Rating: 4.5 stars
Eighteen-year-old Mallory "Mal" Greenleaf used to love chess and showed great potential, but hasn't played for four years because it reminds her of her father, and the less said or thought about him the better. While her friends are headed for college, Mallory is trying to earn as much money as possible working as a mechanic. Her mother suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and can't really work anymore, and Mallory isn't about to let her sisters Darcy (twelve) and Sabrina (fourteen) suffer and miss out on extra-curricular activities. Her best friend Easton persuades her to play one charity tournament (using emotional blackmail masterfully). Even though she hasn't played since she was fourteen, Mallory ends up beating Nolan Sawyer, the current world champion of chess, and reacts by running away.
It doesn't take long before Mallory is approached by Dafne, herself a chess grandmaster and the owner and manager of Zugswang, a chess club in New York City She loves that Sawyer was beaten by an entirely unrated player and wants to offer Mallory a year-long fellowship, to train her up to realise her untapped potential as a chess player. Mal refuses the offer, not wanting anything to do with chess (her father really did a number of her emotionally), but after she's fired from her mechanic job, she doesn't really feel she has a choice, the fellowship pays well. She lies to her family, saying she's gotten a new job in New York working in a retirement home.
Nolan Sawyer, dubbed "the bad boy of chess" by the press, rumoured to be very temperamental and clearly doesn't suffer fools, doesn't seem upset at all about being beaten by a petite blonde. In fact, he seems very determined to meet Mallory again for a rematch. He even shows up in person on her doorstep one afternoon and ends up spending the afternoon, hanging out with her sisters and eating enough of her mother's meatloaf to feed three. Mallory still thinks it's crazy and tries to ignore his interest, but as they keep meeting at chess tournaments, it becomes harder for her to tell herself he's deluded.
This is Hazelwood's first YA novel, but apart from the fact that the protagonists are slightly younger than the ones in her previous books, and the sex scenes are fade to black, it's in a very similar vein. Mallory is another petite heroine (described as a look-a-like of Alexis Rose) and Nolan is of course very tall, physically imposing, dark-haired, and brooding. He has few real friends and is clearly demi-sexual (having never shown any interest in anything romantic before meeting Mallory). Her older heroines tend to have friends or found family, but in this story, Mallory's remaining family is very important. It helps that Darcy and Amanda are well characterised and not just annoying plot moppets.
I also think this is Hazelwood's funniest novel to date. I laughed out loud several times, and while I've seen some reviewers be very annoyed by the many different pop culture references, they didn't bother me at all. The main reason I've withheld half a star is some of the complications in the last act, which felt needlessly forced.
Judging a book by its cover: Probably my least favourite of Ms. Hazelwood's book covers. I get that Nolan is supposed to be quite a bit taller than Mallory, but his posture is ridiculous. The chess pieces also seem badly photo-shopped on top of the rest of the cover.
Crossposted on Cannonball Read
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