You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Scan barcode
withl0veamy's review against another edition
3.0
This book was a cute young adult book that reminded me a lot of the queens gambit!
I love that Ali Hazelwood wrote her first young adult book. It was entertaining but I didn't necessarily felt the need to continue reading it.
This book sometimes felt a bit to slow and sometimes a bit to fast. The ending felt a bit rushed. I would have loved to read more about the chess tournament. I loved the characters and the back stories.
Overall a cute read!
I love that Ali Hazelwood wrote her first young adult book. It was entertaining but I didn't necessarily felt the need to continue reading it.
This book sometimes felt a bit to slow and sometimes a bit to fast. The ending felt a bit rushed. I would have loved to read more about the chess tournament. I loved the characters and the back stories.
Overall a cute read!
aliciasrealm's review against another edition
5.0
Eighteen year old Mallory Greenleaf stopped playing chess years ago, after it tore her family apart. Now, she spends her days struggling to help her ailing mother support her younger sisters. When a friend convinces her to play in a charity chess tournament, Mallory manages to defeat world champion Nolan Sawyer, aka Kingkiller. Though Mallory had no intention to keep playing, Nolan is eager for a rematch, not to mention her family could really use the cash prizes. As she climbs the ranks and rediscovers her passion for the game, her rivalry with Nolan slowly becomes something more.
This book delivered a refreshingly different set-up from previous books in the Aliverse. Having just graduated from high school, Mallory is eighteen and struggling with her choice to stay home to support her family instead of going to college like her friends. Mallory's platonic relationships were kept in the forefront moreso than the romance and she was a well developed character with a strong coming-of-age story arc. I loved her relationships with her sisters! More on brand, the chess world is ridiculously sexist and Mallory must deal with a number of sexist jerks who don't believe she belongs there.
Though the romance felt more like a subplot at times, the tension and interactions between Mallory and Nolan were perfection. I adored Nolan from the beginning and his respect for Mallory had me swooning. The romance didn't overly rely on tropes and flipped the script in several ways. I picked up on the foreshadowing of certain story elements but it didn't feel super predictable.
This is solidly in the YA genre; no smut here, just fade to black. Mallory is Gen Z and the text is riddled with pop culture references, but the latter is nothing new (and, personally, I'm not complaining about the Timothée Chalamet references). Still, from my perspective as a millennial reader, it's lots of fun and perfect for fans of The Queen's Gambit. In the Aliverse, I rank this second to The Love Hypothesis--it was really good and different! More of this please!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the digital ARC.
This book delivered a refreshingly different set-up from previous books in the Aliverse. Having just graduated from high school, Mallory is eighteen and struggling with her choice to stay home to support her family instead of going to college like her friends. Mallory's platonic relationships were kept in the forefront moreso than the romance and she was a well developed character with a strong coming-of-age story arc. I loved her relationships with her sisters! More on brand, the chess world is ridiculously sexist and Mallory must deal with a number of sexist jerks who don't believe she belongs there.
Though the romance felt more like a subplot at times, the tension and interactions between Mallory and Nolan were perfection. I adored Nolan from the beginning and his respect for Mallory had me swooning. The romance didn't overly rely on tropes and flipped the script in several ways. I picked up on the foreshadowing of certain story elements but it didn't feel super predictable.
This is solidly in the YA genre; no smut here, just fade to black. Mallory is Gen Z and the text is riddled with pop culture references, but the latter is nothing new (and, personally, I'm not complaining about the Timothée Chalamet references). Still, from my perspective as a millennial reader, it's lots of fun and perfect for fans of The Queen's Gambit. In the Aliverse, I rank this second to The Love Hypothesis--it was really good and different! More of this please!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the digital ARC.
mojidaa's review against another edition
4.0
3.5⭐️⬆️
Aight, I don’t know enough about chess to judge if this book was chess-accurated, but I’d assumed it was. I think it was fun, it was super duper slow and hard to get into at first, but when it hit, it just hit. Like almost all her books, it had a slow start, like all her books, IT JUST FELT THE SAME.
Aight, don’t get me wrong, I love Ali Hazelwood. No matter how similar all her books were, no matter how blended in together her books have become for me, I still enjoyed it. But damn, can you really do this? Can you really just write something that has the same plot, with just a little change in the environment and characters’ names? It just feels like Multiverse at this point.
Nolan had my whole heart though. This guy, everyone, was a total simp. He was hooked. Even through Mal’s pov, we could feel how deeply he fell for her. Like this nobody girlie who appeared out of nowhere beat him in some random tournament, embarrassingly so, and he was HOOKED. Like follow-you-to-the-end kinda hook. And I loved that. A lot. He was so cute, so innocent, like he made my heart warm,reading about him.
Mal, on the other hand. GIRLIE. Ok, I almost forget how annoying YA is. How infuriating a character can be. HOW antagonizingly immature the ‘problems’ can be. Was I this annoying when I was 18?? Like I get it. She had her traumas, her problems and she was forced to grow up way too fast and truthfully, I blamed her mom for it. BUT URGHHHH. She was so annoying. Oz became my favourite character the moment he knocked some sense into her. She almost made me drop this book, just FYI. URGH.
Ok. Controversial. I love how ali talks about sexism in male-dominated industries. But. Isn’t it getting kinda repetitive that a chunk of her plots, or should I say plot, of her every single book, just centered around that? Or is it just me? I mean don’t get me wrong, I love reading about it and how the characters deal with it. But it seriously is getting kinda uncreative….and I hate to say this, forced…
If you read my review, you probably think I hate this book. I don’t. I just found it super annoying. But I like it just fine. I devoured like 70% of the book in one night, mind you. I’m just an annoying bitch who likes to complain and has a bad beef with badly(my opinion)-written “strong” FL. Thanks.
Also, who thought it was a good idea to feature that much pop-culture references, even if it was a YA book? Seriously. Who?
Aight, I don’t know enough about chess to judge if this book was chess-accurated, but I’d assumed it was. I think it was fun, it was super duper slow and hard to get into at first, but when it hit, it just hit. Like almost all her books, it had a slow start, like all her books, IT JUST FELT THE SAME.
Aight, don’t get me wrong, I love Ali Hazelwood. No matter how similar all her books were, no matter how blended in together her books have become for me, I still enjoyed it. But damn, can you really do this? Can you really just write something that has the same plot, with just a little change in the environment and characters’ names? It just feels like Multiverse at this point.
Nolan had my whole heart though. This guy, everyone, was a total simp. He was hooked. Even through Mal’s pov, we could feel how deeply he fell for her. Like this nobody girlie who appeared out of nowhere beat him in some random tournament, embarrassingly so, and he was HOOKED. Like follow-you-to-the-end kinda hook. And I loved that. A lot. He was so cute, so innocent, like he made my heart warm,reading about him.
Mal, on the other hand. GIRLIE. Ok, I almost forget how annoying YA is. How infuriating a character can be. HOW antagonizingly immature the ‘problems’ can be. Was I this annoying when I was 18?? Like I get it. She had her traumas, her problems and she was forced to grow up way too fast and truthfully, I blamed her mom for it. BUT URGHHHH. She was so annoying. Oz became my favourite character the moment he knocked some sense into her. She almost made me drop this book, just FYI. URGH.
Ok. Controversial. I love how ali talks about sexism in male-dominated industries. But. Isn’t it getting kinda repetitive that a chunk of her plots, or should I say plot, of her every single book, just centered around that? Or is it just me? I mean don’t get me wrong, I love reading about it and how the characters deal with it. But it seriously is getting kinda uncreative….and I hate to say this, forced…
If you read my review, you probably think I hate this book. I don’t. I just found it super annoying. But I like it just fine. I devoured like 70% of the book in one night, mind you. I’m just an annoying bitch who likes to complain and has a bad beef with badly(my opinion)-written “strong” FL. Thanks.
Also, who thought it was a good idea to feature that much pop-culture references, even if it was a YA book? Seriously. Who?
chelseylucarotti's review against another edition
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
charlotte_lovegarfield1's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
phoebeneedsalife's review against another edition
4.0
no but like nolan sawyer is the trademark of ya love interests now. sorry, i don’t make the rules.
maiuwuvm's review against another edition
3.5
Nolan Sawyer y'all.. Nolan Sawyer.
The book was a pleasant read, the characters were fun to follow, and the writing was engaging and flowed nicely. I guess I want a chess obsessed boyfriend now, but who could blame me.
I liked the ending too, it was new, and refreshing.
The book was a pleasant read, the characters were fun to follow, and the writing was engaging and flowed nicely. I guess I want a chess obsessed boyfriend now, but who could blame me.
I liked the ending too, it was new, and refreshing.
demievrything's review against another edition
5.0
Dieses Buch hat alle Emotionen aus mir herausgeholt. Von lachen bis weinen war alles dabei.
Mir hat es sehr gefallen, wie wenig die Romance sich in den Vordergrund gedrängt hat, dafür dass es Romance ist. Es wirkte so echt und natürlich, wie die zwei sich entwickelt haben und Sex-positivity ist immer toll zu sehen. Aber mindestens genauso toll war die Darstellung von verschiedenen Beziehungen auf sehr subtile Art.
Auch das Thema Schach war sehr fesselnd (auch für mich als nicht-Schach-Spielerin) dargestellt und hat alles wunderbar miteinander verbunden.
Ein ganz klares Highlight für mich und für alle Romance-Leser*innen, die noch etwas jünger sind, denn dieses ist Ali Hazelwoods erstes Young Adult Buch (ab 13) und liest sich trotzdem auch für Ältere gut!
Mir hat es sehr gefallen, wie wenig die Romance sich in den Vordergrund gedrängt hat, dafür dass es Romance ist. Es wirkte so echt und natürlich, wie die zwei sich entwickelt haben und Sex-positivity ist immer toll zu sehen. Aber mindestens genauso toll war die Darstellung von verschiedenen Beziehungen auf sehr subtile Art.
Auch das Thema Schach war sehr fesselnd (auch für mich als nicht-Schach-Spielerin) dargestellt und hat alles wunderbar miteinander verbunden.
Ein ganz klares Highlight für mich und für alle Romance-Leser*innen, die noch etwas jünger sind, denn dieses ist Ali Hazelwoods erstes Young Adult Buch (ab 13) und liest sich trotzdem auch für Ältere gut!
amanda_hyland's review against another edition
4.0
I’m starting to realize that every Ali Hazelwood book is an immediate “yes” for me! This story was perfection, and I couldn’t put it down. It’s actually a young adult novel, although the leads are in their late teens/early 20s. I binged “The Queen’s Gambit” during the pandemic and suddenly became fascinated by chess, which made this story super interesting to me! The two love interests are chess rivals — I absolutely LOVE how Ali writes her heroines. They are intelligent, strong, powerful, self-determined — and many times, these are the qualities their significant others find most attractive about them. Loved this and highly recommend to any romance fan, but particularly those who enjoy Ali’s other books!