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A review by samantha_06x
Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-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
3.0
SPOILERS!!
I love ali hazelwood she is my absolute favourite author but i’d been putting off reading this for a while because i had a feeling it wouldn’t be my thing. to start i know nothing about chess but the book is written quite well that you don’t need to fully understand chess to enjoy the tournaments and become invested. i love the, premise guy is so good at chess winning becomes an expectation until he meets the girl who changes everything and he starts to fall back in love with chess!! i could have been giggling and kicking my feet. the whole book felt like it was leading to a massive tournament between mal and nolan. he keeps asking her to play even bribing her and she says no until they finally get to the championship and are about to play.
then it just ends!! what’s the point in a chess book if you just cut to 2 years in advance oh yeah by the way she won and is now a world champion???
not enough romance for me when they finally get together and kiss i was very underwhelmed. not enough tension for me.
the family drama was alright i was very invested and cared a lot about mal and her family. loved darcy she was probably one of my favourite characters. I saw a lot of people saying this was more adult in terms of the sexual content i felt like i was missing something because they just mention a few terms like organism and then that’s it . i’ve definitely read ‘spicier’ ya books. i did like that it was nolan who was the virgin i am sick of the female virgin trope so that was really refreshing.
overall i enjoyed the book it wasn’t horrible and i read it fairly quickly i just have come to have such high expectations of ali hazelwood especially after her most recent book bride so this was a little underwhelming
I love ali hazelwood she is my absolute favourite author but i’d been putting off reading this for a while because i had a feeling it wouldn’t be my thing. to start i know nothing about chess but the book is written quite well that you don’t need to fully understand chess to enjoy the tournaments and become invested. i love the, premise guy is so good at chess winning becomes an expectation until he meets the girl who changes everything and he starts to fall back in love with chess!! i could have been giggling and kicking my feet. the whole book felt like it was leading to a massive tournament between mal and nolan. he keeps asking her to play even bribing her and she says no until they finally get to the championship and are about to play.
then it just ends!! what’s the point in a chess book if you just cut to 2 years in advance oh yeah by the way she won and is now a world champion???
not enough romance for me when they finally get together and kiss i was very underwhelmed. not enough tension for me.
the family drama was alright i was very invested and cared a lot about mal and her family. loved darcy she was probably one of my favourite characters. I saw a lot of people saying this was more adult in terms of the sexual content i felt like i was missing something because they just mention a few terms like organism and then that’s it . i’ve definitely read ‘spicier’ ya books. i did like that it was nolan who was the virgin i am sick of the female virgin trope so that was really refreshing.
overall i enjoyed the book it wasn’t horrible and i read it fairly quickly i just have come to have such high expectations of ali hazelwood especially after her most recent book bride so this was a little underwhelming
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content, Sexism, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Chronic illness
Minor: Dementia, Infidelity, and Car accident