3.5 rounded down. Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Teen for the arc!
Overall, this book was a good read and I think fans of Hazelwood will enjoy it at least as much as I did. It’s an upper YA level book: the FMC, Mallory is 18 and has already graduated high school. The MMC, Nolan, is 20. We don’t have a school or college setting. So it doesn’t feel too young - which I’m sure some Hazelwood fans might be worried about. It’s also fade to black; there are no explicit sex scenes.
Nolan is very much like Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. He’s blunt and straightforward with everything but sometimes hides his emotions behind the hand flex 😂 And will fight to make Mal reach her potential. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hazelwood told me “he’s based off Darcy” because he totally his.
Mallory is…. A dumb smart woman. Shes the type of smart woman who everyone tells us is SO intelligent and has this insane puzzling brain but is completely stupid in most other aspects of her life. The first 25% of this book was me raging at this girl. And many of my favorite moments were other characters calling Mal out on her SHIT - telling her to get her head out of her ass. (Actual words in the book.)
It wasn’t until around 26% that the book finally caught up and gave me some feel good Hazelwood vibes. It’s lovely how she can give us this beautiful tension and I was eating it up. 🥰
The parental plot was…. Silly. Usually I love parent plots in YA but this one felt shallow and didn’t honestly make much sense at all. It felt like the mother wasn’t being a mother a lot of the time - for the four years since she stopped chess I mean. When she was still 14 and needed a mom, not someone to support her adult decisions, but someone to guide her.
Hazelwood also uses tropes that are overdone and mediocre: “take care of me while I’m sick” and “let’s play a game winner gets to ask the loser a question.” While these are decently done here, they are overused and felt meh when considering she could have been more innovative.
Most of the twists of this book I called from the getgo. There was one I didn’t but it made perfect sense too in the grand scheme. The third act conflict was TERRIBLE because it was just the FMC being stupid. :)
So I had to drop a few stars for all that. I still think this book was a little above my “fine” rating which is why I gave it a 3.5, but I’ve read better YA books with better YA protagonists.
Overall, this book was a good read and I think fans of Hazelwood will enjoy it at least as much as I did. It’s an upper YA level book: the FMC, Mallory is 18 and has already graduated high school. The MMC, Nolan, is 20. We don’t have a school or college setting. So it doesn’t feel too young - which I’m sure some Hazelwood fans might be worried about. It’s also fade to black; there are no explicit sex scenes.
Nolan is very much like Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice. He’s blunt and straightforward with everything but sometimes hides his emotions behind the hand flex 😂 And will fight to make Mal reach her potential. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hazelwood told me “he’s based off Darcy” because he totally his.
Mallory is…. A dumb smart woman. Shes the type of smart woman who everyone tells us is SO intelligent and has this insane puzzling brain but is completely stupid in most other aspects of her life. The first 25% of this book was me raging at this girl. And many of my favorite moments were other characters calling Mal out on her SHIT - telling her to get her head out of her ass. (Actual words in the book.)
It wasn’t until around 26% that the book finally caught up and gave me some feel good Hazelwood vibes. It’s lovely how she can give us this beautiful tension and I was eating it up. 🥰
The parental plot was…. Silly. Usually I love parent plots in YA but this one felt shallow and didn’t honestly make much sense at all. It felt like the mother wasn’t being a mother a lot of the time - for the four years since she stopped chess I mean. When she was still 14 and needed a mom, not someone to support her adult decisions, but someone to guide her.
Hazelwood also uses tropes that are overdone and mediocre: “take care of me while I’m sick” and “let’s play a game winner gets to ask the loser a question.” While these are decently done here, they are overused and felt meh when considering she could have been more innovative.
Most of the twists of this book I called from the getgo. There was one I didn’t but it made perfect sense too in the grand scheme. The third act conflict was TERRIBLE because it was just the FMC being stupid. :)
So I had to drop a few stars for all that. I still think this book was a little above my “fine” rating which is why I gave it a 3.5, but I’ve read better YA books with better YA protagonists.