Ali Hazelwood’s latest book, “Check & Mate,” recently won the Goodreads Choice Award for Best Young Adult Fiction, but it’s not a stereotypical YA novel. This book, which is Hazelwood’s YA debut, is about a romance between two rival chess players, Mallory and Nolan. As someone who has generally avoided YA novels since I graduated high school, I could not help but return to the genre for the sake of Ali Hazelwood, who I consider a gift to the romantic comedy and to humanity as a whole. Whenever I read too many mediocre books in a row, and wonder if I even really like reading romance, all I have to do is read something Hazelwood wrote, and it reminds me of what I love about the genre. I’m serious! She’s like a literary cure for cynicism. Even though I was uncertain about how much I would like “Check & Mate” because of its YA status, I ended up having an excellent time reading it. Ali Hazelwood, you’ve done it again.
For those who share my aversion to YA novels, I want to assure you that this book may be your exception. The only reasons it’s technically YA are 1) the female lead is 18 and the male lead is 20, and 2) there are no explicit scenes. Other than that, the writing was completely on the adult level, and so was the plot. It wasn’t caught up in the high school/college drama that has made me avoid the genre: Mallory has graduated high school and is not going to college because she is working to support her family, and Nolan is not in college because he’s playing professional chess. The book also deals with some heavier subject matters, as both Mallory and Nolan are grieving people they had extremely complicated familial relationships with.
What I really loved about this book was that Mallory and Nolan actually made me feel something, unlike way too many fictional couples. I was genuinely invested in their romance. I was highlighting parts of the book, and I was physically smiling at things they said to or thought about each other. Physically smiling! That is way too rare for me when I’m reading romcoms these days; with so many authors, I find I just do not care about the couple at all. Either there’s not enough investment in the pining, or I don’t know a thing about the love interest other than that he’s hot. These stories make me feel nothing. Not the case here! Nolan was down so horrendous for Mallory that I couldn’t NOT love the pining. He was obsessed with this girl from the moment he met her. Their relationship reminded me a lot of Jack and Elsie from Hazelwood’s other book, “Love, Theoretically.” I appreciated that I knew so much about Nolan despite the book not being from his point of view at all. Plus, Mallory and Nolan didn’t get together crazy early! It was totally reasonable! I’m such a stickler about a slow burn, and even I was fine with the timeline (both in the in-book time and regarding the page count).
Another thing I really enjoyed was how this book had an actual plot. It was very much focused on Mallory’s personal journey with chess as well as her relationship with her family. In fact, Mallory and Nolan barely interact for the first third of the book. Mallory struggles so much throughout the novel, and some of the parts with her sisters were honestly hard to read because they treated her so poorly. They do eventually talk it out, but it was rough and unpleasant at times. I have had a problem with some other romance novels where they’re just kind of boring, but this book absolutely did not have that issue for me. I was super interested in where it was going the whole time.
Overall, this book was fantastic because it gave me a plot that mattered and a romance I could root for. Ali Hazelwood, I owe you so much. I will read everything you write, even if it is a shopping list.
