Review: Immortal Game by Allison Saft

Immortal Game by Allison Saft
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC and ALC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This was an interesting tale about a teenage chess prodigy, who's entire life has been consumed by playing chess to get her sister back from the Fae King.  Shea's older sister is married to the king, and Shea has been under the impression that he "took" her even though she said she wanted to go with him.  Now a chess grandmaster at 18, the King is hosting a tournament where the winner  will be granted a boon, and Shea intends to ask for her sister back.  The stakes are high for all of the players but for Shea, she has dedicated her entire life to beating King Midir and getting her sister back.

I found it hard to connect with the main character and the love interest.  I didn't feel the chemistry between them unless they were discussing chess, I didn't really feel the romantic spark between them.  I'm also not a big chess player, I've tried learning but I can't see the board more than one move ahead, so while it was a unique element to use as the basis for the high stake competition.  I'm not sure if the strategies and moves are real or pure fiction but I appreciated the effort and research the author had to have done to make it realistic.  The plot overall fell short for me.  I liked the lore aspects and the different challenges, but the fantasy elements and mystery elements weren't to my taste and everything wrapped up to easily and neatly at the end.

Overall I think there are going to be people who really love this book, and while I found it just OK, I think there are others who are going to love the slower pace and the unique world the author has built for the tournament.  

View all my reviews