obviously, they’re both Thanos.”

"The Hunger Games"
"Fast & Furious movie"
"It is I, Jennifer Lawrence at the Oscars."

“What is this, OnlyFans?"
"I have a secret writing career in furry erotica."

"Veronica Mars"
"At the start, I’m almost pumped. Reading about chess without playing has been some serious edging, a little like having a carrot dangled in front of me. Now I get to eat, and it’s going to be so damn good. Right?"

"paparazzi on Taylor Swift ca. 2016."

"going to the Krispy Kreme drive-through in my PJs to purchase my weight in donuts, then eating 90 percent of them with Mom while we watch Hoarders on YouTube."
"fanfiction on AO3"
"Sabrina the Teenage Bitch"
“that chess guy in all the TikToks.”
"like he’s Justin Bieber or something."
"Candy Crush"
“I do get several angsty late- night phone calls asking why Tanu just liked the shirtless picture of some Stanford swimmer on Instagram, or who’s the skank who keeps dueting Emil on TikTok.”

“I’d be better at it if I knew what the hell a TikTok duet is”
"We don’t quite kick Russia’s ass, but we spank it a little bit"

"Goodreads"
"Vanity Fair"
"Jeff Bezos"
"That’s the Washington Post and USE INCOGNITO MODE jeez what’s wrong with you. Boomer."

"I have to comb through more results than anyone who’s barely twenty years old should have, including a Tumblr of him as a cat, and explicit erotic fanfiction of him and Percy Jackson sixty- nining on a hippocampus.

"I’m Mother Teresa"
"Amazon review"
"Today show"
"Fracking, or the sustainable terraforming of Mars, or Malala’s book club?”
"Maybe if I pull a Lindsay Lohan?"

"he might as well be fracking on Jupiter."
“we had to put up with his cologne phase.”
“Sauvage by Christian Dior. Jesus.”
“He bathed in it.”
“I’m pretty sure he drank it.”
"Discord"
"Signs up Goliath for Piggie-Tinder.”
"My sisters are as happy to see him as they’d be Jungkook."
“Hot girl shit. You should really try to be online” Most of the other top-ten players have Twitch and YouTube channels. Nolan: Twitter and Instagram— both with NOT DIRECTLY MANAGED BY NOLAN SAWYER written in all caps in the bio. I bet his social media guy got sick of people DMing him nudes."
“is it Bill Gates again? Elle, he’s bad at chess.”
“do you and Nolan fall asleep together to scalp massage ASMR like Twitter says?”



_____________

the above shit in paragraph form just because:

Bill Nye erotic fanfiction, Zendaya, Harry Styles(x2), Billie Eilish, BTS, viral on TikTok, ChessTok, VSCO aesthetic, Dragon Age, Malala, Michelle Obama signing pocket constitutions, Timothée Chalamet, Ed Sheeran body pillows, Leninist Marxism, foursomes with sapiosexual furries, sexting mothers, Thanos, Tony Stark, The Hunger Games, Fast & Furious movie, Taylor Swift ca. 2016, Jennifer Lawrence at the Oscars, puking all over oneself, OnlyFans, secret writing careers in furry erotica, boba, Veronica Mars, some rooks pun, some chess sex pun, Krispy Kremes, watching Hoarders on YouTube, reading fanfiction on AO3, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Justin Bieber, Candy Crush, dueting on TikTok, spanking Russia's ass, Goodreads, Vanity Fair, Jeff Bezos, the Washington Post, pulling a Karen, Tumblr, a Tumblr of someone as a cat, an explicit erotic fanfiction someone and Percy Jackson sixty-nining on a hippocampus, Mother Teresa, Amazon reviews, the Today show, fracking, the sustainable terraforming of Mars, Malala’s book club, California wildfires being started by space lasers, pulling a Lindsay Lohan, fracking on Jupiter, Sauvage by Christian Dior, Discord, Piggie-Tinder, Jungkook, Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, DMing nudes, Bill Gates being bad at chess, falling asleep to scalp massage ASMR, The Little Mermaid and many more that I have definitely missed out on


now lets laugh at what my thoughts were at the beginning of the book. Look at how stupid i was! look at how i believe that this book may become better (it doesn't)

pre-review: (all the new stuff is in italics for clarity)

Do I have enough time to read another book right now?
No. (yeah bitch you didn't, and on top of that you read 3 terrible books at the same time)

Do I have the sanity/patience to read yet another Ali Hazelwood?
No. (yeah bitch, you will never have the sanity to read an AH novel - but you continue to read them all because your STUPID)

Do I love chess?
No. (yeah bitch, you hate chess, and have suffered from a lack of sufficient brain cells to actually learn any of the rules)

Will there be cringey smut in sight?
... wait ... no (yeah bitch, hi its me from the future, um well - its still going to be cringey)

So have I already read the first chapter?

...

ʸᵉˢ (well bitch that was dumb, wasn't it? you should have looked at the first page and burnt every copy of this book to the ground with those incredibly uncomfortable heels you always say you're going to get rid of, but never do because it was expensive af.)

______

📢TO SUM UP📢

- i'm hilarious despite all evidence proving contrary
- as of late, i have realized my affinity for parentheses
- i love adding gifs into my reviews because they take up a bunch of space
- i should get better at reading blurbs and deciding not to read them because "reigning bad boy of chess" was a red flag flying in my face...
- i will continue to read every AH novel just because
- i'm also going to reread them next year
- i'm very dumb
- learn from my mistakes

the bottom line: ms hazelwood saw the assignment and then went out of her way to dodge it - you are all very welcome for my suffering...

idk what this incomplete review turned into but i hope you enjoyed it?

also this review will never be finished but will constantly be updated as i try to finish it and everyone will end up reading a different version of this review😭i’m sorry in advance

[**DID I PREDICT THE NAME FOR ALI'S NEW FMC!!!!????]
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AH book/novella reviews: (more to come when i reread them)

under one roof review here
stuck with you review here
below zero review here

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Ali Hazelwood would like me to begin by reminding you the love interest in this book is quite hulking and fit. It’ll come up a lot. Like massive arms and massive hands, which is how you know he is packing a massive…rook to knight combo. That’s how chess works, right? I’m not really sure but that is what is so great about Check & Mate because even if you previously had no interest in chess this book is so charming and energetic about the game that you’ll have a great time no matter what. I am absolute dog shit at chess—my phone app has beaten me enough to accept this—but I am delighted that Hazelwood said “you know what should be sexy? CHESS!” Hazelwood has made a name for herself with a wildly successful series of spicy adult novels featuring young women navigating fields typically gatekept by men and finding romance and here she enters the realm of YA where 18 year old Mallory returns to the world of chess, rusty from a long hiatus inflicted by shame and keeping her family afloat. Now she must face-off against misogynistic expectations and chess world champion slash thirst trap icon Nolan “I swear I’m not an Adam Driver Insert” Sawyer. The “Kingkiller”. The man with the big, meaty, sexy hands (remember this). But also the man she embarrassed by defeating in her first match, making her the new, hot topic about Chess World. Hazelwood writes with bubbly wit and while the constant corporate branding name drops might make one wonder if this book is collecting ad revenue, it's a fresh and fun rom-com that deals with themes of teen parentification, friendship anxieties and being thrust into a judgemental spotlight where the personal life you can barely keep from falling apart is suddenly the topic of social media speculation. Check & Mate is as corny as it is horny but, honestly, it's also just a good time that knows its audience well.

‘His movements, when he touches the pieces, are precise, economical, strong. I hate myself for noticing that.’

Girl, trust me, we all noticed that. Anyways, I found the premise of this to be quite promising and it lives up to it. It’s almost interesting enough to uphold the reluctant rivals to lovers engine that drives the story. While most realistic-fiction YA tends towards a high school setting, it was refreshing to see this being set in chess tournaments and libraries (‘God bless libraries.’ Agreed). Part of the premise is that chess is now the Big Thing thanks to Tiktok and Sawyer, the bad boy of chess, for inspiring a lot of content around his looks and temper tantrums (Kylo Ren behavior…), which, sure, I could believe that happening in this post-The Queen’s Gambit-fame, social media influenced world. And the youth getting really into chess is a super cool idea, I’d love that to happen. It also helps raise the stakes in this book because chess matches are covered like they are the Super Bowl and the cash prize is enormous. And so are Sawyer’s arms.

The financial opportunities are key to our gal Mal’s motivations, and shd has more or less vanished from her own life in order to raise her aggressively-tween sisters and care for her sick mother. Hazelwood presents the hardships of a parentified teen who feels cornered by her own life that has been bent towards constant service of others to the point that taking time for herself is guilt-inducing. But all of chess is cloaked in a sense of shame for her and she hadn’t played in years, though the reason behind this is something Hazelwood only teases until the big reveal late in the novel (though its so hinted at I doubt the reason will come as a surprise to anyone after the first 20 pages). Hazelwood captures being burnt out and frustrated well while also making detangling all her insecurities a coming-of-age narrative nestled into the overall plot.

‘There’s lots to consider. My feelings about chess, for one, which I cannot disentangle from my feelings for Dad. They are twisted, knotted together. There’s pain. Regret. Nostalgia. Guilt. Hate. Above all, there’s anger. So much anger inside me. Mountains of it, entire blasing landscapes without a single furyless corner in them.’

The YA genre suits Hazelwood well, being able to turn on the firehose of emotions and make the more immature or quippy moments read as more age appropriate as it does in some of the adult novels Hazelwood often gets compared with. I enjoyed that the characters are older than most YA, being in that sort of anxiety-ridden purgatory between high school and “being an adult”. A great example of this is Mallory’s friendship with Easton and the interplay of Mallory feeling FOMO as Easton goes off to college while Easton worries she is being similarly phased out due to Mallory’s rising-star adventures. While Hazelwood is known for being pretty spicy she tones it back a lot here to suit a YA audience in ways that never feel like self-censorship. There’s still a lot of waistband grabbing (those big, manly hands…) and brief steamy moments though its mostly fade-to-black. Perhaps the lack of sex in the book also helped focus on ensuring the plot held up and was engaging. Truthfully, I couldn’t put this down.

Still, I liked these characters—the dialog is fun and snarky without feeling like it needs to only be one-liners to the point of absurdity—and while Mal and Sawyer’s relationship sometimes seems to conveniently progress despite them really only talking about chess its all pretty cute. Sawyer’s character works well as an example of misconstrued perceptions on a person and behind the mystique he is actually quite a lovable person who treats Mallory well. He’s also possibly an Adam Driver-cast insert as both Driver and Star Wars get a call-out in text. This seems to be Hazelwood’s thing and The Love Hypothesis began as Star Wars Reylo fanfiction in a STEM field and minus Kylo Ren’s penchant for war crimes. Plus we have the whole Mallory as a sort of “chosen one” who defeats temper tantrum boy who has trained for years which isn’t NOT the plot of Force Awakens if you squint at it. Though Sawyer’s grandfather and his mental health issues come up, thankfully he wasn’t notable for having committed a genocide. Have I mentioned that this guy is hulking?

‘Most women in chess decide to skip these events and complete in women-only tournaments. I bet you’re wondering why.’

While Sawyer is supportive and sweet, the rest of the chess world is a minefield of misogyny for Mallory to navigate. Journalists love to ask her ‘how does it feel to be a women in chess?’ and her first experience with Koch—essentially the villain of the book—is him asking if she beat Sawyer by dressing evocatively. Good on Hazelwood for addressing the extra pressures and judgment on a woman in male-coded fields while inspiring young women to embrace their hobbies and strengths and achieve in whatever they want to do. But also good on her for making Koch so fun to hate. I mean, this guy is basically some teenage Ben Shapiro character twiddling his evil mustache (okay Koch doesn’t have a mustache but you get the idea) and being insufferable to everyone. You’ll want to punch him. A few times.

There are a lot of complaints online about the use of slang and pop culture references here, which is whatever. Does it seem like a sort of eye rolling technique to be “this is how teens talk right?”, sure. But I do want to start a conspiracy theory that books will have product inserts as the new form of tv commercials because Hazelwood name-checks so many corporate brands and highly-specific product names that it feels weird. It’s like when the kid is sleep-talking brands in White Noise and I kept joking that this book is generating ad revenue to keep the publishing industry rolling.

After having read Colleen Hoover and Emily Henry this year, I figured I should complete the trifecta and read an Ali Hazelwood and I’m pretty glad I did. Overall, this was pretty fun. It moves at a quick pace (shocking for a story about chess games, I know) and has some pretty fun ups-and-downs while following a fairly formulaic romance plotline. Sure I could probably nitpick stuff about plot holes or whatever, but at the end of the day that seems beside the point to me. I’m judging this based on my rule I’ve just now invented called the A Knights Tale Rule: believability is beside the point when you came to laugh along to a story about Heath Ledger looking great on a horse. This is fun and cute and I had a pleasant time reading it. It also achieves its main goal: making chess seem sexy. So excuse me, I’m going to go get my ass kicked by my chess app again and pretend I’m Gary Kasparov playing against Deep Blue.

3.5/5

“Chess is a bad idea.”
“Why?”
“Look where it got me.”
“It got you here. To me.”

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

perfect, perfect, perfect

[Kristan · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars rounded up.

If you know nothing about chess but enjoyed watching The Queen’s Gambit and want something far less tragic, you would probably like Check & Mate.

Overall, I really enjoyed the storyline and setting of this book. Though, if you are familiar with the pattern followed in Ali Hazelwood’s other books, you can probably guess the “twist” that comes towards the end.

The character dynamics among the MC’s family felt really interesting and made Mallory feel much more like a real person. It made me wish we had gotten more of the same with Sawyer’s found family outside of the interactions with Mallory so I could see him as more than an obscenely tall, love interest and chess machine.

In case you are wondering if there is any variety in the character descriptions from her other books, I feel I should point out that Ms. Hazelwood remains consistent in her writing. Paraphrased examples: “His hands are massive” and “I couldn’t miss him because he stands a head everyone else in the room”

I will likely continue to read her books because they’re fun, typically light reads, but I wish she would give us some diversity in her characters. Give us some variety to match the real world, please!

Edit 1: we’ve got a cover, description and a release date, November 7, 2023!

Original: No description, no release date, no question about whether or not I’ll read this book. 💕

[chan ☆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

super cute! this might be the most balanced and least fan fic-y of ali’s books. i will say some of themes seem less YA but since im not a huge YA reader im not mad.

how is chess always sexy?

[manju ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

not particularly good, not horrible. just average. middling, if you will. but you know what — i enjoyed it. the only other book i’ve read by ali hazelwood is the love hypothesis, which i liked but found especially forgettable. the characters were flat and didn’t have much personality, the ethics of the relationship were questionable, the smut was truly some of the worst i have ever read, etc.

this one is far better for several reasons, but unfortunately, it still falls short.

mallory greenleaf: i love her. she’s a three dimensional character with clearly defined interests, motives, fears, and desires, and she is incredibly easy to root for. selfless to the point of being self sacrificing, she puts her family above all else. she fits the classic older sister archetype who shoulders the weight of the world and assumes the family responsibilities because if she doesn’t, everything will fall apart. my heart ached for her throughout the entire book. i just wanted her to be a kid for a second. to enjoy her youth and pursue what she loved, even though it may not have been the most practical thing for someone in her situation. i loved her character development too. seeing her go from hesitant and fearful of playing chess again bc of the memories to embracing her love for it was so heartwarming 🥹 that being said, she was a bit dense at times and made some (very) questionable decisions. the whole third act breakup?? SO unnecessary. i was so frustrated with her bc how are you going to get mad about that?? it didn’t even make sense 😭😭

nolan sawyer: this man. THIS man 😩😩😩 i love him. he was amazing. i don’t have much to say bc that’s all that needs to be said.

the romance: so cute. so wholesome. so pure 🥹 i don’t know what it is about young adult romance that gets me — perhaps it’s because i never got to experience that kind of love and part of me is still a little bitter about it they’re young and naive and unsure of themselves but somehow still full of hope. this book reminded me why i love this genre so much and why i will continue to love it, even as i enter my twenties.

the plot: i know very little about chess. did i have any idea what anyone was talking about? no. did i still enjoy it? you bet i did. i was thoroughly invested from the very first page to the last. the chess competitions were so fun to read about, and i loved seeing mallory do what she’s best at.

the gen z references: no. cut them out. get an editor, preferably someone who understands that adding pop culture references in every sentence just makes for a tedious, infuriating read. it would have been so much better without them.

”i’m tiny and he’s huge 🥺”: we get it. she’s so small she’s practically nonexistent and he’s the biggest creature to ever roam the earth. this shit drove me insane — i was about to claw my eyeballs out and bang my head against a wall and set the book on fire. i’m done. i’m DONE.

⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂ ⠂⠄⠄⠂☆

a man who doesn’t feel emasculated when a woman beats him at something and instead admires her for it and even falls in love with her?? where can i find one 😩😩

rtc! but go read maya’s stunning review <3

i never know if these links work so i apologize if they don’t 😔

⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂⠁⠁⠂⠄⠄⠂ ⠂⠄⠄⠂☆

putting my crs on hold for this it better deliver

[Yun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not that I would've expected any less from Ali Hazelwood, but Check & Mate was absolutely the adorable and delightful romcom I needed.

Mallory used to love playing chess, but she hasn't played a single game in four years. So when she accidentally faces the #1 ranked player in the world and completely annihilates him, she's rightfully shocked. But it's one thing to stumble into a one-time win, it's another thing altogether to actually commit to playing the game. So what if she can't get Nolan out of her head and he wants a rematch? Mallory has disavowed chess, and she has no intention of changing her mind.

What can I say here that I haven't said about Ali Hazelwood a thousand times before? I read her books for the banter, the snark, and the puns, and she delivers every single time. I feel like I always have a permanent smile affixed to my face, just grinning like an idiot, every time I pick up one of her stories. And let me tell you, I'm not above having a good time.

Instead of being the usual STEM representatives, this time our characters are chess players. Now I know next to nothing about the game, but that didn't stop me from fully connecting with the characters and clapping and cheering for their successes. In particular, Mallory was an easy heroine to root for, and I was so there for her.

In terms of conflicts, I was happy to see that Hazelwood didn't rely on her default miscommunication trope like usual. Instead, Mallory was knocking on the doors of martyrdom, and while that did cause my eyes to roll a few times, the story moved along speedily enough that I didn't end up suffering any permanent eye damage.

Since this is YA, my biggest concern going in was whether this would feel too young to me. But that totally ended up being a nonissue. The story reads just like any other Hazelwood, but with the spicy scenes removed. It even contained the obligatory main character who wasn't into sex until they met "the one," a staple of Hazelwood's at this point. But if your concern is coming from the other direction (i.e. should I let my teen read this?), well that's a different conversation altogether.

It's so nice to have an author you can rely on anytime you're slumping and in need of a frothy, fun, but never frivolous read. And so Ali Hazelwood delivers again, just when I need her the most.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
See also, my thoughts on:
The Love Hypothesis
Love on the Brain
Love, Theoretically
Deep End

The STEMinist Novellas:
Under One Roof ✧ Stuck with You ✧ Below Zero

Amazon Original Stories:
Cruel Winter with You ✧ Hot for Slayer
~~~~~~~~~~~~

✧ Connect with me ✧ Instagram ✧
✧ This was a pick for my BOTM box. Get your first book for $5 here.

[Cara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Check & Mate written by Ali Hazelwood was just the book I needed. This was such a light and fluffy YA novel with heart breaking moments, but it made me laugh so much, I had tears streaming down my face. Okay, y'all, don't come for me. I know many people didn't love this book, but I absolutely adored it for many reasons. I know absolutely NOTHING about chess, but that's okay because Check & Mate teaches you so much about the sport. I've heard from many people that Ali Hazelwood writes very cringe smutty scenes, but I had never read her books before this one, but let me tell you, this book had no smut. If i'm going to be honest, I went into this book completely blind, which I think made me love it even more. I couldn't stop laughing the entire time, the characters had the best banter, the Gen-Z references had me cackling so much. The gorgeous pink cover is so gorgeous and I just fell in love. For my first time reading a book written by Ali Hazelwood, I can finally say I had the best experience. I laughed so much my stomach hurt, I had tears streaming down my face from all the laughing. I truly loved this book so much, it was cute, fluffy, fun, hilarious, and just so good. For those of you that haven't read this book yet, do yourself a huge favor and pick it up immediately, I can't recommend it enough.

GEN-Z REFERENCES
*Snapchat
*BTS
*OnlyFans
*Twitter
*Tiktok
*Taylor Swift
*Billie Eilish
*Ed Sheeran body pillow (WHAT?)
*Candy Crush
*This is just the basic list, but there's plenty more.

Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. The destruction of chess destroyed her family for the worst. During a tournament, Mallory caught her father kissing another woman, meanwhile he had a family of his own. Since then, Mallory's father has unexpectedly passed away. After the sport of chess led to the destruction of her family four year earlier, Mallory's focus is now on her mom, her sisters, paying the bills, and her dead end job as a car mechanic to keep the lights on. Mallory is the oldest of three daughters, she plays surrogate mother as her mother is sick and can't really move, let alone take care of her other two daughters. Mallory's sister, Sabrina, drove me insane. Sabrina was totally ungrateful and only cared about herself. As Mallory was working her butt of trying to make ends meet, all Sabrina cared about was getting her derby bills paid. I couldn't help but cheer and love Mallory, I just wanted to reach into my kindle and give her the biggest hug ever, with no words. Mallory's main focus is on her mom and sisters, but that is until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and wipes the board clean against Nolan Sawyer. Nolan is completely shocked that Mallory beat him, but he wants to keep playing her over and over again.

Okay, how did Mallory and Nolan play a game for seven hours straight? The only thing I can do for seven hours is read and sleep. Nolan Sawyer is known as the "Kingkiller" of chess, currently the world champion and reigning bad boy of chess. Nolan is a tall, grumpy, and temperamental chess player on the outside, but on the inside he is a soft, sugary cinnamon roll. The only thing I had a issue with is that Ali Hazelwood would always talk about how tall Nolan was, like okay, I get it, Nolan is tall as fuck. Nolan was a sweetheart, he might be the bad boy of chess and the world champion, but he wanted to keep playing Mallory over and over to secretly help her become the best female chess player in the world. The things Nolan did for Mallory just warmed my heart so much. Cinnamon roll sweetheart, Nolan Sawyer, had my heart in a choke hold. I couldn't help but love Mallory and Nolan , they were just two precious souls. Nolan was very sarcastic and very blunt during press interviews, he was never afraid to speak what was on his mind. Despite Mallory being back in her chess world, she wants to keep her family out of it, but that's kind of hard when there's tabloids of Mallory and Nolan going around. Mallory and Nolan were just have a conversation, but people made the picture of them together go viral like Mallory and Nolan were dating.

[Ri ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

“When I’m with you, Mallory, everything is different. When I’m with you, I want to play more than I want to win.”

It feels like I've been deceived by Ali and this book. My first anticipated read of this month and this book definitely wasn't what I expected. I was so excited to read it because it is written by Ali and she said it's an angsty rivals to lovers story in chess world but it was more about chess tournaments and chess championships than Mallory and Nolan and their rivals to lovers romance. The plot had so much potential but the execution of it was a bit off and unsatisfactory. How can you expect me to read 350 pages about the never ending chess tournaments and how FIDE and all the things worked in chess world. There was just too much info dumping about it. I wanted more focus on character's development and romantic part of the story.

“He leans toward me over the table, dark eyes earnest, stars traveling on his skin. “Do you know how incredible you are?”

Ali seriously need to stop using Gen Z references like TikTok, OnlyFans, Riverdale, AO3, Discord, Jeff Bezos, Timothée Chalamet and Cole Sprouse in her books. I was so close to dnf this book because of these refrences. Honestly I never had any problem with Gen Z refrences in books but the way Ali tried to put these in almot every sentence and conversation between the characters made this book a bit cringe. My favourite things in this book were Nolan Sawyer, the romance part and Mallory's little sister Darcy. She was so adorably hilarious.

“Why would you keep something that makes you think of me?” I feel him shrug.
“Because I think of you anyway, Mallory.”

The romance was cute and adorable. It was young love and even swoon-worthy but there wasn't much rivalry between Mallory and Nolan like the way Ali promoted it. There were some cute amd funny moments which I absolutely adored but I did not like the way Mallory treated him sometimes. The way Nolan cared for her and made sure she got the fellowship in chess was just so precious. He wanted to play chess with her and she denied him every single time and I understand her reasons but Nolan did everything he could to earn her trust. Nolan deserves so much better. Also I hated how he was more like a side character in this book than the "actual" side characters which is the worst that could happen to a mmc.

He turns us around and then we’re on the unmade bed, the twisted sheets digging into my spine. “You’ll be playing the most beautiful chess I’ve ever seen, and I dream about having you under me. It’s fucking confusing.”

➸ Nolan Sawyer

Nolan the 20 year old number one world chess player, is a millionaire, the quiet and moody boy who is secretly a cinnamon roll for Mallory, was obsessed with Mallory because he lost a match to her and wanted her and did everything to have her, wanted to play a chess match with her and even begged her for a match because only she made him feel alive, spends time with Mallory's family and treats them like his own, knows how to complement and treats a woman. He is a perfect man.

“Are you real?” The air between us swells, overflows. “Sometimes I’m scared that I imagined you. Sometimes I think you’re only in my head.”

➸ Mallory Greenleaf

The oldest sibling in her family who had to take care of her two younger sisters and her mother so I'm sure you know what I'm trying to tell you about her here. She had family issues and mostly daddy issues and on top of that commitment issues and it took her years to finally talk about them with her family and stop hating herself for them. I didn't like her but I also feel like she never deserves any of the shit she went through for years.

“He studies me for longer than is comfortable. Galaxies pass through his black eyes, and I wonder whether this second could last a century. Whether the universe could be just me and him, understanding each other on a forever loop.”

The ending was a "typical Ali Hazelwood ending" with a third act breakup over a misunderstanding which can be cleared by talking but as usual the Fmc is too tired, too betrayed to even listen what mmc have to say in his defense. But then she realises she made a mistake and goes back to the mmc. I already knew what was about to happen in the end.

Overall this book was fine and even enjoyable sometimes. I liked how Ali tried to step out of her usual "women in stem" books and tried something different. You might love this more than me if you are able to ignore all the Gen Z refrences and all the never ending chess tournaments.

“Chess is a bad idea.”
“Why?”
“Look where it got me.”
“It got you here. To me.”

[honestlysophie · Rating 1 out of 5]

a millennial writing fanfiction about gen z

[aleksandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

Listen, was it perfect? No. Did this book have too many Gen Z references, including TikTok, OnlyFans, Riverdale, AO3, Discord, and some people I don't want to hear about in my romance books, like Jeff Bezos, Timothée Chalamet and Cole Sprouse? Yes. Especially at the beginning, when I thought I would literally put this book down because of this. Didn't I particularly like the heroine? Also yes.

But, did this book have Nolan Sawyer, the number one chess player in the world at only twenty years old, who was rich, the quiet and intimidating one who was obsessed with the heroine and was able to do anything for her. Yes. Nolan Sawyer, my new type and dream man? Yes, yes and yes.

"He turns us around and then we’re on the unmade bed, the twisted sheets digging into my spine. “You’ll be playing the most beautiful chess I’ve ever seen, and I dream about having you under me. It’s fucking confusing.”

I just feel to my knees.

"His full lips tremble for the barest second. “Are you real?” The air between us swells, overflows. “Sometimes I’m scared that I imagined you. Sometimes I think you’re only in my head.”

I was pretty much crying there.

“Why would you keep something that makes you think of me?” I feel him shrug. “Because I think of you anyway, Mallory.”

I just feel to my knees. Again.

“Chess is a bad idea.”
“Why?”
“Look where it got me.”
“It got you here. To me.”

I literally blushed and screamed into my pillow. I don't remember the last time this happened.

"I roll my eyes. “No follow-up questions.”
He leans toward me over the table, dark eyes earnest, stars traveling on his skin. “Do you know how incredible you are?”

If someone told me that, I would start crying.


In overall this book was worth reading for one person. Nolan Sawyer, aka my new husband. That’s it.

[buket · Rating 2 out of 5]

i don’t like mallory, i don’t like her ungrateful sisters, i don’t like genz references which was obviously written by someone who never met a genz. i don’t like endless chess facts which is somehow boring than other scientific informations in her books. i don’t like how at least %40 of the book didn’t even involve nolan. i don’t like the ending because what kind of ending is that????? never been more unsatisfied with an ending🤚🏻

i love nolan🩷💗😍💋 precious baby. you deserve 5 stars but i’m giving 2 for your little role in this romance. he was sweet, caring and honestly a really good boyfriend. i don’t want to discuss if mallory deserves him because it’s 3am and i spent unnecessary time reading this book.

so that’s all. i’m just gonna leave three cute quotes from nolan for your suffering through this dumb review 😔

“Because when I’m with you, Mallory, everything is different. When I’m with you, I want to play more than I want to win.”

“I’ve got you, Mallory. Nothing bad is going to happen. You can let yourself want this, because you already have it. You have me.”

“Touch- take rule,” he murmurs. He stands, too. Every step back I take is one forward for him.
“I— What?”
“You touched me. Can’t stop now. Touch- take rule.”



pre review
edit:

a YA??? okay ali hazelwood thanks for writing something different and making me wrong

August 23,2022

okay hit me with another guy falls first woman in stem book i'm ready💅🏽

[Nour (FREE PALESTINE) Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had so much fun hate buddy reading this with my fav yappers, you know who you are 👀🤭 (links at the bottom <33)

★★☆☆☆ → how do I put this nicely… um ew, this book was ew….
I’m gonna go start a fire, burn this book and make some s’mores. Anyone wanna come?

♟️ plot ♟️
Mallory doesn’t play chess anymore because of past traumas (like I care 🙄) but ends up beating the world champion Nolan and then she starts playing for money because she has a sad life.

♟️ mallory ♟️
Ummmm she’s got to go… 🔫😃
Mallory tries to be this petty girl who’s taking over the burden of her mom and does everything herself because iTs HeR rEsPoNsIbILiTy Of CoUrSe. Idk if I was supposed to feel bad for her… because I did not. Like at all. I LAUGHED when she had a mental breakdown 🤭
The book would’ve been so nice if she would’ve just shut up.
She’s annoying, she talks to herself too much, she’s too stubborn, she’s delusional, she’s disrespectful, she just EW.
I will admit, her family drove me crazy, but she deserves it 😊

♟️ nolan ♟️
At the start, I didn’t mind Nolan. I loved his cocky, world champion, I’m-better-than-you personality. BUT IT JUST DISAPPEARED. Like I wanted MORE of a rivalry or SOMETHING, but he was just fine??
AND DOES THIS MAN KNOW THE MEANING OF CONSENT??? like I know she did it first, but he went soooo far in 2 secs, like bro… CHILL PLEASE 💀
"You touched me, can’t stop now. Touch take rule" BRO WHY ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT CHESS RN??? WHY WHY WHY?? THATS NOT HOW IT WORKS 😭 I’m going insane guys

♟️ overall ♟️
I hate how the author marked this as YA (ahem it wasnt quite ya) and tried to connect with people in the age category, saying things like Ed Sheeran (body pillow, mind you), VISCO, Jeff Bezos, Discord, friggin BTS, yada yada. She failed. Like miserably.
I think I got 5x stupider reading this, but I had fun hating it.

brb me and liepa are gonna go play chess now 🤭 (I’m better than her no I’m not...)

꒰♟️꒱ؘ ࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ

( liepa, the only one who read it for the br. zoe, at least you tried (dnfed at 10%). maggie, she already read it lol. peachie, stupid library. liv, sarah, izzy, harper, didnt read it, but wanted to be mentioned smh.)

[maya ⋆⭒˚｡⋆ · Rating 4 out of 5]

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ♟️ about my first impression ♟️ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

before we dive into it, i think i need to be honest with all of you, my loves, unfortunately, i cannot be considered a reliable source in this review since my obsession with everything that ali hazelwood writes is all over the place (please don't cry, nor grieve for me) - even though, her books are not that good (yes, i’m talking about the random little novellas she has published recently - shrugs and sights deeply). like i was saying, although she's not the most creative and innovative person i’ve ever seen in my whole life, her books never fail to miss with me (i'm talking dead serious with you rn) bc they're always able to get me out of the ugliest and most disturbing reading slumps - and thank fck for that (cheers). and i don't really know what’s the secret ingredient to her stories, but they’re always so lighthearted, fluffy, cute and witty - the time flies by without you noticing stg. we know - from her extremely subtle hints - that she has a huge fetish (and I mean huuuuge) for giants (bigfoot style) and polly pocket dolls, but, i don't know, there are people out there who get off on feet photos, so you know, it could be worse, guys - but could also be better ngl. that being said, the moment i found out that she would be writing a book considered to be outside of her comfort zone (insert STEM universe here), i NEEDED to buy this work of art and read it immediately and viscerally cause i really wanted to know what she would come up with in a different trope and in a different universe, especially with characters that were younger than the ones she was used to write. and on top of that (!!) chess was involved? take my card and do what you want with it. however, i think everyone heard that ali decided to incorporate a dictionary of references that she thought were young, funny and cool (stop that, mom), invoking timothee chalamet's name more times than the main character's ginormous hands around that small tiny coffee mug. i kept thinking to myself that this would shred my reading to pieces, but you kind of get used to it (exposure therapy maybe? idk) and the story becomes engaging enough to make you forget that nolan is considered the sexiest boy of our generation and that there are several edits of him on tiktok - and it’s probably playing end game by taylor swift as a background audio.

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ 🎀 about the characters 🎀 ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

mallory greenleaf. our main character. our chess prodigy that no longer plays. our child playing the mother role for her bratty sisters. our daughter with daddy issues and, therefore, commitment issues (go get that therapy, pet). mal is sweet, smart, funny, kind, hardworking and extremely down to earth - in another words, it’s a very hard and difficult task not to adore her and cheer for her throughout the book - which sometimes makes you want to smack her head on the table so hard that she would maybe stop being so dense and selfless - PLEASE for once in your life be a spoiled, bitchy and ego centrical teenage girl that only thinks of herself (breathes in and out to calm herself down). once you get through that, her unconditional love for her family is, indeed, really admirable and cute, the things she gave up for them and the shitty jobs she took for them, all of her sacrifices will make your heart ache and break a little. and that’s the reason why we love to see her finding herself once again in chess - this is not a spoiler because it is painfully obvious that she will play again eventually - like it’s a chess book, someone has to play at some point, right? and about that, don’t be afraid of not understanding shit, ali actually makes a great job in this part - as she did with stem terms in her previous books.

nolan sawyer. our second main character. our timothee chalamet goodbye, goodbye, goodbye, adam driver, you were bigger than the whole sky of chess. our supposedly moody and bad tempered privileged boy that is secretly (but not so secretly) mal’s great admirer (god bless his tormented soul). nolan is unapologetic himself, confident, smart, sarcastic, a bit closed off but, nonetheless, a great friend to his loved ones- and did i mention that he’s the tallest man ever with this huge hands? cause he is - just so you know. this poor boy has had it enough, he’s tired, he’s bored, he’s almost entering an existencial mid life crisis in his teenage years - like can you imagine being so intelligent and gifted that playing chess with other grandmasters (they’re like the cool and talented kids of chess) put’s you into a sleeping coma since their moves are so predictable to you. enters mallory. who manages to wipe the floor with him (her words, not mine) during a match. the boy is whipped and he knows it. - she rizzed him up with a checkmate, who knows.

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ♟️ about the romance ♟️ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

it’s cute. it’s sweet. it’s swoon worthy. it’s young love. it’s legs being kicked. it’s giggles being smothered. it’s cheeks being painted crimson and scarlet red. and it’s PG 13 - don’t you go crying and booing in my doorstep, now, please, because their interactions and affectionate moments and late night conversations and “can’t keep my hands/eyes to myself” are, indeed very lovable and heartwarming and - color me surprised - enough to make you love love love the romance. do we have a third act breakup? do we have a fall out? and does it happens in the last few pages? does she run away? can’t tell you that since, duh, spoilers, but what i’ll say is that whatever happened in the end didn’t bother me and it was actually necessary for mal’s growth - so there you have it, my little spoiler munchkin.

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ 🎀 about my final thoughts 🎀 ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

as you know, it was a four stars rating for me (clap your hands and make noise) since i truly loved and enjoyed it every second of it (there were some moments though that his hands wer- never mind i got distracted) and devoured the book like i haven’t been fed in ages - almost like a small victorian child going through the bubonic plague in the mid 1300s, but it was just me in a reading slump. but, maya, the references were so annoying and uncalled for - someone whined in the crowd (plot twist: it was me whining), now, don’t you worry my child, like i said in the beginning, you really get used to it and start to brush it off eventually, promise you (and cross my heart). and i think it’s pretty obvious that i’ll be recommending this gorgeous book to my lovely gals out here, but just for the ones that tend to enjoy this cutesy type of book, the ones that love wes bennett you know - if you only like dark romance, this shit is not for you, bub, however, if you go both ways, then you should definitely give it a shot, it’s no ”i’m-going-to-make-your-life-miserable-and-spit-on-you-and-humillate-you-but-you-must-know-that-i-love-you-secretly” (which i vouch for, as a matter of fact, and am very into it also - will always love you darius) but more of a “i-know-that-i’m-staring-at-you-like-i-hate-you-but-in-reality-i-love-everything-you-do” kind of thing.

no and who tf is the girl with the “i heart rome” shirt talking to mal in the end? she has to be important - as in another character of the ali universe - i need to know

⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆ ♟️ about my favorite quotes ♟️ ⋆｡ﾟ☁︎｡⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡⋆

he leans forward, obviously charmed by this young man who's built like an athlete, thinks like a theoretical physicist, and has the net worth of a silicon valley entrepreneur. an unusual, handsome prodigy who won't admit to being special.

”i..checkmate." that's when he lifts his eyes to mine for the first time. they are dark, and clear, and serious. and they remind me of a few important, long-forgotten things.

he leans in. his face is just a few inches from mine. “i want to play chess with you," he repeats. his voice is lower. Closer. deeper. “please, mallory.”

”i am serious. do you realize how exceptional you are, mallory?" “what are you—" “i have never seen anything like what you do with chess. never.

i smile, close my eyes, and win without ever being in jeopardy. it takes me eighteen moves. “she was a million miles ahead of me," thagard-vork says at the post-game analysis press conference.

”i’m afraid that i always forget to tell you," mom says in the end, "but i love you. and i couldn't be prouder of you." i want to say it back, how much i love her and miss her, not only having her near, but ... being someone's daughter, taken care of, protected. having someone standing between me and the world.

”chess is a bad idea." “why?" “look where it got me." “it got you here. to me."

my heart revs up to a million. nearly beats out of my chest with everything that i’m feeling for him. i don't want to leave. i want to be with him. i want to sleep with him in this bed. i want to wake up to him pulling me into himself. i want to eat the overcooked pasta he makes and share his toothpaste and know...

𓏲 . ˙ ˖ 🎀 ꒱ pre-review 𓏲 . ˙ ˖ 🎀 ꒱

no bc i loved it - despite the bizarre amount of references (pack it up next time, ali) - since obsessing over silly little romance books is my whole personality 🧚🏼‍♀️🍭✨

rtc

𓏲 . ˙ ˖ ♟️ ꒱ pre-reading 𓏲 . ˙ ˖ ♟️꒱

it is truly wild to see the (!) ali hazelwood out of her habitat 🗣️ navigating this with low expectations to avoid disappointments 🫰🏼

[Zoë · Rating 3 out of 5]

an incomplete list of all the pop culture referances in Check & Mate

zendaya, harry styles, billie eilish, BTS, youtube, latenight shows, james corden/jimmy kimmel, tiktok, chess.com, riverdale (what feels like thousands of times), lara jean, all the boys ive loved before, fanfiction, AO3, tumblr, percy jackson, jungkook, taylor swift, ari aster, hobbits, meghan markle, and many more i am sure i did not notice.

while i dont hugely mind pop culture referance it definitely dates your book, when all these things are no longer relevent people most likely will not read this book because of that fact, therefore it is always wise to leave out pop culture referances so it will be timeless.

the relationship itself was cute, but it also felt so rushed imo, i dont know if that because i read it quite fast or not but to me I felt that the characters could have been fleshed out a little bit more before they started to have their wee romance.

I did like both characters, Sawyer was adorbale and the he falls first & harder trope is always good and I love where the character at the top of his field gets challenged by someone. However I feel like i didn't reallyknow them, but got illuded to trauma both had.

sadly, i wish i enjoyed this more, the more i think about it the more i dislike it so im going to stop here. i'll keep my happy memories. ali ill be back for the next one 🫡






previous review
anyways here is my message to Ali Hazelwood on book ideas she could use while still staying in the relm of science.

number one: two reaserches that are best friends (shocker right they are not eniemes that have a missunderstanding) are reaserching nuclear fusion lets say (because we just had a big advancement in that how exciting 😍) okay and get this the two friends both have feelings for each other but hide it to protect there friendship and through there reaserch they are around each other more and so it becomes harder to repress there feelings and suddenly one of them lets slip and they get together, all slowburn so no need for misscommuniaction or anything, you have smut, science, AND slowburn. throw that alliteration in too and your english teacher will be as happy as a clam.

numer two: instead of enemies lets have academic rivals, the begruding respect but wanting to be better the tension😍 oh its so perfect, and lets say they are in collage/university (whatever you call it) and lets have them be in a really hard degree like mathematics or enginering or biochemistry. And they both have academic validation so they NEED to get top scores and be at the top of the class and its one or the other one week is him then its her ugh iconic. THEN they get paired up together for an assessment that is like half there grade and its SUPER important and so they have to work together on a engineering project/mathmatical problem/ biochemistry reaserch paper. and slowly they get to know eachother more than just this person i need to beat and they fall in love, and while in that relationship they still have that respectful rivaly and banter we all love

number three: something like the love on the brain where they are in a company building setting where a bunch of different academics are creating something amazing and groubdbreaking in science, the two main characters are two completly different people, one a biologist that looks at the evolution of animals and why creatures adapted due to enviromental changes. and a mechanical engineer, the biologist (lets make him a man because hey! lets break these gender norms) and hes there to help with something idk yet this is an idea not a story dont judge me im a humble reviewer, and the womans the mechanical engineer thats there to bring the entire thing to life. they are opposites in everyway, hes all nature and the evolution of life and shes the numbers, but it works somehow they get close and together. i dont know not my best idea but i like the number three so we are running with it.

why not add in more than science? sprinkle some computor coders, they deserve a love story because coding is hard, add some teachnology, people discovering ai, mathematics is always fun (said no one but me ever) that would always be so fun to look at.

and while your at it add in some queer rep made two women in stem fall in love, now that would be iconic. 💅

oh and in all of them please no galexy leggins, unicorn socks or cat hoodies please our main character is meant to be smart and sophisticated not a crazy millenial cat lady she has more important things to be doing like discovering so many new things. 💪💪

as a women in science i love what you are doing, but honestly, i think you have the ability, skill and popularity to go above and beyond with your message.

[Lilyya ♡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

i have a feeling; imma love this book..
——
okay, I think she understood the assignment. THIS COVER IS GORGEOUS !

[Avery · Rating 3 out of 5]

“God bless libraries.”

I haven't been to a library in so long because the closest one is so far, and it makes me so sad because I love them 😭

Anyways, this is my second Ali Hazelwood book, the first being The Love Hypothesis, which I adored. I really want to read Love, Theoretically, but I haven't gotten around to it, but I will someday. I am honestly pretty disappointed in this, since I've been expecting this book since it first was announced, and since the cover was first revealed, and I was so excited!

But alas

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈• ｡ﾟ
Plot

I'm usually pretty good at reading contemporaries or romances because the plot is super easy to follow, and that's exactly what this was.

Except for all that chess lingo. I haven't played chess a day in my life, and I never intend to after learning what I have in this book. The game can go on for over six hours?? That's not happening, I think I'll stick to my little checkers board thank you very much.

Anyways, back to the plot, I thought it was nice and simple, and great for a quick read.

Now, my complaint is the fact that sometimes, authors write YA as if it's a middle grade novel. This book borders on the edge of YA and New adult or adult, because while it's advertised as YA, and the main character is 18, some of the jokes and scenes weren't very YA-ish. The only thing that stopped it from being new adult was the fade to black scene. I don't really care, because I can't lie, I was disappointed when I found out this book was YA. It probably would've been better if it was adult, because some of those stupid childish jokes would've been cut out. I don't know why people think that YA is geared towards more childish jokes, YA is not only being read by children.

Here are some examples! I'm sorry.

“This morning my roommate repeatedly farted on my pillow because I dared to ask her not to practice her xylophone at 5:30 am.”

this one legitimately made me close my eyes, close my book, and take a deep, long breath. Fart jokes became old in elementary school, and even then, I despised them.

“Unclench your butthole, Mallory.”

shut up

“When he swallows, his throat bobs, a strong, mesmerizing movement that I notice because . . . I’m going bananapants?”

actually shut up

welcome back to elementary school kids! I hope you have a FABULOUS VISIT

there were too many fart jokes to count in one scene, and it made me want to walk all the way to the lake outside my house and chuck the book into it.

and want to see one of the first sentences in the book?

“Mrs. Agarwal is at her desk, pretending to grade papers but probably reading Bill Nye erotic fanfiction.”

well then !

I will admit....some scenes made me laugh. The book did get better as it progressed, which is the reason it has 3 stars instead of 2 ☺

Oh, and I know Ali Hazelwood gets talked about for always making her male characters huge and her female characters tiny, so I tallied out how many times Nolan was described in any way as "big" or big compared to the main character, and I have concluded that it was around 13. Take that information and do what you will.

Also, there were so many pop culture references in this that it was crazy. TikTok was mentioned a few times, and I didn't really care, which was surprising, but it got annoying to an extent, and then Taylor Swift was mentioned, but of course I didn't mind that, have you seen the Taylor's Version in my name? There were a lot of other bands and modern stuff, and this is why I stick to fantasy, where none of this is ever mentioned 😌 (I will admit, I liked the talk about Timothée Chalamet, only because I had his statistics song stuck in my head.)

do not get me started on the Percy Jackson reference, I'm trying to wipe it from my memory please and THANK YOU. I don't remember it all, but there's some about reading erotic Percy Jackson fanfics and having him and someone sixty-nine. I'm not ok at the moment, save Percy.

I don't remember who he's doing that with, I'd rather not know anyways

“because when I asked myself if I had the right to those tears, the answer was always no, and it was easy to stop myself.”

shut the hell up

Sorry if I run out of quotes halfway through the review, there's like none in the quotes section and I don't want to go back into the book.

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈• ｡ﾟ
The Characters

I hated Mallory so much in the beginning of the book. She was getting on my nerves with her stupid attitude. I get that she was going through a lot, and I understand that, but she was so negative that even I, the queen of negativity, was flabbergasted. She believed the worst of everyone and everything, and it happened so often that I wanted to scream. Thankfully, she got better, like way better, and the end of the book. We love a good character development.

Now Nolan's situation is complicated for me, because I'd easily fall in love with him, BUT, that is also the name of a close family member to me 😃 so let me tell you, my inner conflict was going crazy during certain parts of the story, because I loved him as a character, I love the tall, dark, and handsomes, especially when they're mysterious and cold, but I just couldn't get past that his name was someone I was related to! For this reason, he will not be added to my list of book boyfriends.

I really liked the side characters, and Oz was the best character hands down. When he told Mallory off, I was grinning so hard because he was just saying facts and putting that girl in her place, and it was so satisfying.

SABRINA WAS A BITCH THOUGH. I don't care if she's fourteen years old and some fourteen year olds are bitches, but she was so rude, I couldn't stand it.

“I think about a deserted chessboard. Only the white king on it, standing on the home square. Alone, untethered, safe from threats. Free to roam.”

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈• ｡ﾟ
The Romance

I will admit, I did find the romance quite cute. A tad unrealistic, a tad fast, but it'd make me boring if I nit-picked based on just those two things, so I'll let it slide. The tension between them was pretty well created, and some of their scenes actually made me giggle, which is the best thing ever in a romance book.

Of course, this book also came with the good ol' second act drama. I think it was kind of a miscommunication, but Mallory also really overreacted, because based on her need for money at the time, I don't see why she would've gotten upset, or maybe I'm just not that kind of person 😭

I'm also quite annoyed at the fact that we didn't get a solid reunion at the end. I had to read a "two years later" epilogue written in NEWSPAPER FORM. I DON'T CARE I WANT TO SEE THEM INTERACTING AS AN ACTUAL COUPLE.

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈• ｡ﾟ
overall, unless you love YA that's on the way way upper side of YA but also has a ton of elementary school jokes that will make you want to throw the book into a lake and has a main character that you want to throw in the lake with said book, I'd recommend skipping on this one.

save yourself

this review made me angry, so I'm deducting my rating to 2.5 stars

2.5 stars

Instead of putting a quote, I will be putting all of the pop culture references I found while flipping through again! I definitely missed some, but trust me, there's a lot. Enjoy because I certainly didn't: Bill Nye erotic fanfic, Zendaya, Harry Styles (x2), Billie Eilish, BTS (x2), TikTok (x14), ChessTok, (all of this was in the PROLOGUE y'all), Dragon Age (mentioned numerous times), Paris Hilton, Timothée Chalamet (x3), VSCO, the Avengers, Michelle Obama, Malala (x2), tentacle porn (um), Veronica Mars (x2), Candy Crush (x5), Jane Goodall, something about having a foursome with a sapoisexual furry, Thanos and Tony Stark, The Hunger Games, Spider-Man, Fast & Furious, the Jennifer Lawrence Oscars mishap, Lilo & Stitch, Krispy Kreme, the Powerball, Homeland Security, Riverdale (multiple times), details about Riverdale, Cole Sprouse, Lara Jean (referring To All the Boys I've Loved Before), Jeff Bezos (x2), AO3, Snapchat, Tinder, Tom Hanks, Justin Bieber, Michael Phelps, Goodreads (wow), Vanity Fair (multiple), Mother Theresa, IHOP (a few times), Etsy, Suavage by Christian Dior, Discord, Corpse Bride (x2), Doom Patrol, Jungkook, Piggie-Tinder, Photoshop, Bill Gates, an Adam Driver meme (how funny), PS5, ASMR, Taylor Swift (x2), Meghan Markle, Percy Jackson

I think I just blacked out.

<><><><><><>
alright, i guess i need to read another book to make sure i don't end the year with a mediocre rating.

i've been talking a lot of crap on this book, but i will say, despite everything i've said, i liked mallory's character development.

though i will also say, this book does not deserve to be the winner of the awards this year

rtc

<><><><><><>
pre-read: oh my gosh COVER! it's actually so cute, I love the background colors

[Karla Martínez · Rating 4 out of 5]

ahora quiero jugar ajedrez y ser la mejor del mundo. es mucho pedir?

[✨⚡ Kelcey (felinebooktrovert) ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll start off by saying I'll read anything this woman writes. Even if there are specific issues I have with the plot, relationship, certain events, etc, her books are so highly entertaining.

I enjoyed the chess storyline. I watched Queen's Gambit back when that came out on Netflix, and it definitely showcases how crazy Chess can be and how smart these players are.

I loved both main characters, though I feel like the romantic relationship was a little underdeveloped. But all of their scenes together were 👌

I did not enjoy the third act breakup. Third act breakups are becoming more and more of a pet peeve of mine because it seems that authors are doing them just to do them instead of having them be natural and beneficial to the storyline and the relationship. This one was so hypocritical and there is never any room for an actual discussion on what happened. Just an immediate explosion with casualties in its wake. Just why??l?

BUT I love all of Ali's books and love reading about STEM women ❤️🔥

[Lyra (Cardan's tail's version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

—♟ 4.5 stars ♟—

“Because when I’m with you, Mallory, everything is different. When I’m with you, I want to play more than I want to win.”

————about the book————

Age: YA
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Writing: 8/10
Quotes: 8/10
World building: n/a
Characters: 9/10
Romance: 9/10
My rating: 9/10

trigger warnings: Cheating (Parent), Death of a Father, Car Accident, Death of a Grandfather, etc.

———my thoughts———

Ali Hazelwood’s writing, books and characters aren’t for everyone.
But I love them.
As her first YA release (also her first non-STEM release), I was initially a little worried and curious to see how she’d adapt her writing and characters.
Honestly? I think she did it well.
Yes, there’s innumerable references to everything popular right now, but I don’t think anything actually made me cringe.
The chess part of the plot (as someone who knows less than nothing about chess) was interesting. I may not have understood all the terminology (what IS the Grünfeld) but I got the gist of it.
The actual plot itself felt very cozy to me. Not a lot happened, there were more thoughts and feelings than anything else, and it was just really sweet.
Ali’s books always tend to be quick reads, but I almost didn’t want to put this down, and if I haven’t had things to do...I definitely would have finished it in just a few hours.
The characters were quite easily my favourite part, even though I did want to slap a particular sister once or twice.
Mallory, the protagonist, felt very relatable to me. Maybe it’s because we’re both the oldest sister, maybe it’s because she (like me) has the unfortunate habit of trying to do everything herself, but all I know is that I really enjoyed her perspective.
The only thing that could have made this book better is Nolan having a POV. Tall, sarcastic men who don’t know how to function in society are always my favourites, so it’s no surprise I loved him.
Emil and Tanu were good side characters, and (if a little annoying at times) quite sweet.
And Oz? I lost count of the times he made me laugh, with his threats and general grouchiness.
All together, they’re the cast for a book I can only describe as adorable.

————quotes————

“Why would you keep something that makes you think of me?”
“Because I think of you anyway, Mallory.”

“He told me once that sometimes, with some people, it's not about winning or losing, That with some people, it's just about playing. Though for the longest time, I didn't really believe him.”

“He’s tireless, unshakable. Driven in an indomitable, near- obsessive way. This iron- hard tenacity of his is an oddly attractive quality.”

“I feel protected from attacks from all sides. Like the king during good chess.”

“Even the good ones, they don’t know how it feels. They don’t know what it’s like, being told that you’re inherently destined to be second best.”

“I resign. You win. Can I kiss you?”

“I fall asleep mid game—for the second time in my life held by someone, for the second time in my life held by Nolan Sawyer.”

“I’m going to fall over. Or I’ll be fine, here in his lap.”

———random extra thoughts———

I literally keep staring at the cover 😭 it’s so pink and cute

Thanks for reading! ❤️