My Lady’s Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris

Information

Goodreads: My Lady’s Choosing
Series: None
Source: Library
Published: April 3, 2018

Official Summary

The romance novel that lets you pick your path, follow your heart, and find happily ever after

You are the plucky but penniless heroine in the center of eighteenth-century society, courtship season has begun, and your future is at hand. Will you flip forward fetchingly to find love with the bantering baronet Sir Benedict Granville? Or turn the page to true love with the hardworking, horse-loving highlander Captain Angus McTaggart? Or perhaps race through the chapters chasing a good (and arousing) man gone mad, bad, and scandalous to know, Lord Garraway Craven? Or read on recklessly and take to the Continent as the “traveling companion” of the spirited and adventuresome Lady Evangeline? Or yet some other intriguing fate? Make choices, turn pages, and discover all the daring delights of the multiple (and intertwining!) storylines. And in every path you pick, beguiling illustrations bring all the lust and love to life.

Review

I don’t normally read romance novels, but I’m a big fan of choose your own adventure books, so picking up this one was an easy decision for me.   I read the e-book, which conveniently allows you to just click the link to your next adventure but does not really allow you to decide you actually wanted to make the other decision and backtrack.  😉 Overall, however, it was a fun experience.

The general idea is that you are a twenty-eight year old woman of the nineteenth century; it’s now or never for you to find a husband before you’re doomed to spinsterhood.  The book presents three main options: a rich lord with a biting tongue, a kindly Scotsman, and a brooding Romantic hero who makes Byron look tame.  The nod to different romance genres is pretty fun. You have a Pride & Prejudice-esque story, a Scottish romance, and a Gothic romance.  Even better, there are actually other choices for romance along the way, including one romance with a woman.

The number of paths was really quite impressive. Oftentimes these types of books give you kind of an illusion of choice, but the paths ultimately converge, but I got consistently different results with each choice I made as I read and reread the book.  I also appreciated that it really is a fluffy romance, and I didn’t end up dead or horrifically maimed or anything I associate with a lot of the choose your own adventure books from my childhood.  It’s just romance around every corner!

I admit, however, to being slightly stressed by some of the options, as if there were actually a “right” answer.  I mean, it’s a romance book, so do I choose “throw caution to the wind and throw my body at the dashing Scot?”  Or do I remember that I am a proper young lady of the nineteenth century and try to reign in my passion?  Somehow it seems like a trick. 😉

Finally, I enjoyed that the book is a bit tongue-in-cheek about romance novel plots and language.  There’s a whole scenario where you hook up with a postal worker, and everything is describe with postal puns.  If you want to see ridiculous romance euphemisms for male and female body parts, My Lady’s Choosing has you covered.

Overall, this book is basically what you would expect it to be, and it’s good at it.  If you like romance and what to feature as the protagonist in your own nineteenth century novel, pick this one up.

Content Note: This is probably self-evident, but we review a lot of middle grade and young adult books here, so I just want to be clear.  This is an adult romance novel and includes many explicit sex scenes.