Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood

4 reviews

filipa_maia's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

After reading 'Bride' I was not expecting to love this book as much as I did. I think my brain was conditioned to expect one thing and got the exact opposite.

I loved this story so much. I really like Mallory (although I found her annoying sometimes) - I appreciate her sense of family and the fact that she simply feels like supporting them; and I really like Nolan - he's just a good guy who learned the hard way how to grow up alone surrounded by cameras. They are perfect for each other.

And I loved the ending - everything was exactly as it should be.

P.S.: I love Oz, he is my favorite character.

Content Warnings

bookameme's review

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Ali Hazelwood is brilliant, witty, and emotionally compelling.

Thoughts:💡

I loved this book! Ali Hazelwood is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. She’s brilliant, witty, and emotionally compelling.

This story got me in all my feels, yes there were funny and steamy moments but there was so much more to it. The family relationships broke my heart as much as they made me laugh. Then there’s the friendships, the new ones, the old ones, and the ones that mentored, they made the story spectacular.

The plot addressed some pretty deep topics between the sexism in sports, chess specifically, and the way a parent's bad behavior can have long reaching effects into the lives of their children. Between everything happening in the story it almost feels sacrilege to call this book a romcom because as steamy and titillating as it was, it feels like the romance was only a fraction of what this story was about.

The audio was well edited with a steady volume and pace for really easy listening, but the narrator was fantastic! She delivered the best kind of performance with all the right inflections and enthusiasm. I enjoyed her work almost as much as I loved this story.

Oh, and let’s not forget the representation in this book. As someone that’s ace but loves romance novels, I found it exciting to see an ace character represented amongst everyone else.

Fun Bits:

⚜️ Emotionally Impactful Siloques

⚜️ Chess Talk! Talk nerdy to me baby!

⚜️ Meaningful Family and Friendships

⚜️ Girl Crushing on Mallory, ngl

⚜️ Nolan Was Hot!

⚜️ Extremely Talented Narrator

⚜️ Positive Diverse Representation

✨Note✨This is a standalone

Full Content Warning:⚠️

Mentions of death and cheating, not the MCs, tackles misogyny and there is some sexual harassment from some asshats

Stats:📊

YA, but we get a fair amount of steam

Characters: 💙💙💙💙💙

Audio: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧

Narrator: 🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️

YA Rom Com: Competitive Chess (sports romance), Coming of Age, Grief and Forgiveness, Older Siblings as a Parent, Rivals to Lovers📕

First Person, Present Tense, Single POV

Content Warnings

btg's review

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emotional hopeful reflective fast-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

4.75

Gosh darn it, Hazelwood, you've done it again. This is an absolutely FABULOUS deconstruction of a parentified caretaker character that hit me hard. As per usual, Hazelwood's male protagonist takes absolutely none of the very relatable female protagonist's bullshit -- it's still a little unrealistic, but it has this fantasy element to it that I eat for breakfast. The main characters are so cute together and they have a fast-progressing relationship. The pacing of this book is lightning fast; I could not put it down. I hate chess and Ali Hazelwood actually made me love it for the span of this book.

Content Warnings

thevanessa's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

It was really was adorable and cheesy and I loved it, but every time I was like this is a solid 4⭐️ read, I’d read something really inappropriate and it would slap me with the fact that this is under YA. If it was under NA I think I may have given it a 5⭐️ oh and the pop culture references were a lot too😅

But not me looking up how to play chess now lol

Content Warnings

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