Published: November 7, 2023
Length: 352 pages
Format: Paperback
Genre: nNew Adult
POV: first person, female main character

𝒞𝑜𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓃𝓉:
rivals to lovers, he falls first, sports romance, virgin hero, slow burn.

Review

Check & Mate is a really cute RomCom set in the world of Chess. I don’t play chess, and I don’t know much about the game, but this did not impact my enjoyment of this story. It was easy to read and lose myself within. It was smart, sweet and unique!

And the audiobook was fantastic, a definite enhancement to an already great story. Thank you so much @librofm for the gifted copy of this audiobook. I’m so grateful for our partnership!

“I look at him looking at me, and overflow with something I cannot put a name to. “Because when I’m with you, Mallory, everything is different. When I’m with you, I want to play more than I want to win.“

Blurb

Mallory Greenleaf is done with chess. Every move counts nowadays. After the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory’s focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious “Kingkiller” Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning bad boy of chess.

Nolan’s loss to an unknown rook-ie shocks everyone—especially Mallory. What’s even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory’s victory opens the door to sorely needed cash prizes and, despite everything, she can’t help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist….

As she rockets up the ranks, Mallory struggles to keep her family safely separated from the game that wrecked it in the first place. And as her love for the sport she so desperately wanted to hate begins to rekindle, Mallory quickly realizes that the games aren’t only on the board, the spotlight is hotter than she imagined, and the competition can be fierce(-ly attractive. And intelligent…and infuriating…)