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Ali Hazelwood

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood (Afterlight Exclusive)

£24.00

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Two Can Play and Check & Mate Presale:

Presale for Two Can Play and Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood (Afterlight Exclusive) will begin on 16 June 2026 at 3pm BST for active Afterlight subscribers. General Sale will begin on 18 June at 3pm BST.

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Check & Mate shipping:

It is expected to ship in October.

About the product

In this clever and swoonworthy new novel from the New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of The Love Hypothesis, life's moving pieces bring rival chess players together in a match for the heart.

Mallory Greenleaf is 
done with chess. Every move counts nowadays; after the sport led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory's focus is on her mom, her sisters, and the dead-end job that keeps the lights on. That is, until she begrudgingly agrees to play in one last charity tournament and inadvertently wipes the board with notorious 'Kingkiller' Nolan Sawyer: current world champion and reigning Bad Boy of chess.

Nolan's loss to an unknown rookie shocks everyone. What's even more confusing? His desire to cross pawns again. What kind of gambit is Nolan playing? The smart move would be to walk away. Resign. Game over. But Mallory's victory opens the door to sorely needed cash-prizes and despite everything, she can't help feeling drawn to the enigmatic strategist...

As she rockets up the ranks, Mallory struggles to keep her family safely separated from the game that wrecked it in the first place. And as her love for the sport she so desperately wanted to hate begins to rekindle, Mallory quickly realizes that the games aren't only on the board, the spotlight is brighter than she imagined, and the competition can be fierce (-ly attractive. And intelligent... and infuriating...)

Our redesign of the Afterlight Exclusive: Check & Mate edition is a B-format hardback and features:

  • An exclusive alternate trade cover (from the publisher)
  • Full colour artwork on the hardback (@eveandersondraws)
  • Digitally printed edges (by @eveandersondraws)⁠
  • Illustrated endpapers (by @emmagilletteart); different front and back
  • Digitally signed by the author

Please note, this is a digital mock-up and finished copies may differ slightly.⁠

Limited to one copy per person.

Tropes for Check & Mate include: rivals to lovers, he falls first, mutual pining

About the Author

Ali Hazelwood is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love, Theoretically and The Love Hypothesis, as well as a writer of peer-reviewed articles about brain science, in which no one makes out and the ever after is not always happy. Originally from Italy, she lived in Germany and Japan before moving to the US to pursue a PhD in neuroscience. When Ali is not at work, she can be found running, eating cake pops, or watching sci-fi movies with her three feline overlords (and her slightly-less-feline husband).

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    If you are based in Australia, a 10% sales tax will be added to your order at checkout. 

    If you are based in the US and Canada, your monthly Illumicrate and Afterlight subscription ships from our US warehouse. You can see a list of those shipping rates here.

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