My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel

by Kitty Curran

• ASIN: B073P95WZS
• Publish Date: 2018
• Publish Status: Unknown
• Format: eBook (Kindle)
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[kalventure]

This was a cute read, many thanks to my friend Roxie for not only suggesting it for Combating The Slump but also loaning next her copy!

First things first: This is not a YA read. There isn’t anything wrong with heavily sexual scenes in books, but I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting smut based on the cover. Some of it is steamier than others, but in each of the romance options you’ll find a trove of glorious and themed descriptors for body parts and sexual acts, including my actual favorite “He slides his slick fingers into your arching rainbow, searching for the gold at the end of it” for the Scotsman romance (which is weird considering those references would be more appropriate for Ireland but whatever amirite?. If this isn’t your cup of tea, this book isn’t for you.

I love the sass and drawings included in the book, as well as the fact there there is a sapphic romance option! There are four main suitors if you will, although there are a number of endings that wind up with others.

The romance with Mac the Scotsman is far superior and no one can tell me otherwise. It was the only romance option where there seemed to be chemistry, and let’s be honest... the sex scenes were the best. Not only do we get the line under the above spoiler, but the heroine also refers to his package as a “haggis that could keep you fed for days.”

There’s also a Mr. Darcy-esque romance with Sir Benedict, and I really enjoyed the banter there, as well as a Heathcliff-inspired Lord Craven that’s... something. Both of those were rather lackluster for me in terms of chemistry and just felt off. Lady Evangeline was cute if only you picked the exact right path... which leads me to my next point:

Ultimately, as fun as interactive stories are, I don’t think they are for me. Reading this book made me realize that a fun aspect of my generalized anxiety is a need to read all possible branches of the story. Literally. I had a compulsion deep within my soul to read every page and option, which is really difficult to do given the “flip to x page” component.

This is a light read with a bit of surprise steam that was a perfect escape for me. I normally read SFF and the state of the world right now is making my TBR difficult, and I truly did laugh a lot reading this.

[llamareads]

I originally looked up this book because of the gorgeous cover, and when I found out that it was an adult choose-your-own-adventure, I thought I was going to break my mouse requesting it. I loved choose-your-own-adventure books as a kid, and would literally spend hours going through trying to make sure I got every single possible ending. While I know I didn’t actually accomplish that with this book, I spent several hilarity-filled hours cackling my way through different plot lines.

“You arrive at Seven Dials in London, near the notorious slums of St. Giles Rookery. All around you are thieves, murderers, murderous thieves, and at least eight different people exclaiming ‘Lawks!'”

If you’re not familiar with how CYOA books work, you’re presented with a dilemma and then given a few choices at the bottom of the page, including things like “If you are now fully involved with Mac and his drenched abs of intrigue – er, his orphans – and there is no way you are leaving them, turn to page 25.” While each read-through is relatively short, the fun from these books comes from the ability to start back at the beginning and experience a completely different story. Don’t feel like helping out with war orphans? OK, let’s go to Egypt! Feeling less like Outlander and more like a gothic romance? It’s got you covered!

“You reach for a finger sandwich from a tray the handsome manservant produced moments ago. You take a satisfying bite and relish the late-night pairing of watercress and intrigue.”

If you’re a fan of romance novels, especially regency romance, this is a ridiculously fun romp, with lots of tongue-in-cheek lampooning of common tropes. There’s all the familiar characters, including a Darcy-ish aristocrat, a cinnamon-roll Scottish war vet, a Byronesque madman, a spunky adventuress and a villain named Fabien de Mangepoussey. You navigate your character through various events including a ball, caber tossing, shower sex (don’t ask), birthing a foal, a house party in the country, unearthing an ancient Egyptian temple, and ever so much more. In various run throughs, I finished up the story as a English spy, the new proprietess of a classy male brothel, and the wife of an Egyptian museum curator (it was pointed out quite hilariously in this ending, that I became the friendly reoccurring side character in an series of adventure novels). For the most part, when given a choice, I went with the most ridiculous option every time (at one point, the authors called me a hussy!). Boink the dude kidnapping me as a distraction? Sure! Make love while covered in newborn horse goo? Let’s get it on!

“‘You are the charmer, and I am the snake,’ he says before filling your mouth with a kiss that makes you staring against your bindings for more. ‘But let this snake dance . . . for you.'”

I’d like to believe that the authors wrote most of this in an adult slumber party atmosphere fueled of lots of sugar and alcohol, because that’s the level of silliness you’re getting. Now, that’s not a bad thing, in my opinion – I laughed so hard I cried at various spots. The sex scenes are especially purple-prosey (“you play the most beautiful song on the bagpipes of your joined bodies”), and the dialog is witty, if flowery. And then, just when you think the puns can’t possibly get any worse, they do. Also, there’s illustrations to go along with certain pivotal scenes. While, unfortunately, the eARC I received didn’t contain all of them, the ones that were there matched the book’s tone well.



I don’t usually make recommendations as to what format you should read this book in, but at least for the eARC I read, navigating to the various choices was clunky, so I would highly recommend this as a paperback. While I think this could work very well as an ebook – I’m thinking specifically of linking each choice selection to a page, so you just have to click on it rather than laboriously finding the page, though maybe that’s just an iBooks feature and not available on other platforms – the ARC isn’t quite there, so I’d be interested in seeing how it’s handled in the final version.

“I am merely in this house of ill repute to confirm that your repute is the illest of them all!”

I was originally going to give this 4 stars, but while editing my review I went back and read another story line, and gosh, this is probably the most fun I’ve had while reading in a while. Maybe it’s just my childhood nostalgia for this type of book, or maybe it’s just that I really needed something light and hilarious at this particular point in time, but this concept is gold and I would happily read more of them. So, five stars. If you love regency romances, you’ll almost certainly enjoy this book!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

[Sam@WLABB]

This book brought me back to my youth and my love for the Choose Your Own Adventure books, but it was even better, because this was a regency romance and I was the main character.

From the very first page, I was totally delighted with the tone of this book. It was humorous and you could tell the author was having fun with the regency romance genre. After the adorable introduction, I got to meet all the other characters, who could pop up in the story. Curran assembled quite the cast of regency tropes, and I for one, couldn't wait to meet them.

Then it was on to decision making! At the end of the short section, there would be a set of instructions, which were quite funny. They either told me which page to go to or let me choose a path. Who doesn't like having options? I had started out sticking with one hero, but then I picked a path, which I knew would lead to meeting a different hero. I sort of love that I could change my mind and take the story in a different direction.

I went through two readings, and found both my stories quite charming. This was such a fun way to spend the afternoon. I am always up for a little silly fun, romance, and laughter. I also must mention the wonderful illustrations. They definitely were a nice touch, and I loved having those visuals accompanying the story.

Overall: An utterly humorous historical romp filled with possibilities.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review

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