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.
Oh, there are interactive books for adults as well? I must be living under a rock as I used to think, they’re only meant for children. This book sounds delightful. The cover looks so pretty.
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There have been some (Ryan North does Shakespeare-inspired ones!), but I think they may be growing in popularity for adults.
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That sounds like so much fun – I love Choose Your Own Adventure books, and one set in the nineteeth century? Yes please!
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Exactly! Why did no one think to write this before?!
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I’ve been wanting to pick this book up for forever. It’s sounds so fun!
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It was! I hope you get around to it sometime!
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I am not a fan of choosing your own adventure. They frustrate me. Though I like good stories and this one may be a good story. I may get frustrated with the multiple paths.
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Yeah, I think it can be hard to do them well. I hate when you choose a path and it ends immediately and you have to start over. Or you “choose” a path, but really most of them converge into the same path eventually. I thought this one did a really good job with giving you different options that lasted AND also telling a decent story, instead of selling the interactive part as the main point at the expense of interesting plot.
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A choose your own adventure romance?? I feel like this book is already on my TBR list (funny enough)… But, I don’t even think that I knew it was CYOA!!! 😂😂😂Maybe in my old age I just forgot… I defintitely need to get this one, though!!
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I think the “interactive romance novel” is throwing some people off. Maybe they think “choose your own adventure” sounds childish, but people know what the term means!
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I think “choose your own adventure” might also be under copyright, so people use different terms for that style of book? This sounds like something someone told me once. Great sourcing, I know.
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I Googled it, and apparently it is trademarked. Good to know.
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wow i’ve never heard of an adult choose your own adventure before and honestly i want to give this a try now!! it seems super fun, great review!
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Lol! You’ve sold me on this book! 😂 I love that you can’t go back if you hate what you chose. My husband said he used to read choose your own adventure books with his fingers tucked in many pages, just in case he wanted to go back.
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I always put my fingers in the pages, too! Not being able to do that in the ebook is so frustrating! 😀
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ooh an adult choose your own adventure sounds fun!! This sounds so fun and it’s great there were so many paths (but yeah I always feel like the questions are tricks in these sorts of books) Great review!!
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The premise of this sounds so fun! I have the book but haven’t gotten to it yet, reading this review definitely made me move it up on my tbr!
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I hope you enjoy it!
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