User blog:General Khor/The Family Drama Affair: What Could Have Been

Hello and welcome to another review blog by General Khor, and today, I will discuss Choices' first ever mature series, as well as Choices' first ever single LI series. I originally planned to include this in my year end review blog, but then I realised, there's a lot to talk about for this series, which is why I made this blog.

So this story is yet another Typical Romance Trilogy: girl meets boy in Book 1, girl pursues boy in Book 2, girl marries boy in Book 3. Now I know what you're thinking, and yes, it started off as The Nanny Affair, but then, as the story progressed, it felt less and less like one, and by Book 3, the title hardly fits anymore. Why? We'll get into it later. Before we begin, I'll reveal my rating for this series, and that is...

Meh

That's right, this series isn't as bad as some other series, but it's not the best either. Now without further ado, let's get into it.

Book 1: Nanny Meets Boss
If you think this is just a boring story where a nanny falls in love with her boss and vice-versa, think again. The boss, Sam, is engaged, and guess what, the kids don't like their future stepmom very much, so it's up to the nanny to save them. Now this is the kind of story I love, after all, who doesn't like a story about saving some poor kids from their wicked stepmother? Not only does said would-be wicked stepmother, Sofia, confuse the twins with each other, her decisions are deeply unpopular with them, and even Sam isn't happy sometimes. So why her? Well, Sam's dad (the twins' grandpa), who is the CEO of a huge company, will only give the company to him/her if s/he marries Sofia, who happens to be a family friend, in order to merge their businesses, otherwise the company will fall into the hands of his/her adopted sibling, and s/he worries said sibling, Robin, won't give the company to the twins once s/he retires. But then, at the end of Chapter 19, we discover that Sofia and Robin are having an affair of their own, and Sofia is quick to reveal our affair with Sam. Needless to say, Sam ditched Sofia at the altar and chose us. All's well that ends well, right?

And so, my rating for this book is...

Meh

Yeah, this book is ok, but there's more excitement to come.

Book 2: Nanny Pursues Boss
So Sam ditched Sofia at the altar and came back for us, and that means we're in deep trouble, right? Sam's parents and Sofia are gonna fight us and force Sam to marry Sofia, right? Wrong! It turns out Sam's dad was aware of Robin's affair with Sofia, and he'd pit him/her against Sam in a competition for ownership of the company (similar to how we faced off against our LI for ownership of the matchmaking company in Ms Match). Also, Sam decided we should lay low to avoid public scrutiny, so s/he finds a replacement nanny and hires a publicist who has us move out of Sam's apartment among other things, but things go awry when we get a job at Sam's company, and worse, turns out Sofia has become the head of our department, not to mention she has joined in the competition. Then we discover that Robin is a sneak and a cheat with no morals, as he's one to cut corners, and when that wasn't enough, he destroys our projects. After we humiliate Robin for that, we discover that the replacement nanny, Jordan, is spying on us for Robin, so we fire him/her and confront Robin about it, and when we tell Sam's dad about all of Robin's misdeeds, he fires him/her. In the end, Sam won. Hooray, we did it, now we can live happily ever after, right? Wrong again! Sam decides to give the company to Sofia so that s/he can start his/her own business, and what's more, who's this? The twins' mom came back from the dead?! Didn't she pass away like, 5 years ago?

In short, my rating for this book is...

EXCITING!

Yeah, not what I expected, but they somehow manage to make this book better than Book 1. By the way, I almost forgot, they could have chosen a better surname for Jordan, as the surname is too similar to the default surname of the High School Story original MC, whose default forename is also Jordan. I wonder how many HSS fans got pissed that their favourite MC got villainised because they didn't pay attention in Chapter 1, when the replacement nanny pronounced his/her surname for us.

Book 3: Nanny Marries Boss
Not a lot happened in this book, mostly wedding planning stuff, and also the twins' mom, Addison, having an issue with us marrying Sam because she thinks we're stealing her family away from her. She goes as far as to try to paint us in a bad light while suing for full custody of the twins, and eventually we have a big argument with her which upsets the twins so much they run away from home, then she apologises to us for all the hurt she has caused, and I chose to forgive her and invite her to the wedding. In the end, we finally marry Sam and live happily ever after.

In short, my rating for this book is...

BOOORIIING!

Let's just say, this book was completely unnecessary. The writers only threw in the Addison drama to make TNA a trilogy. And as I mentioned earlier, by the time we get to this book, it doesn't feel like a Nanny Affair anymore, but rather a Family Drama Affair, not to mention Addison isn't that good of an antagonist, I mostly sympathise with her, and she can be easily forgiven.

How I Pictured the Story
Even in Book 2, we see quite some potential wasted. Yes, Robin was a great antagonist, however Sofia would have been a great wicked stepmother, and Sam's parents would have been great antagonists as well had they not believed us in the first place. Picture this, two uncaring grandparents who put their business interests before their family and don't care if their grandsons hate their future stepmom. I expected Mason Sr and Vivian to believe Sofia when she revealed our affair with Sam, but not us when we counter that she and Robin were having an affair of their own. They'd do everything in their power to separate us and Sam and force him/her to marry Sofia, and Robin would be in cahoots with them despite, you know, having an affair with the woman who is supposed to marry his/her adoptive sibling. We have to find evidence to expose Sofia and Robin's affair, and once we do, we show Mason Sr and Vivian the evidence and explain why Sofia isn't a good stepmom for the twins. Once they realise their mistake, they apologise to us and give Sam the company, and we finally get to marry Sam. And with that, the story is wrapped up in 2 books. Now that would have been a much better story, and it also keeps the title relevant.

Conclusion
In a nutshell, while this series isn't the best, it isn't the worst either. I know some of you dislike this series for having too much sex, but I'm not into that, I only read this series for the story, and I find it ok. Most of the characters are also fine, and like I mentioned, Robin and Sofia stand out the most. So yeah, there you have it, this is a series I find worth rereading.

So what do you think of TNA? Let me know in the comments. That's all for today, until then, this is General Khor. The end, and thank you for reading.