There are second chance romances and then there’s Bold Moves, Emma Barry’s latest book, which takes the second chance romance trope and injects it with so much angst and heartache that at a certain point, I was concerned just how the two MCs would make their way back to each other. But fear not, dear readers, this is after all a romance novel and one of the best parts of our much beloved genre is in the knowledge that no matter how rocky the journey might be, a HEA is always guaranteed. 

The book is smartly broken up into three parts: opening moves, the middlegame, and the endgame, made even more clever by the fact that these terms also refer to the three stages of a chess match. 

Jaime, the golden boy eldest son of a well-respected family, and Scarlett, a brilliant chess player born to a struggling single mother, had a torrid romance in high school. In fact, I don’t think Scarlett would agree with my usage of the term “romance” since she was always very careful to play it cool, refusing to put any labels on what they were. No dates, no public displays of affection, no going to prom together. But their chemistry was undeniable, and their flame burned hot…and then it burned out in spectacular fashion when Jaime’s doctor father was arrested and charged with some pretty serious crimes and subsequently sent to prison and Scarlett skipped town to follow her chess dreams, leaving Jaime to handle his family’s fallout all on his own. 

Cut to the present day when this book begins with its opening moves and Jaime, now a well-respected television director and Scarlett, a famous grandmaster in chess (seriously, she’s so famous in the world of chess, she did a spread for Vogue) put eyes on each other for the first time in seventeen years. Scarlett has written her memoir, a hugely successful bestseller, and Jaime is desperate for her to let him adapt it for television. 

The first part of the book involves Jaime and Scarlett refamiliarizing themselves with each other while working together in close confines back in their old hometown in Appalachia to write the scripts for the adaptation of her memoir. While they dance around each other, much like pawns on a chessboard (I promise this will be my only chess related line in this review as I don’t know much at all about the game), the spector of what drove them apart looms in the background. The two rekindle their affair and Jaime wants more but Scarlett knows it can’t ever happen because she has a very big secret. I won’t spoil this secret, but she divulges it in the final chapter of opening moves, almost a preemptive strike to show why they could never have a future together and Jaime is furious and unable to handle it. Without spoiling the secret, I just want to say this is a very big deal, and one of the reasons that this second chance romance works so well is because there are legitimate things in their past that pose emotional roadblocks for them both. 

In the middlegame, the story picks up 9 months after Scarlett dropped her truth bomb, when the two are forced to reunite to actually film the show. Jaime is still reeling from Scarlett’s big reveal and Scarlett is unapologetic about her actions and I have to say, I kind of love that. Scarlett refuses to apologize because at the end of the day, she did the right thing, the ONLY thing she could have done and even though that right thing had rippling consequences, her choices were correct and also partly motivated by her desire to protect Jaime. Understandably, Jaime doesn’t see it that way (when I say understandably, I don’t necessarily mean that I agree with Jaime’s stance but that I can see why HE might feel the way he does) and their reunion is rocky. 

Part of their ongoing conflict is due to the fact that Scarlett, who has never really had anyone to rely on before, doesn’t know how to let anyone in, emotionally. Despite the difficulties in their relationship, Jaime is drawn to Scarlett like a moth to a flame and the two once again resume their affair, this time in the midst of filming a tv show that’s basically about Scarlett’s life. But this time, Jaime holds no delusions about their future, certain that this affair is a limited time deal, here for a good time but not a long time.

I often complain about the pacing in the current crop of contemporary romances but Emma Barry handles this so deftly because each part of the book comes with months long gaps in between so that it’s well over a year from start to finish. By the conclusion of the middlegame, it’s Jaime pulling back, unconvinced that Scarlett can truly give him the kind of emotional intimacy he wants in a relationship. 

It’s such a beautiful and tightly plotted book and the character development is phenomenal. I started the book thinking that these two were such diametrically different people, with Scarlett a loner who doesn’t ever rely on people and is fiercely independent, and Jaime, the eldest son, the responsible one who wants to take care of everyone in his orbit. But the realization sets in at some point in the middlegame, that these two actually have more in common that either of them could even acknowledge. They are both independent and reluctant to lean on others. Jaime might accuse Scarlett of not letting anyone in emotionally, but the actions of his father some seventeen years ago has caused him to pull back as well, as if he needs to atone for the sins of his father. 

This emotional landmine leads us to the finale of the book, the endgame, where Jaime must grapple with his own behavior towards Scarlett and sets about asking those closest to him that age old question of our time: AM I THE ASSHOLE? Unanimously, the response is: “dude, YES, OBVIOUSLY” leading Jaime to finally realize that ultimately, how you feel about a situation is not necessarily the actual truth of the situation. 

This review is already too long, so I don’t want to say much more than this: the way this book is laid out, from the characters arcs to the plot points does feel, in its own way, like a tightly crafted, well played chess game. Again, this is from someone who barely knows how each of the pieces on a chess board are supposed to move but regardless, I was thoroughly entertained and riveted and on the edge of my seat to see just how this second chance romance would play out. 

Grade: A

Content Notes: incarcerated parent and criminal activities