What to read next
10 books like Check & Mate
Mallory's family responsibility, return to competition, and rivalry with Nolan give attraction a shared language of preparation, risk, and public expectation. If that is what you want more of after Check & Mate, these recommendations preserve that appeal in different ways, without pretending every similar book offers the same experience.
Start with our Check & Mate review by Ali Hazelwood.
Choose by reading mood
Where to start
For the fastest read
Loathe to Love You
BriskFor the darkest read
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
DarkFor the strongest romance
Love on the Brain
CentralFor the easiest entry
Funny Story
AccessibleThe full shortlist
Why each book belongs here
Each match is judged against Check & Mate, not merely placed beside it because the books share a broad genre label.
1
Love on the Brain
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Love on the Brain is adult STEM romance with more explicit attraction and workplace conspiracy.
- Best for
- Adult romance readers wanting enemies-to-lovers energy, neuroscience, NASA, workplace sexism, banter, and explicit chemistry.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
2
Deep End
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Deep End is adult college romance with athletics, kink, and heavier emotional material.
- Best for
- Adult romance readers wanting college athletics, STEM pressure, explicit kink, consent, and high-achieving protagonists.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
3
Divine Rivals
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Divine Rivals offers gentler fantasy war, letters, and richer lyrical atmosphere.
- Best for
- Readers wanting gentle enemies-to-lovers tension, magical correspondence, grief, war, and lyrical YA romantasy.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Moderate
- Romance Significant
- Difficulty Accessible
4
Loathe to Love You
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Loathe to Love You is faster and gentler than Check & Mate. Short forms move quickly from professional rivalry or misunderstanding into attraction, while the connected heroines create continuity between couples.
- Best for
- Fans wanting three fast, steamy STEM romances and comfortable with recognizable Hazelwood archetypes.
- Pace Brisk
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
5
Great Big Beautiful Life
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Great Big Beautiful Life has a similar overall reading load, but changes the emphasis. Competing writers, a guarded subject, old public stories, and private testimony make authorship and intimacy parallel questions of trust.
- Best for
- Readers wanting adult romance, writers, hidden biography, family secrets, and an emotional multi-timeline reveal.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
6
Pride and Prejudice
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Pride and Prejudice is more demanding than Check & Mate. Every conversation does two jobs.
- Best for
- Readers who enjoy slow-burn romance, social comedy, and protagonists intelligent enough to be convincingly wrong.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Moderate
7
Funny Story
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Funny Story is faster and gentler than Check & Mate. Daphne's library work, Miles's local ties, their exes, and new friendships make the town and chosen routines part of emotional recovery.
- Best for
- Adult romance readers wanting forced proximity, small-city community, humor, books, friendship, and emotionally available growth.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
8
Someone You Can Build a Nest In
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Someone You Can Build a Nest In is darker than Check & Mate. Shesheshen's improvised bodies and reproductive instincts remain genuinely alien, while Homily's family reveals how ordinary cruelty can be harder to identify than monstrosity.
- Best for
- Readers wanting queer monster romance, body horror, disability themes, abusive-family recovery, dark comedy, and a protagonist whose nonhuman nature remains meaningful.
- Pace Balanced
- Darkness Dark
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
9
Promise Me Sunshine
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Promise Me Sunshine has a similar overall reading load, but changes the emphasis. Lenny and Miles help each other through meals, childcare, sleep, family conversations, and a list of manageable tasks, so affection grows from repeated care rather than rescue fantasy.
- Best for
- Contemporary-romance readers comfortable with cancer loss, depression, and anxiety who want caretaking, found family, low external drama, and a genuinely gradual relationship.
- Pace Measured
- Darkness Moderate
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
10
Love by the Book
- Shared ground
- Both books make attraction depend on changing judgment rather than existing apart from the plot.
- What changes
- Love by the Book is faster and gentler than Check & Mate. Remy's stalled second novel and Simone's family rupture create distinct forms of isolation, allowing work, sex, ambition, and friendship to collide without one tidy solution.
- Best for
- Readers of contemporary women's fiction who want female friendship, creative work, family conflict, loneliness, humor, and love that is not organized around one couple.
- Pace Brisk
- Darkness Gentle
- Romance Central
- Difficulty Accessible
Side-by-side
Pace, darkness, romance, and difficulty
Use these labels as directional guidance. The individual notes above explain the tradeoffs.
| Book | Pace | Darkness | Romance | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Check & Mate | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| Love on the Brain | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| Deep End | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| Divine Rivals | Balanced | Moderate | Significant | Accessible |
| Loathe to Love You | Brisk | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| Great Big Beautiful Life | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| Pride and Prejudice | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Moderate |
| Funny Story | Balanced | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
| Someone You Can Build a Nest In | Balanced | Dark | Central | Accessible |
| Promise Me Sunshine | Measured | Moderate | Central | Accessible |
| Love by the Book | Brisk | Gentle | Central | Accessible |
Keep exploring
Explore another Books Like guide
Start from another familiar book and compare a new set of reading paths.