YA Romance that Wasn't a Checkmate for me....

I loved the opening of this book; learning more about Mallory and why she has a hangup regarding chess, learning more about top player Nolan, and their relationship. However, as the story got going, I saw that this book follows my most hated romance trope: the self-sacrificing/miscommunication trope. Main character Mallory is super unlikeable for me. She has sacrificed going to college and playing chess to take care of her family (without her family necessarily wanting that). Whenever she meets or sees Nolan, she runs--literally runs away from him multiple times. Mallory's go to became I am going to lie or run away from anything I don't know how to handle. The redeeming part of this story for me was Nolan. He was super sweet and open and deserved so much better than Mallory! Even though Mallory continued to push him away, he still goes above and beyond to support her.

Overall fun YA story, but this is the last Ali Hazelwood book for me.