Growing up, I never read any of the "Choose Your Own Adventure" (CYOA) books. I don't know if it's because they weren't readily available to me or because I just wasn't interested. But now I have found one that's just for adults and is explicitly romance-themed. So, I thought I'd give it a try.
The book is "My Lady's Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel" by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris and, again, it is definitely not for kids. When I say 'romance novel', I mean the romance novel of the Harlequin variety. A lot of your options include sex scenes, both implicit and explicit. However, not only is this a romance-themed CYOA, it's a historical romance. This book is both a CYOA as well as a gentle poke at common romance tropes.
The unnamed young woman who is the reader's self-interest/proxy/stand-in/what have you is a penniless orphan in the early 19th century who is the companion to an irritable and nasty old woman named Lady Craven. Eager to escape her current job situation, she (or, rather, the reader) has four official romantic options:
1) Sir Benedict Granville is obviously a stand-in of Fitzwilliam Darcy from "Pride and Prejudice." He's rich, snobbish, and dislikes balls, and is the nephew of Lady Craven. He also has a sister (although in this book, she's his half-sister) and a troublemaking half-brother who's the obvious Wickham copy.
2) Angus "Mac" MacTaggart is a Scottish captain who runs a charity school for orphans. I've seen reviewers say that he's an obvious stand-in for the male romantic lead from "Outlander." Since I've never read "Outlander," I have no idea how true that is. But if you think of the countless amounts of Scottish men in kilts who populate romance novel covers, then that's basically Mac.
3) Lady Evangeline Youngblood is Lady Craven's niece and Benedict's cousin, and she's the Reader's Proxy (I guess I'll call her RP from now on)'s best friend. So, yes, this book actually goes a bit further than what you would normally expect by introducing a potential lesbian romance! I don't know if Evangeline is supposed to be an allusion to anyone, but regardless, she's a bold and rich widow who plans to go exploring ruins in Egypt.
4) Garraway Craven, who is Lady Craven's son (although what relevance that has to the story, since she never visits him or gets involved in his life, is a mystery to me), is basically a mix of all of the brooding Byronic anti-heroes from Gothic fiction. His story at first seems to be just a pastiche of "Jane Eyre," given that he's a rich widower with a gloomy mansion who hires the RP as a governess to his young son. But then once you're introduced to his manservant, Manvers (hint, hint), then you realize that the authors have thrown a bit of Daphne Du Maurier's "Rebecca" into his storyline as well. I saved Garraway for last, because since he doesn't show up at the ball where the RP meets the other potential love interests, the RP has to go through another love interest's storyline in order to get to Garraway's.
But, of course, these four official leads are not the RP's only possible choices for a happy ending. In each main storyline, there are minor characters introduced that can also become the RP's true love as well: such as a postman, bandit, parson, spy, reverend, Egyptologist, and others. There is also a variety of character types: in addition to the four main leads, the minor characters range from genuinely sweet men to outright villains who nonetheless want the RP. And the types of happy endings vary as well, since what path the RP takes in life is very often affected by which love interest she chooses (which was a reality that real-life women in this time period faced).
The RP herself is very active and likable. Despite being in a vulnerable position of her time period, you nevertheless can make her engage in action sequences, confront her love interests, and investigate mysteries. The love scenes are also all consensual (praise be to the heavens), even if they may seem absurdly illogical, and often the RP is the one to start them.
The overall tone of the book is light-hearted as well. In the footnotes that tell the reader which page options to turn to, the authors insert playful comments next to them (for example, when the page command tells the RP to stop fooling around with one love interest so that she can get to the bottom of the mystery, the comment tells her to get to it, "you shameless hussy!"). And as I mentioned earlier, the book fully indulges in common romance tropes while also poking fun at them. For example, a lot of the names are obvious references or names that are on the nose: the Mr. Darcy stand-in's first name is Benedict, the gender-swapped Mrs. Danvers is Manvers, a spy commander's last name is Fleming, a minor character's last name is Loveday (which, in one scenario, proves to be ironic), and another minor character's last name is - I swear I am not kidding about this - Mangepoussey (a joke for the Francophones).
In addition to the jesting footnotes, the actual text of the stories is often comedic. For example, in one scene where Garraway Craven dramatically flings the RP away from him, the narrative points out the cushions that he must have strategically placed on the floor so that she wouldn't get hurt when he flung her away from him. However, sometimes the tone gets a little serious and somber when reflecting over the RP's choices, especially when commenting on the restricted roles of women in the time period. But mostly the narrative engages on a fun romp through all of the twists and turns of the RP's adventures.
Now that I've spoken about the positives, let me get down to the negatives.
As I've said, the book is very tongue-in-cheek. And as you go through the book, it's clear that the book is very much like a Japanese visual novel. Sure, each main romantic storyline has its own plot, but the actual romantic relationship is not as important as getting down and dirty with whoever your chosen romantic option is (I did say that this is basically the romance of the Harlequin variety). And, as a result, a lot of the love scenes come completely out of nowhere, because there's been no build-up to them. It's love at first sight or, perhaps more accurately, lust at first sight. And because of the book's tongue-in-cheek manner, that may be the point, but at the same time, may be unsatisfying for those who enjoy reading the progression of romance and dislike instantaneous love.
Out of the four main romantic choices, Evangeline and Mac come the closest to being believable romantic relationships. Evangeline is already the RP's best friend when the book starts and the two of them go on a daring adventure together in Egypt, so when you choose Evangeline as the romantic option, it's not so unbelievable that she and the RP fall in love. Mac and the RP get along well from the beginning and work together as friends before the RP ends up in bed with him. There's a bit of kerfuffle when he unintentionally offends the RP by wondering if she genuinely wants to help the orphaned schoolchildren and is cut out for it, but that's resolved fairly quickly. He's a very nice and decent man who treats the RP well, and they work well together when trying to care for the schoolchildren and when trying to get to the bottom of a mystery.
But Benedict and Garraway? Oh, boy. When the RP arrives at Garraway's estate and first meets him, he acts exactly like you would expected the tormented anti-hero character type that he is to act. He's cold and menacing, and growls at her. And then, once you pick the page option that leads to certain scenes...he does a complete 180 and confesses to the RP that he really does want her and proceeds to bang her brains out.
...Huh?
This is what I mean by no build-up, because there really is none. Yes, some of your choices lead to scenes where he confesses his dark secret to the RP and then they bang. But they're just as abrupt because the storyline is mostly focused on solving the mystery of Garraway's dark past. When a minor character asks the RP if she loves Garraway and she says yes, it comes completely out of nowhere. Yes, Edward Rochester was gruff with Jane when they first met, but before Jane (and the reader) finally learn what his dark secret is, there are scenes of him and Jane bantering with each other and helping each other, whether it's Jane saving him from a fire or him letting her go see her dying aunt. With Garraway, though, there is no transition. One scene he snarls at the RP and the next scene he's making out with her.
Still, at least one could argue that that's the tempestuous nature of Gothic stories: characters shifting from love to hate or hate to love in a rapid fire of passions. But in the case of Benedict? Hoo, boy, get ready for a rant.
( Spoilers and P&P rant )So, yeah, that was certainly an unwelcome surprise for me: the Mr. Darcy-expy storyline was the one that I liked the least. But, with all of that aside, this was really a fun read. Like I said, there are a lot of twists and turns and despite the overall genre being early 19th-century romance, there are dips into different subgenres: mystery, fantasy, horror, adventure, spy thriller, etc. The heroine is active, the love scenes are both sexy and funny (the one with the postman is particularly laden with puns), the narrative is clever, and overall it's an entertaining book. Not bad for my first CYOA.
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