About This Book
Mallory Greenleaf swore off chess after it cost her family everything — but one reluctant tournament appearance and an upset victory over the world champion pulls her back into a world she's been trying to escape. What follows isn't just a love story: it's a story about what happens when someone who has buried her own ambitions for the sake of survival is forced to confront both the game she can't quit and the infuriating, magnetic opponent who won't let her walk away. The tension between obligation and desire, between playing it safe and going all in, gives the romance a genuine emotional weight that runs deeper than the chess matches themselves.
Hazelwood writes with the same sharp, self-aware voice that made her debut so addictive — quick dialogue, a heroine whose sarcasm is a defense mechanism you can feel cracking, and a slow-burn that earns its heat. The chess setting isn't just window dressing; the game's logic of sacrifice, strategy, and calculated risk mirrors the emotional moves both characters make throughout. It's a fast read that doesn't feel thin, balancing levity and sincerity in a way that's harder to pull off than it looks.
