The First Move

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In fact, the family angst was the best thing about the book, and it was really, really good. In addition to the sections about Renia's mother, there's the stuff with her birth daughter. This is developed really slowly, and Lohmann doesn't make it into some sort of insta-connection. It feels realistic, both painful and hopeful at the same time, and I really liked it. I also liked Renia's relationship with Sarah, Miles’ daughter, in whom she sees bits of herself. Juliet believes girls like her - girls with arthritis - don't get their own love stories. She exists at the edges of her friends' social lives, skipping parties to play online chess under a pseudonym with strangers around the world. There, she isn't just 'the girl with crutches'.

I want to say again that the people feel real, the emotions feel real, the situations, regrets, second-guessing--everything. And the pull between Renia and Miles is so sweet. The romance is wonderful and the sex scenes are really good. There is so much in this book but it all works so well together. It's a book about finding a healthy place in relationships- between mother and daughter, father and daughter, mother and the daughter she gave up for adoption, between a man and a woman falling in love. There is hope, fear, rejection, forgiveness and finally acceptance. Acceptance that you do the best you can, so forgive yourself and others and move on with your life.For Jenny Ireland, pain from arthritis has been part of life for 13 years. But now the Northern Irish author has tapped into that, as Juliet—the teenage protagonist in her début novel The First Move—suffers from the same condition she does. Ronan’s contained emotions, as well as his somewhat strained relationship with his mother, make starting at a completely new school daunting; the planning and approaching both his social life and school environment through chess makes for a niche but refreshing read, allowing more to be seen of his thought process as he references pieces moving or patterns/move sets of Grandmasters. Upon waking up one week later, Ireland was told the virus had developed into encephalitis: inflammation of the brain. While unconscious, she underwent two brain surgeries and had a tube implemented to drain fluid from her brain to her abdomen. Although she’s now recovered, the tube is there to stay.

I read this for my romance book club where the theme of the month was "secret babies". This book fit that theme well, which is all I'll say to prevent spoilers. I did think the baby issue was handled with a lot of care and lot more detail than I'm used to. This book was incredibly realistic. Both hero and heroine were incredibly flawed, major mistakes, and dealt with them as actual real people would. Not a terrible thing to read, but not exactly what I'm used to in a romance, especially not in a Harlequin. Real life is the doctor handing you disgusting grey crutches and telling you that you’ll need to use a walking aid for the foreseeable future. My book, The First Move, is a YA romance that follows two protagonists. Juliet and Ronan. Juliet lives with inflammatory arthritis and is ridiculously cynical about love . And Ronan, the new boy at school, who is good-looking, smart and is hiding a huge family secret that he can’t deal with, let alone talk about. Both Juliet and Ronan use Chesslife ( an online chess app) as a means of escapism. They meet anonymously online, where they form a relationship, which eventually spills over into real life.Senior commissioning editor Naomi Colthurst acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for Chaos and Flame by Tessa Gratton and Justina Ireland in a two-book deal via Kim Ryan at Penguin Young Readers. Billed as “a scorching, enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance”, the book will be released in March 2023. But Ireland’s real-life inspiration didn’t stop there. Her husband had always been a chess fanatic and had tried to spark her interest in the game for years. After they watched “Magnus”, the 2016 documentary about Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, she was finally hooked. After learning the game, Ireland saw chess as the perfect setting for a will-they-won’t-they romance. She wrote Juliet a love interest, Ronan, who she would meet through an online chess game. In the novel, the pair fall in love without realising they know—and hate—each other in real life. Making her move Seventeen-year-old Jules (real name Juliet - her mum's obsessed with the Baz Luhrmann film) is a bit cut off from her peers due to her arthritis (yes, young people can get it too). It could be worse - she has loving parents and her friend Michael is ever loyal and supportive. Other friend Tara is a little less so (but has her own issues).