I loved this book, and purchased a copy as soon as I could. It was wonderful disability rep, with a fun and genuine romance which addressed issues I heavily relate to as a young disabled person. Hugely recommend!!

The First Move by Jenny Ireland is a compelling and emotionally rich story about love, friendship, and the complexities of teenage life. The protagonist, Aideen, is a refreshingly authentic character whose vulnerability and sharp wit make her instantly relatable. Jenny Ireland captures the highs and lows of first love and self-discovery with humor and heart, all while tackling deeper themes like grief and self-worth. The realistic dialogue and well-drawn relationships between the characters add depth to this coming-of-age romance. It’s a thoughtful, engaging read that will resonate with anyone who remembers the bittersweet intensity of their teenage years.

As a first time reading this novel, I really enjoyed it.
I like that there is disability rep for arthritis.
I liked learning about the characters.
It is told in dual perspective's.
Hidden identities is one of my favourite tropes.
I look forwards to reading more from this author.

Super cute story, emotional and inspiring. Suitable for all ages, while I imagine it is more of a young adult book, it is one that anyone can enjoy.

I wasn't really certain what to expect going into this other than it being a Young Adult Contemporary Romance with a chess aspect but I found the characters to have much depth and loved following them.

The First Move follows Juliet and Ronan who both play online chess and struggle with their own things in their lives that make these chess games their escapes. All the characters in this book, Juliet, Roman, and all of our side characters were really strong characters with well-developed backgrounds and lots going on in their lives.

We also had great representation in this story with some characters having more difficult home lives and Juliet's arthritis that she finds particularly challenging to deal with at school. Something about this I also particularly liked was it wasn't just Juliet and Ronan who had developed characters and backgrounds many of our key side characters did too, not all of them as that would have been far too much information, but the ones we saw frequently and it helped to know well did and that was great to see.

As someone who knows next to nothing about chess the chess talk in this was not too much to understand for me and always felt like I had a grip on what the characters were doing. It also wasn't only chess scenes which I appreciated there were also many other fun and light scenes that were focused on other things that felt more accessible for all readers not just chess players. Recently I have seen a peak in chess and nerdy romance books which I really like to see and am enjoying making my way through as more and more are released.

As you would expect from teenagers not everyone makes brilliant decisions all the time nor are they as good friends as they could be however you can tell how much they care about those people around them even if they could show it better and often they do correct those mistakes which is as much as you can expect. Some of them were people you could not ask to be better friends and friendship is something I love to see in Young Adult and don't want to stop seeing at all.

As someone that gravitates towards Young Adult Contemporary stories less at the moment this reminded me exactly why I love these types of books and think they are so important for the world and so teenagers can see themselves and know that everyone deserves their own love story which I feel like is really shown within this book. I am so glad that the YA book prize has finally pushed me to pick this up after a year of putting it off because I don't know when else I would have gotten to it. Hopefully I will read more Jenny Ireland in the future because this was great.

Thank you to Penguin Random House and Netgalley for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Following two teenagers as they navigate the end of high school with trauma and illness and the help of online chess I really enjoyed this emotional read.

This is a YA novel which explores complex emotions and a variety of different themes. I really enjoyed the writing style of this book and the variety of topics within the story.

I would highly recommend this book but recommend looking at trigger warnings before beginning.

A cute YA romance, set in Ireland, with great representation for LGBT characters, characters with difficult home lives, and disabled characters. I found this story really cute, and heartbreaking in equal measure. Showing the importance of talking to people and not hiding your issues/problems, and a reminder that everyone is going through something.

This was a fun, nerdy love story. While I don’t know much about chess or really understand it much, I didn’t feel like that detracted from my enjoyment of the novel. I liked that the author did such a great job with the inclusivity in the book. A perfect read for YA lovers.

Firstly, I just want to say that the cover is breathtaking and literally caught my eye. Premise was interesting since it involves a disabled girl, a guy with a lot of secrets and chess. I really like the way the author writes. It feels very mature and it’s easy to be absorbed into the story. However, the character’s decision making without thinking beforehand makes me feel a bit annoyed. I am well aware that they’re teenagers and that the book is YA so it is something to keep in mind if you’re an adult reader.

Juliet thought she was just a girl with crutches with arthritis.
Roman has to start at a new school for his last year due to family problems.
Without realising, chess is something that helps them both escape the real world. But then brings them together in the real world.
I very much enjoyed this read! Definitely recommend

This was super cute. Kind of enemies to lovers but the high school version 😂

Juliet is worried about school. She's just had to start using crutches full time for her arthritis and she's worried about people's reactions. Thankfully there's a new guy at school, Ronan, transferred for one year only. Juliet thinks he's arrogant and has attitude, her childhood best friend Tara is obsessed with him.

Ronan has changed schools to avoid some classmates he associates with bad times. Ronan has a secret obsession with chess so joins a site where you can play virtual matches and chat. He gets matched with a user name PRETTYBASIC and the pair bond.

As I'm sure you've worked out PRETTYBASIC is Juliet, and when they eventually realise they go to the same school she is naturally worried that whoever he is will be put off by her disability.

There are certainly some ups and downs along the way but this is a super cute story with some great characters.

yeah, not gonna lie, this was good! It's refreshing to read about diverse characters and this book does show us Juliet's life with arthritis which I didn't know much about. I liked the chess part and I suppose that if you liked that about check and mate by Ali hazelwood, you'd like this one. The romance was very sweet and fun although it was very much the cliche bad boy with a sad past hence the 4 stars instead of a 5.

I got into the story pretty quickly, I really loved Jenny's character. I loved the strong support system in her family and with her friends, I really enjoyed reading about the dynamics between them. The romance is so cute, I'd loved the build up to have built up a bit slower and fleshed out abit but I really enjoyed it.

No one is more gutted than me that I ended up dnf-ing this book.

A few years ago I would have lived and breathed this book and it's characters but I've now come to the devastating conclusion that I just don't enjoy YA romance anymore. I'm dying somewhat inside.

I really liked Jenny Ireland's writing so I'm giving this a three stars for that alone however I just am no longer it's target audience which sucks for me.

I'm definitely going to keep a look out to see if they write any adult romance in the future!

I DNF this book. I just wasn't invested in this book. I gave it a good shoot, but no, not for me...
Thanks to Netgally

A really quick, easy and cute read with great representation. I couldn't put it down, I really enjoyed it

A Massive Thank You to the Author, the Publisher and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this book prior to its release date.

It was cute!
For all the reasons all the other reviewers mentioned and many other!

The whole book was witty, based in Northern Ireland, the characters fit so well together and it was such a nice YA romcom. A lot of people would love it, hopefully!

The writer's style of writing was my life boat; it took me all through this book and made it unforgettable and unputdownable!!

The First Move is a cute, relevant and fun read. Yes it's full of cliches but they work well with the story and the characters.

For most of the story, I did think that I was really enjoying this, I love that old trope of two people chatting online only to find out they know each other in real life - but the third act break up made me reflect on what I'd read, and overall, I really couldn't be invested in this romance.

I initially liked the banter as Jules and Roman chatted online while playing chess, and I really wanted them to discover that they knew each other in real life. Jules is a witty, complex character that struggles to fit in with her ableist friend group.

New boy Roman seems sweet, but he seems to think he's better than Jules because he knows more named chess moves, which started to grate on my nerves. His toxic behavior to Jules during the Third Act Break Up was awful and he seemed to be one step away from calling her a whore for finding someone else after he dumped her online.

I really wanted to like Michael, but he really filled the role of the Gay Best Friend, and aside from liking fashion and supplying the story with sassy one liners, I didn't really get much else from him. He was the only Queer character in the story, apart from his boyfriend who turns up later.

The ending was fine, but I was really slogging through that break up and the messiness that followed, which made it difficult for me to root for them to get back together. A good amount of the story was resolved, but it didn't make me like the characters any more.

What an excellent debut novel from this author. It was one that I found hard to put down.
The characters were much more complex than you would normally expect in a teenage romance novel. The author handled the complexities of disability, teenage friendships, family dynamics and first love so cleverly and sensitively.
I am genuinely excited for what is to come from this author in the future!!