My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris

This interactive romance lets you choose your own path—and satisfy your earthly desires—as you embark on “an enticing romp” through the Regency era (Entertainment Weekly). “If you've ever been frustrated by a romantic heroine's choices, this book is for you.” —Bustle Endless scenarios of high romance, deep desire, and quivering...comedy await your tender caress in this chooseable-path romance novel. You are the plucky but penniless heroine in the center of 19th-century society, the 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, handsome, horse-loving highlander, Captain Angus McTaggart? • Or perhaps you will chase through the chapters a good man gone mad, bad, and scandalous to know, in the arousing form of Lord Garraway Craven? • Or read recklessly on to take to the continent as the "traveling companion" of the spirited and adventuresome Lady Evangeline? • …or yet another intriguing fate? Whether it’s forlorn orphans and fearsome werewolves, mistaken identities and swashbuckling swordfights, or long-lost lovers and pilfered Egyptian artifacts, every delightful twist and turn of the romance genre unfolds at your behest!

Cheeky fun
I read this in the proper way (lots of bookmarks). The euphemisms matched each plotline setting and were suitably goofy: rubbing the genie lamp, polishing moonstones, and even a page devoted to postman related. There were mysteries driving each plot and even with the number of decisions to cover, there were still surprises.

The “Choose You Own Adventure” style is fun and unique in a romance novel. A light and fluffy sort of read if you have a love/hate relationship with romance novels, as it playfully mocks the genre and reader.

ReRead November 2022

Well, I reread one full path and started a second but got distracted and... Yeah. Fun and cheesy and corny and everything that we poke good-natured fun at in historical romances.

Original Review

There's four main paths to this book, the main story that diverges into two, then each one diverges again, a little later on. That makes it feel a bit like there's two main romances and then two ‘bonus' ones - but none of them feel tacked on in the least.

I definitely liked two of the stories much more than the other two, which, not in the slightest bit coincidentally, were the first two I read. Each story deals with a typical historical romance type character and, because I know myself so well, I figured which ones I'd like the most.

My first one was the Mr. Darcy-esque man that constantly banters with ‘you.' The second was the widowed Lady Adventurer, who is usually relegated to the best friend or a cautionary tale and here was a love interest. (Those two were my favorites and I'd be hard pressed to choose which one I liked more.)

The third one was a you're typical Scottish gentleman - who was actually nicer than they usually are. (Forgettable, I thought.) The fourth and final one is the ‘mysterious' lord of the windswept (and haunted) manor. (This one was without a doubt my least favorite, possibly because there were some pretty heavy rape undertones to it. Like usual. Which was especially jarring after my readthrough of the Scotsman had no sex.)

Anyway, the stories were mostly fun, and there's probably something here for everyone. The only thing I'd have liked was more choices. I know there were quite a few, but...I just would have liked more. (That didn't cause me to drop my rating though, because I know these things are already super long.) Also, some of the choices definitely feel like ‘right' and ‘wrong' choices. Would have preferred less of that.

Fun, adult CYOA that I hope starts a trend because I do love these things.

I took a trip with Lady Evangeline tonight to Cairo and what great fun that was! Burglary at the museum, old lovers turned bad... So much fun!

I really enjoyed every aspect of this book, the stories were short and sweet, full of intrigue and possibility, not to mention humorous. I definitely recommend.