Spoiler free
Super fun book. I was honestly so invested in the chess aspect at points that I would have like it even without the romance. I really liked this book for the most part and almost all the characters were great, but Sabrina (Mallory’s younger sister) was getting on my last nerve at points. No spoilers here, but her treatment of Mallory felt unjustified (it’s mostly attributed to the fact that she is 14/15, but come on guys, puberty doesn’t make you lose ALL the empathy in your soul). She was just straight cruel to her for most of the story. It got annoying really quick. All other characters were awesome. Ali Hazelwood also did a good job with keeping some aspects of the backstory secret for a while, which was a lot more interesting than all the information being dropped on me in the first two chapters. All in all, a good book with (mostly) good characters.
Super fun book. I was honestly so invested in the chess aspect at points that I would have like it even without the romance. I really liked this book for the most part and almost all the characters were great, but Sabrina (Mallory’s younger sister) was getting on my last nerve at points. No spoilers here, but her treatment of Mallory felt unjustified (it’s mostly attributed to the fact that she is 14/15, but come on guys, puberty doesn’t make you lose ALL the empathy in your soul). She was just straight cruel to her for most of the story. It got annoying really quick. All other characters were awesome. Ali Hazelwood also did a good job with keeping some aspects of the backstory secret for a while, which was a lot more interesting than all the information being dropped on me in the first two chapters. All in all, a good book with (mostly) good characters.