Today’s review is about CHECK & MATE by Ali Hazelwood. This is Hazelwood’s debut in Young Adult romance and I think she did a great job with it. Since she’s such a popular author, my review for this book is more casual. Keep reading to see what I thought about it!

Author: Ali Hazelwood
Series: None
Age Category: Young Adult
Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Publish Date: November 07, 2023
Print Length: 368

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Check & Mate Synopsis

In this clever and swoonworthy YA debut from the New York Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis, life’s moving pieces bring rival chess players together in a match for the heart.

Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. Every move counts nowadays; after the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory’s focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious “Kingkiller” Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess.

Nolan’s loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone. What’s even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory’s victory opens the door to sorely needed cash-prizes and despite everything, she can’t help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist….

As she rockets up the ranks, Mallory struggles to keep her family safely separated from the game that wrecked it in the first place. And as her love for the sport she so desperately wanted to hate begins to rekindle, Mallory quickly realizes that the games aren’t only on the board, the spotlight is brighter than she imagined, and the competition can be fierce (-ly attractive. And intelligent…and infuriating…)

Check & Mate Review

Like I have with past Hazelwood books, my review of CHECK & MATE is more conversational and casual. The official synopsis is pretty spot on, so I won’t recap it here. CHECK & MATE is Hazelwood’s foray into writing a Young Adult contemporary romance in the vein of her STEMinist novels. Only this is about chess and processing the life events that caused Mallory to stop playing.

I first want to address the elephant in the room. I saw more than one reviewer wonder about why CHECK & MATE was categorized as YA. Although I planned on reading it anyway, this piqued my interest even more. My assessment is that this does fall into the YA category. To further categorize it, I would classify it as upper YA, mainly because Mallory is 18 and it’s about what happens when high school is over: independence and learning more about oneself.

I think the issues Mallory deals with are perfectly legitimate and likely experienced by a fraction of teens. To say that this book belongs in the Adult category because of the heavy topics it contains is to deny the acknowledgment that some teens probably go through something similar. I think reading how Mallory initially copes and then heals is relatable. The topics at hand include historical parental infidelity, historical death of a parent, historical alcoholism, chronic illness, sexual content (implied, off page), and sexism. Hazelood approaches these issues in an age appropriate manner, in my opinion. Remember that the main character is 18, not 10, so discussions within the book reflect this. The same goes for the mention of anything sex related. While there isn’t any on-page sex, sexual activity is implied and all of the characters are sex positive. If a teen isn’t engaging in sex, chances are they’re likely at least talking or joking about it.

Relatedly, there is a hilarious discussion of sex and sexual identity at the family dinner table that made me giggle out loud. Early on in the book the reader learns that Mallory is, as far as the reader can tell, bisexual. Her main relationship in the book happens to be one with a man. But I think this lends some visibility to bisexual relationships that appear heterosexual. Mallory’s best friend is also a lesbian.

Mallory’s family dynamics are extreme, but relatable, especially to those who are firstborns. Her younger sisters have razor blade tongues and wit and aren’t afraid to use it. I thought this was a bit unrealistic, but what do I know about 12- and 15-year-olds these days? It certainly makes Mallory’s interactions with them entertaining, if somewhat frustrating.

The pacing of Mallory’s and Nolan’s relationship is basically perfect. There’s the competitive meet cute and multiple rounds of meeting and distance, which draws out the pining. While I love Nolan’s character, he is, frankly, very similar to Hazelwood’s other lead male characters. Nolan is stoic, somber, smart, confident, and annoyingly reads into the soul of his love interest.

Finally, the chess, which is why we’re all here, right? I have zero experience in the world of competitive chess playing, so I can’t comment on that. However, the presence of sexism in a male-dominated game isn’t surprising. And I love that Hazelwood included discussion of a real study into the book (always read the Author’s Note!). It is astonishing how much time these players spend studying text book moves and each other’s playing styles.

Overall, I really enjoyed CHECK & MATE. Although marketed for the YA crowd, I think many readers of Hazelwood’s STEMinist novels will enjoy this one, too. The characters have flaws, but ultimately work on them. It seems each new book by Hazelwood is more realistic than the last, which I appreciate. So, if you’re a voracious reader of Hazelwood’s books, definitely pick this one up.

Rating: 4.5
Content warnings: parental infidelity (historical), death of a parent (historical), alcoholism, chronic illness, sexual content (implied, off page), sexism
Reading format: Library paperback