Alina Starkov expected to wake up on a ship sailing across the True Sea, one that would take her far from Ravka, far from the Darkling and his mad crusade. Instead, she awoke in Os Alta to a devastating truth: the war was won nearly a century ago, her first love was dead, and she remembered nothing. Not even that, as part of her surrender, she agreed to a political marriage.

"You're his daughter." Benny stated to himself. "Bingo." "Do you play?" He asked, and you shot him a stare. "Bingo?" You replied, sarcastically. He smiled at the board, before tipping his hat and head upwards. "Chess." Life wasn't easy growing up with a chess Grandmaster as a father; it's even more difficult when you find out you could be better than him at his own game. Benny helps you realise that potential.

Blackwell Boarding School is swarmed with cameras that prey on the students in order to film for the reality TV show that shows an exclusive inside to an elite school. Zora McQueen avoids the glistening TV screen when her nudes are spread around campus, instead taking comfort with the only other person who keeps secrets from the public. Alluring mystery and dubbed slut, Eliott Hearse. Except now, Eliott is missing and no one has the faintest idea where she could've gone. Taking matters into her own hands, Zora believes that the answers may lie in Eliott's favourite game: chess. Partnering with the school's best chess club player, Arwyn Truong, Zora learns that not everything is as it seems and that perhaps the old school holds far more secrets than they'd care to admit. Some secrets hitting dangerously close to home. In order to see things for what they are and find her friend, Zora must escape the gossip and cameras that follow her closely and embrace the title she adorns. The only way to do that? Follow the Slut's Guide to Chess. [2022 Watty's Shortlist] [Featured on Wattpad Editors' Picks, April 2021 + 2023]