This was such a cute fun story, Ali really knows how to bring an odd concept to life. You would think chess is a rather boring and solitary sport but the excitement and competitiveness (and a little flair) really made it enjoyable!

I really liked Mallory and could relate to her in a parenting role and the sacrifices she made for her mom and younger sisters. I thought she had a very strong character and was sure of herself – most of the time.

During the book signing, Ali mentioned she’s not interested in writing books when the MMC doesn’t fall first, and while this is somewhat true in Check & Mate, I thought the prologue was super catchy and kinda the start of it all! Huge kudos to audiobook narrator Karissa Vacker, I absolutely adore her masculine voice for the characters she does, Nolan sounded cool and collected and I couldn’t help to immediately fall for him!

Like with previous novels from Hazelwood, the secondary characters shine super bright. I loved Darcy, Mal’s 12 year old sister, she was hilarious and her Guinea pig Goliath 🥰 the running joke throughout! Even Oz and Defne were a great addition.

While I don’t play chess, I have a very vivid memory of my brother check-mating me in three moves when we were little 😅 he still plays chess online and follows the tournaments all the time, and thanks for coming to my TED Talk!! 😄🤣😄

Title: Check & Mate
Author: Ali Hazelwood
Genre: YA Romance
Rating: 4/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️