Review: Bold Moves: A Novel

Bold Moves: A Novel by Emma Barry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Scarlett Arbuthnot is a sexy Chess Grand Master (albeit I think of her as a bit like Anna Kournikova - looks better than her actual results) who upset the chess world and wrote an explosive biography exposing the sexism and general obstacles to anyone other than straight white men succeeding at the highest levels.

Jaime Croft (and can I say now how much I hate the spelling of his first name) was Scarlett's childhood sweetheart. He was their High School's golden boy, rich, clever, and good-looking, whereas she was was most definitely from the wrong side of town, daughter of a single mother who drifted from man to man and town to town with very little attempt at parenting. Then everything went to pot their senior year, Jaime's dad went to prison and Scarlett left their small town and never looked back.

Seventeen years later, Jaime is a successful film director, who made a critically acclaimed film about what happened with his father, and he wants to adapt Scarlett's book into a film. Can Scarlett go back to their small town and face her critics whilst working on the script with Jaime. With both of them having unresolved feelings (and secrets) about what happened back in the day can they ever recapture what they had or will their secrets tear them apart again?

I loved Queen's Gambit the TV series so I was very interested in reading this book. Unfortunately, other than the clothes, the glamorous female chess player, and the misogynist male players, this was nothing like as engaging as the TV series. The story dragged on (and on and on), I thought Jaime was a whiny martyr and Scarlett was so busy protecting her feelings that she lied almost constantly.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley.

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