As you may have guessed my favourite character, actually one of my all time favourite characters from fiction was Jude McGregor (not Robert Powers, that was a terrible pseudonym Jude) who took his final bow, grudgingly, at the end of Checkmate.

Tobey's deepening involvement with the two warring gangs and his attempts to play them off against each other cause him to bloody his hands. I waited months for it to come out, and read it in two days (which involved my English teacher threatening to convincate it because I stayed up to midnight reading XD). Whilst ‘Double Cross’ is well-written and ostensibly does add value to the series, it does feel ultimately a little superfluous and does not provide the same impact as the preceding three novels. I looked everywhere for spoilers (something I am telling you NEVER DO), and all I found out was that it was going to involve drugs and gangs. The main character is sleeping the whole entire book and the prince is left to save her, only the fairies have left him locked up for a couple of years, leaving him to sit there doing nothing.I don’t think it’s an essential read to ‘finish’ the Noughts and Crosses series, but I think it is an excellent addition to a very well written series. The story is also quite a page turner with tension rising as Tobey becomes more and more enveloped in danger from all sides and it is unclear how he can ever prevail. In the first three books, no one was safe, and that got worse along the way until some sort of peace was found.

For a newcomer to the series it does take a bit of effort to piece the people and past events together, but it's all worth it. I hint at the was only because I first read her books, including the first three in this series when I was teenager (way way back) but I can't seem to get back into them as an adult.So, I've read the whole series and, for the most part, I loved it (I certainly loved the first three books). I will say that this book is particularly action packed with some interesting events which add to the very dramatic story. The fundamental premise underlying this series is a vitally important one – what Malorie Blackman seems to have set out to do, is to robustly challenge (what may be many) readers’ current perceptions, presumptions, assumptions and views on race and (British) society. He resists the chance to earn some extra cash by making deliveries for the Nought kingpin thug McAuley, even though he desperately wants the money. I think many people don’t realise that this book does have four instalments and that’s because Checkmate seemingly wraps up the story.