Check & Mate Is a Delightful YA Debut From Romance Queen Ali Hazelwood
Romance fans are likely already familiar with Ali Hazelwood, the bestselling author behind megapopular novels like The Love Hypothesis and Love on the Brain. stories that center on ultra-brainy female characters who excel in traditionally male academic fields like chemistry and neuroscience. But following the release of her third novel (Love, Theoretically), some readers might have been wondering whether Hazelwood was in a rut, narratively speaking. After all, her STEMinist romances all follow a very similar formula in terms of settings and characters. Does this BookTok sensation still have fresh things to say? if her sparkling YA debut Check & Mate is anything to go by, the answer to those questions is that Hazelwood’s just getting started.
A delicious, utterly delightful rivals-to-lovers romp set in the world of competitive chess, Check & Mate is every bit as good as (if not better than, yes, I said it) Hazelwood’s adult romances. Full of humor, realistic conflicts, and complex family dynamics, this story is as concerned with a young woman figuring out who she wants to become as it is who she falls in love with. Granted, the romance at its center is positively swoon-worthy, but it’s also not the point of the larger story Hazelwood is telling, and this balance is a big part of what makes the book feel like such a breath of fresh air.
The story follows Mallory Greenleaf, a bisexual 18-year-old who was once a champion chess player. But she gave up the game after her hypercompetitive father died, and is now almost solely focused on providing for her chronically ill mother and and two younger sisters. Having abandoned plans of college for a job in an auto repair shop, Mallory spends most of her time stressed over bills and wrestling with the guilt she still carries in the wake of her dad’s death. But when her BFF guilt trips her into playing in a charity chess tournament, she unexpectedly ends up in a match against the (wildly popular, extremely handsome) current world chess champion Nolan Sawyer. To the surprise of everyone, Mallory beats him, and suddenly, everything about her life is thrown into chaos.
Although she insists she doesn’t want to play anymore, she says yes when she’s offered a paid fellowship that’s meant to prepare her to play chess professionally. She’s lost her job, after all, and needs the stipend that comes with the position—-not to mention the money she could win playing tournaments. But although Mallory is determined to keep chess at arm’s length this time around, the more she plays, the more she remembers how much she once loved it. And the more time she spends with Nolan, the more she learns that he’s not the boy she assumed him to be—and that he’s much kinder, more intelligent, and more complicated than she ever gave him credit for.