Check & Mate

Ali’s writing is so beautiful and during parts of the romantic sides made her writing even took my breath away! Her knowledge of the chess world is also incredible! Read this book in one day!

This book was absolutely well written and I loved it. I physically could not put it down to stop reading. Definitely something everyone should read, I’m pretty much a chess player at this point.

Pretty derivative- I’ve already seen The Queen’s Gambit, why do I need this? Tried to stick with it after her first novel, but I’m bored of this author’s same-characters-different-setting routine.

disappointed. i thought this was going to be a cutie little romance book, but it just felt boring and slow. the last 30% of it was good, but the whole book just didn’t hit the way i expected it to. i don’t really think i like ali hazelwood’s writing style, this was my first book by her. also: should this book really be classified as YA…?

I think it’s a good book. Probably meant for a certain group of romance readers. It was sweet and a good story but I just didn’t really consider it one of those reads that have you kicking your feet and putting the book down on a good scene to run around squealing. The main character isn’t as well written to me, she’s so confused and complicated but I kind of see all of that being processed and worked through all in one chapter and not throughout the book. So that kind of felt rushed. I believe it would have been more captivating if throughout the book we saw little pieces of healing and how different sections of her life changing played into that healing. Such as chess,Nolan, her family and friendship with Easton. There could have been a really cool flow with that. But instead it all really happened because of a huge fight and her moms consoling, which I’m not against but I find it really typical. Every romance book has that big fight and the girl comes to her senses….. not really anything new.for the male lead I just wasn’t impressed. Honestly there was only one chapter where I really felt like Nolan was present. He was pretty bland in simpler words. I’ve read books with simple main leads and I think simple main leads are hard to write in a book but there are ways to execute them beautifully and it wasn’t in my opinion. But what I did like about this book was the brilliance behind the characters, the friendships and the family relationship Mallory has.

this book literally had me giggling and kicking my feet. i have been known to put down a book because of annoying plots or frustrating main characters, but i could not stop reading! loved this book, even if the chess made no sense to me :) also, nolan and mal are SO CUTE it makes me physically ill

I read this in one setting and truly have no words. I wish this book was longer so I could experience more of the characters. The romance and tension and connection between them is unreal. I wish that there was more. I wish I could read more of their dialogue and just dive into them. Wow. Incredible like always.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, especially the character Mallory, who I consider to be the most relatable female lead I've ever encountered in literature. She resonates with me personally, and I understand many of her perspectives. However, I have a few minor issues with specific details that bother me. Firstly, Mallory's height could be more consistent. While the cover art suggests she is only slightly shorter than Nolan, there are instances in the book where she gets on her toes, such as when reaching for Nolan's forehead when he's sick. This action seems unnecessary, as she could easily reach his head by lifting her arm. Additionally, the noticeable difference in their hand sizes creates an exaggerated smallness that doesn't align with her character, somewhat infantilizing her compared to Nolan. Secondly, Nolan's character feels somewhat bland. Mallory's primary focus when talking about him revolves around his physical attractiveness. While I appreciate Nolan as a character, this aspect becomes underwhelming when mentioned so often. It's understandable since the story is centered around Mallory, but delving into Nolan's perspective through a side story would be intriguing. Understanding why he is immediately infatuated with Mallory could add depth to their dynamic. Overall, I loved the book and the characters; the ending caught me off guard. It was a great read, 10/10.

If you are in a reading slump and just need a quick book to read to get back into things this is the book for you. I liked it a lot and loved the characters and romance. I was shocked and slightly disappointed by the ending. I literally flipped the page and did a double take like “hold….up!” Not only because I didn’t want it to be over but because it was so sudden like I wanted to see her win the world championship and we never got to see them play the game Nolan had been pining for since the beginning which was sad and anti climactic but I still liked the very last few sentences. “And he simply smiled and walked away” that was cute but still wish we would have gotten more. Overall I loved this book and have added another book boy to make my standards unreasonably high

I love all of Ali Hazelwoods books, especially “Love, Theoretically” but this left me wanting more. I think the main difference was this was YA book, so she didn’t get too detailed with the romance, but rather gave more the the chess aspect. Overall, still loved it. Great character development and banter. Always happy to read her work!