Chess Not Checkers: a sweet college romance (RomCom University Book 1)

Jasmine Chamberlain has a plan, and it does not include losing—especially not to an insufferably charming quarterback who has no business being this good at chess.

As a cheerleader, honors student, and chess prodigy, Jasmine keeps her life running like a perfectly executed opening gambit. Every move is calculated, every goal within reach—until she walks into university chess club and finds Shepherd Kingsley already sitting at the board, flashing that annoyingly attractive grin. He is arrogant, relentless, and somehow, impossibly, better than her. It is the most offensive thing she has ever encountered.

Shepherd has spent his entire college career outrunning his brother's legendary shadow. The record books still bear his sibling's name, and Shepherd is determined to rewrite every single line. He has no room for distractions—except Jasmine is less of a distraction and more of a force of nature, sharp-tongued and magnetic in equal measure. The problem? University rules stand firmly between them, and Shepherd has worked too hard to risk breaking them.

What begins as a rivalry of pointed remarks and competitive staredowns slowly evolves into something neither of them planned for. Between stolen study sessions, sideline glances, and chess matches that feel dangerously like foreplay, Jasmine and Shepherd discover that some games are impossible to walk away from.

Sweet, witty, and completely addictive, *Chess Not Checkers* proves that the most satisfying victories are the ones you never saw coming.