Review: Check & Mate

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Mallory Greenleaf was chess-mad as a child, then something happened, something to do with her father, and she hasn't played or competed since. Her father is no longer in the picture, her mother has a serious medical condition and no health insurance, and she has two younger sisters who need guinea pigs and skates for roller derby. All of which means, while her friends are leaving to go to college Mallory is working as many jobs as she can to keep the family afloat (as an aside, maybe its the exorbitant cost of housing in the South-East of England, but I can't see any eighteen year old being able to make enough money to cover my mortgage payments).

Anyhoo, Mallory's BFF Easton ropes her into being part of a four person team competing in a charity chess tournament. Her first game is against notorious Kingkiller Nolan Sawyer, the world's number one rated player, and she manages to beat him. Now Mallory has been offered a one-year fellowship by a chess club to help her develop as a player. It could be the answer to all her financial woes, not only by paying her a salary but also with the potential for big winnings, but it will mean reading about chess and playing chess eight hours a day.

Also, rumour has it that Nolan is bad-tempered and holds a grudge, being beaten by a nobody must have been excruciating, how can Mallory avoid him when he seems to pop up everywhere she goes.

I watched The Queen's Gambit on TV and this is obviously playing to that audience. I don't play chess so I have no idea of how likely/feasible any of the game outlines are. There were plenty of gambits thrown about. True chess aficionados would be better able to opine on whether it makes sense.

Ali Hazelwood writes about YA/NA (I always put that because I can never remember which is which) FMC who are clever, hard-working, generally breadline poor, with sad/tragic backstories. In contrast her MMCs are usually very successful and wealthy, albeit with some lack of self-confidence. This book is no different, However, I think Ali Hazelwood may have taken onboard some of the criticisms that were levelled against her previous books, because those aspects were turned right down in this book. Yes, Nolan is large and loomed a lot, but I don't recall Mallory being described as particularly petite or delicate. Similarly, Mallory doesn't feel the need to use big words to show the reader how smart she is and the right-on eco message is there but muted.

Which is all a long-winded way of saying, I liked it, I really liked it.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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