This was fun. I loved Mallory, her background and her fight for her family.

The build up and reveal of her new found celebrity status with her family I really liked.

I also enjoyed the romance between the characters.

It was a fun story, bit of competition thrown in.

Ali's books are simply great. I love them. I am waiting for another one more than for Christmas. Where this girl gets the ideas I do not know. But hopefully she will keep writing.

Fantastic book with great core characters. Recommend to friends for anyone who loves this genre of book!

Forgot to write a review for this but as usual, I adore anything Ali writes and this book was bo different. Gorgeous, just perfect.

When I started this book I wasn't sure what to think but I became OBSESSED. Such a good story and sweet romance, I don't understand chess enough to completely appreciate that part however, I know enough to know Mal is badass. And easy read and very enjoyable!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of Check and Mate by Ali Hazelwood.
I love Ali Hazelwood’s writing and this was no exception! Check and Mate is her Young Adult debut and I was excited to see what she’d do with the new genre. This was an amazing book with the usual humour I love from her other novels. It also dealt with deeper topics and I loved the mix of deep conversations with comedic relief thrown in.

Mallory takes care of her mom and two sisters by working as a mechanic, forgoing college in order to support her family. When Mallory attends a charity chess event for a friend, she defeats the current World Champion in chess Nolan Sawyer. From there, Mallory ends up taking a paid fellowship and is whisked into the world of professional chess.

I really enjoyed this gem of a book, but I usually enjoy Ali Hazelwood's books so no surprise there. I will say this book is definitely on the older side of young adult fiction, pretty much borderline new adult so don't give it to a middle grader anytime soon.

I really appreciated seeing a female character in the world of chess. Aside from the Netflix show, The Queen's Gambit we don't see much of that and I hope this encourages the younger generation to try chess out and see if they like it. Mallory and Nolan were both fun and interesting characters with their own issues and it really added to the story and made it interesting. I had a lot of fun reading this book.

I love Ali Hazelwood and have enjoyed all of her adult books. I was slightly sceptical going in to this one...I've been veering away from teen books lately but "Check & Mate" showed me the error of my ways. Great book with believable characters and a romance I fully got on board with!

Thank you NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for for providing me with a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ali Hazelwood’s books are an automatic purchase for me. Even though it’s a YA book, I was still curious. I tend to have mixed experiences with this genre and I really don’t want to say less than I love this book, but you can love an author and not necessarily love every one of their books, right? I believe I would have liked the book more if it wasn’t YA, so that’s not a reflection on the book, it’s purely on my preference.

The chess aspect intrigued me and the cover is super pretty, which is always appealing. I found Nolan to be the perfect sweetheart for Mallory and was rooting for them all the way. I love how it touches on how our emotional pain can block us from honouring our truth and shut us down from what has the potential to bring us so much joy and success. Then life has a way of bringing us full circle, right back to it. We cannot escape our destiny. And of course, there is so many layers to our life paths and we’d miss out if we didn’t embrace the journey.

I do love a good happy ending and the book delivers just that!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and all involved in allowing me an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.

As Ali Hazelwood's first delve into YA fiction this was spectacular!

This had all the joy, feelings, and 'kicking my legs' emotion of her other books but with a slight slow burn romance without any of the usual smut that she has become known for with her adult novels.

This also featured a well-built rivalry, nerdiness, and well thought out character development which we have come to expert from her work.

She has certainly proved she can write YA just as well as adult novels and I wouldn't hesitate to pick up another YA title if she delivers again. She also made me care about chess - not something I thought would ever happen!

3.5 stars. I really wanted to love this as much as her other books but the ungrateful arsey siblings were just a bit too much for me. Irritated me way too much. There were some really strong moments in this but for me the annoying side characters and the abrupt feeling ending just wouldn't let me give it a higher rating.

I have read other novels by Ali Hazelwood and really enjoyed them but I have to admit that this one wasn't for me. It was a struggle to finish but I did get through it as I was curious to how they would end the story.

I felt that there was too much focus on chess and less on the romance side and for someone who has no interest in chess this just made it an overall bland read and I feel that it tried to hard to appeal to the target audience and made me cringe at how hard they actually tried.

It's a shame as the author has some other really good books but this one was just off the mark for me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Check & Mate was a great YA debut for Ali Hazelwood. I look forward to reading more from her in this genre

I have read 3 of Hazelwood’s adult romance books and although I loved the Love Hypothesis, it got repetitive very quickly as she seems to reuse the same tropes and structure in all her romance books.

However, I was genuinely curious to see what she could do with YA as I still do enjoy her writing and characters.

I am happy to say she absolutely smashed it. Check & Mate is my first 5-star read of the year and also became the first favourite of 2024, and I cannot wait to re-read it very soon.

I truly hope she will come out with another YA book and that she will not fall into the trap of reusing the same tropes, etc like she has done with her adult romances.

I have read and devoured all Ali Hazelwoods books and this one was no exception. Her earlier works are adult fiction, whereas this one is a foray into YA and I think it worked really well.

I loved some of the characters and enjoyed the interplay between them. The only thing I will say, is that in Ali's other books, you don't have to know about or even like science to enjoy her books as it's the workplace setting. Whereas in this book chess is the main character. So if you don't like it, don't understand it or haven't got feelings either way, you may enjoy the book a little less as it is really full on!

I know almost nothing about chess but I loved this book anyway.

I found it slightly off putting that the characters in it were so young but it was very well-written so it was easy to get past that.

Admittedly, I think if this hadn't been the first Ali Hazelwood novel I'd read then I would have been disappointed as I read Love, Theoretically afterwards and it was a far better book. However, as a book on its own, away from the authors other novels, I enjoyed it.

For some reason, I have gone back and read the bit about the last chess match they played against each other about 6 times but I think that says more about me than it does about the book!

Overall, aside from having to ask my husband to explain several chess queries for me, I really enjoyed this book but maybe more for younger readers!

The thing with Ali Hazelwood’s books is that they are always unique, fresh, and add an extra layer of freshness to romance. She consistently writes in a way that will make you fall in love with her writing and characters all over again.

"Check & Mate" is a young adult fiction novel that will make you adore chess as a game and become obsessed with the characters by the end of your read. Mallory is done with chess. Her focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is until she inadvertently wipes the board with the notorious "Kingkiller" Nolan Sawyer: the current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess. Nolan is set to cross pawns with her again, as he finally starts falling in love with the game, experiencing the thrill once more. This is their story of facing their inner battles and finding solace in each other.

The themes of the book include past trauma, guilt, misogyny in chess, acceptance, family bonds, love, friendship, and much more. The way the author addresses women's participation in chess was eye-opening and provided much-needed education for all of us. I think the underlying message was beautiful.

The writing is brilliant, as always! It's witty and humorous with Gen Z references. The banter is A1, with chess lingual. It is a book that you will finish in one sitting. For me, it was a bit difficult to like Sabrina’s character. But apart from that, I loved every second of the book. I wanted to read more about the final match. So yes, it is a must-read for sure!

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood is a young adult novel that weaves competitive chess and romance. The book features engaging characters and a unique take on the world of chess. While the plot is somewhat predictable and the romance feels instantaneous, the witty writing style makes it an enjoyable read for fans of the genre.

I know absolutely nothing about chess, not a thing, but I loved this book hard. It’s smart, funny and swoony and I couldn’t put it down.

Ali hazelwood is a master at STEM romance! I loved this gem and can’t wait to see what novels she brings us in 2024