Check & Mate a Review

 

Image copied from Amazon

Going along with this month's theme, today we will be focusing more on romance than mystery. Though I was surprised to find that Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood does include a bit of mystery about the main character and her reasons for vowing never to play or enjoy chess again. Don't worry, I won't spoil that mystery for you. I will only say that you have to keep reading until almost the end to figure out the full story about what happened with Mallory, the main character, and her chess Grand Master father, to make her want to stop playing. That being said, the heart of the story beyond the sport itself, is the romance between Mallory and bad boy of chess Nolan Sawyer. I will admit that this is the first book of Ali Hazelwood's I've read and it also happens to be her debut young adult novel. All of her other books have been geared toward an adult audience. I picked this as a read because one of my book clubs voted on this for our February book discussion and I am very glad we did. I loved reading about Mallory as she struggles to help out her family and in the process falls in love again with chess and lands herself a sweet and very hot boyfriend in the process.

There are so many things I loved about this book. First, I love Mallory as a character. She is brave, smart and loyal. As a recent college grad at the start of the book, we learn that she has chosen to stick close to home rather than go off to college like most of her friends and fellow classmates. Mallory even gives up scholarships that could have paid her way in college to help her mom and two younger sisters. Instead, she continues to work full-time as an auto mechanic. Here again is a plot point that I love. Not only do we have a character who is willing to self-sacrifice to help out her family, but she is able to do it in a field that is a male-dominated one. I learned after picking up this book that all of Ali Hazelwood's novels feature heroines involved in STEM oriented endeavors. Mallory is no exception. All of this info is covered in the first chapter, as well as her family setup. Her mom has rheumatoid arthritis, which makes it hard for her to work, and Mallory's dad is out of the picture completely, though we don't really know why. Added to that pressure, Mallory's two younger sisters are both too young to really be of much help, Sabrina is only fifteen and youngest sister Darcy is twelve. Things, of course, all change when Mallory's best friend Easton, who is set to leave for college across the country in Colorado in a couple of weeks, convinces Mallory to help her out in a charity chess match as a last hurrah style favor to her. Though reluctant, Mallory is unable to pass up a chance to spend some time with Easton, and despite her promise to herself not to play chess again, she secretly can't resist a good reason to do just that for her friend. Enter Nolan Sawyer, heartthrob and World Chess Champion. As luck, or as this is fiction, fate would have it, Nolan ends up being a part of the charity event too and is the person Mallory is matched against. Now here is where some readers may have to suspend their disbelief. After four years of not playing at all, Mallory not only challenges Nolan in their match, she also beats him. Something that she immediately regrets as Mallory remembers what a sore loser Nolan has been known to be in the past. Not even bothering to shake his hand after winning, Mallory immediately flees instead. 

I know, I know, it doesn't seem like a plausible scenario. But as the story develops and we learn more about Mallory, a former chess prodigy, we discover that not only is she good at fixing cars, she is a natural strategist and player when it comes to dominating a chess board. This coupled with the fact that Nolan was doing this for charity and probably not expecting to play against anyone that challenging, made this meet-cute moment plausible for me. At least enough for me to laugh at the outcome and enjoy what happens next. But those were just a few of the many positives I loved about this novel. Others that I will try to sum up for you are the interplay between Mallory and her family and how it juxtaposes so nicely with Nolan and his background. Up until Mallory was a freshman in high school, she had a close family with both parents in the home and her two sisters. Nolan by contrast is an only child who grew up with his grandfather being the only person he was ever close to or felt loved by. Later, this becomes another reason for him to fall for Mallory, as he enjoys being welcomed into her home by her mom and sisters when he makes a surprise visit. Speaking of Mallory's family, Hazelwood does not sugarcoat their dynamics either. She makes Mallory's interplay with her sisters very believable. Both Sabrina and Darcy know how to push Mallory's buttons and enjoy doing so, and as she mentions in the book, the two of them are only united when it involves ganging up on Mallory. Other things I appreciated about the book was the fact that Mallory is unapologetically smart. When she eventually agrees to accept a fellowship that allows her to play as a pro in the chess world, she is surprised to find that it is a very male-dominated field, maybe as much so as being a woman auto mechanic was. That doesn't keep her intimidated for long, though, and despite how hard she has to work to catch up in order to be a true threat against long-standing pros, Mallory has enough belief in her abilities to take them on. My other great love in the story is the romantic lead, Nolan. When he meets Mallory for the first time he is intrigued and thrilled to meet someone who makes playing chess fun again. This appreciation for her as a player soon turns into more as he looks into who she is and gets to know her more and more. What begins as a desire to finagle a rematch with her soon turns into a slow-burn romance with a payoff at the end that is super sweet.

Now you might be wondering with all of these positives about this book were there any negatives. Well, to be honest there were a few. For starters, the intrigue about what caused Mallory's family to implode and her dad to leave was a bit anticlimactic for me. While the resolution for that plot point was believable, I felt it was a bit more cliched than I'd hoped it would be. Another gripe I've seen mentioned about this book was that there were too many pop culture references that some younger readers feel have been overdone by too many writers. As an adult reader, I didn't think of this as a problem at first, as I knew most of these references were geared towards people my kids' ages. However, looking at other contemporary books I've recently read geared toward the same audience and reflecting on the ways they developed their character voice, I can see how relying on pop culture references could come across as too heavily done with this book. I also noted some people not liking Mallory's promiscuity early on in the book. While I can see how some might not agree with that for her character development, I thought the author wove that in with Mallory's misbelief about herself very well. Mallory does not see herself as being worthy of someone else's love or admiration. I could also readily believe that Mallory would only be interested in sex for physical pleasure and shy away from any committed relationships after being traumatized by her parents' breakup. Someone as young as Mallory could very well turn to sex as a release from all the adult pressures and stresses she's had to face at such a young age while still believing she isn't worthy of more. It made her seem more human to me as a character. That being said, all of that makes this book more suitable for an older young adult audience.

All in all, I plan on keeping this book as a to-read-again. I found it to be fun, heartfelt, and very romantic. Plus, Ali Hazelwood's depictions of the chess matches throughout the book are exciting to read about even if you don't know that much about the game. I look forward to reading more books by this author. If you enjoy contemporary romances involving female characters that are in some way involved in STEM oriented fields, or in this case, STEM oriented sports, (and yes, I looked it up and chess is recognized by the Olympic committee as a sport), you will enjoy this book and likely many of Ali Hazelwood's other adult romances.

Next month, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I will be reading and reviewing some anglophile inspired fiction. Stay tuned!!