User blog:General Khor/2021 In Review

"Another year gone."

- Professor Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Hello and welcome to another semi-annual review blog by General Khor. As 2021 draws to a close, it's time to review what Choices has gone through throughout the year. And yes, as usual, I have more books to cover in this blog, not including Open Heart, which I did a review on earlier, and I forgot to mention it's suitable for intermediates, as some scenes and topics in that series can be... distressing. Anyway, let's get into it.

VIP = Very Infuriated Players
As of now, the Covid-19 pandemic is still raging on, especially due to the dangerous Delta and the newest Omicron variants, so releases are still at the rate of one book per month, though if you're a non-VIP player, the rate would be less than that. Why? If you've noticed, this March and November saw no non-VIP releases at all, while October saw 2 new releases, so there are only 11 books released this year. To add salt to the wound, starting from the last third of this year, all new series will go through a VIP phase before being released to everyone mid-season. Needless to say, many players are miffed about this, because not only do non-VIP players have to wait 2 to 3 months or so for the fun to be given to them (unfortunately, this also includes the long-awaited Greatest Mystery Ever, which of course is not the actual title, I'll reveal it when the general release comes), this also raises some questions:


 * 1) Since all previous VIP books are standalones, will all upcoming series be solo books as well? If so, that means Laws of Attraction, the last new series released before the new VIP plan went into effect, will be the last series in Choices.
 * 2) If the new series under the VIP 2.0 plan do get serialised, will sequels for those go through the VIP phase as well? I mean, I know for sure sequels for pre-VIP series won't have a VIP phase, and so far, one of the newest series is confirmed to be a solo book, and there are still 3 books ongoing under the new plan. If any of those get serialised, I sure hope there won't be a VIP phase for those sequels.

In Other News
Now let's talk about the recent developments for the past half year. So, AVSP and TUH are finished, The Nanny Affair has wrapped up its 2nd season and is confirmed to be a trilogy, LoA is confirmed to be a series, Queen B Season 2, and maybe the series as a whole, is ending soon, and most importantly, The Royal Grand Finale aired in November, thus closing the doors on the longest franchise in Choices. Needless to say, in light of this, I'll be starting The Royal Franchise in the near future. In fact, I've finished Rules of Engagement in preparation for that. I mean, when you've played The Crown & the Flame, you might want to play The Royal Masquerade, RoE and The Royal Franchise as well, it's kind of a king-sized package. Also, for a Halloween treat, most of us got Wolf Bride, one of the original VIP books, while VIP players got Wake the Dead, which only got released to everyone yesterday as "the nightmare before 2022". Also released in October is Shipwrecked, which was released for VIP in August, and like WB is now 3/4 complete.

The New Normal (I guess)
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, besides a surge in gender of choice stories (which includes SW, WtD and The Greatest Mystery Ever), since the end of The Royal Franchise, there has been a surge in mature-rated stories, starting with SW and includes *spoiler alert* WtD and The Greatest Mystery Ever. Ok, I know the first mature story is Witness: a Paywall Romance, and TNA also has the rating, but I can handle the latter (I'm not in it for the romance anyway), and as I said, never in the life of Choices will I touch the former. SW also has the tag for sexual content, but I can also handle that one (again, I'm not in it for the romance). As for WtD and The Greatest Mystery Ever, these got the tag for containing graphic violence. Having said that, anything mature-rated is recommended for experienced players. Not to mention there's also the single LI wave as well. After we had Witness and TNA last year, this year we had WAH (you know, it's my nickname for that tragedy known as With Every Heartbeat), AVSP and SW, the first single LI book to be gender selectable, which allows players to play around according to their gender as well as their sexual orientation instead of sticking to the rigid "girl meets boy, girl pursues boy, girl marries boy" plot. Spoiler alert: the next OG VIP book, Ms Match (to be released next month) and The Greatest Mystery Ever are also single LI books.

And now, without further ado, let's get into the reviews.

A Very Scandalous Proposal
Rating: Meh

Overall the story is ok, it follows an American journalist trying to uncover the secrets of a British high society family and finding love in the process. At first we put up a showmance for the sake of the heir, our only LI, who has to get married before his 30th birthday to inherit the Barrington Mansion. While we're working on our expose, someone sabotages our work and leaks our findings to the tabloids, landing us in hot soup with the lord and lady, the heir's grandparents. Then we find out the culprit is the heir's best friend, who as it turns out did it because he's short of money, but seriously, his motives kind of scream "You're stealing him away from me!". I so wanted to punch Tommy right then and there. As for the characters, I kind of like Cecile and Juliet, the former for her friendliness and the latter for being professional, and I think they're great together. Then there's sweet, kind Genevive, who I helped gain the confidence to stand up to the annoying Hugo. While Hugo is a real jerk, Tommy really deserves a beating, as he got us into trouble with Duke and Duchess Montjoy. Those two are really convincing antagonists. This story is suited for beginners so that they know what Choices stories are like.

The Unexpected Heiress
Rating: EXCITING!

Another story featuring an American finding love among British high society, this book can be considered a prequel to AVSP. After all, who knew Lady Gemma would turn out to be Gemma Montjoy, 13th Duchess of Wessex? What's great about this story is that there are several unexpected twists and turns which are well executed, and as a result, while this is mainly a romantic drama, it also turns out to be a good mystery story. So, from the beginning, we know our sister was murdered, I mean the way she was calling for help, as well as her final moments, kind of gave that away. So why was Amelia murdered? At first, we were led to believe she owed money to someone, but then it turns out the recipient of Amelia's money was going through financial hardship, and Amelia sent the money to help them.

After learning everything from the McTavishes, I felt really sorry for them, and I'm glad I didn't think it was them. This leads us to believe Amelia was murdered for her political beliefs, as Mr McTavish mentioned that Amelia was very vocal when it comes to politics. We immediately have two suspects: the British ambassador to India and his attache, who I dislike because of their support for imperialism (In fact, I still think Britain and other former colonial countries owe their former colonies BIG! Real BIG!). Sure, Amelia was an anti-imperialist, and that's certainly a good motive for murder. What is more, the ambassador has some plants from India in his greenhouse, including a poisonous plant from which the poison used by the murderer is derived from.

But then, Mr Worthington points us to their common associate, Marquess Huntsbury, so we investigate his quarters and lo and behold, we discover he has a secret family in India, and immediately deduce that Amelia's discovery of the affair led the marquess to kill her. So we accuse him and hand him to the police, and that's it, it's over. Or is it? Guess what, we were wrong again! The marquess turns out to be the biggest red herring in the case, as only until before our forced marriage to Francis does the real murderer show herself: Marchioness Huntsbury. Sure, the discovery of the affair was related to the case, but it wasn't the direct cause. The real problem was that the marchioness isn't a British citizen, while the woman her husband had an affair with is, which meant Miss Whitcomb's children could threaten the marchioness' children's claim to their estate, and she wants her children to get their inheritance. Even so, I hate Marquess Huntsbury just as much, and hold him indirectly responsible for Amelia's death.

The LIs are good: John is adventurous, Gemma is outgoing and spirited, and Hugh is helpful. I also like kind and supportive Francis. Of course, the antagonists are good too, as I mentioned. Another good beginner book.

Rules of Engagement
Rating: Meh

Another story that is just ok, it follows a family as they get together on a Mediterranean cruise, and they have to complete certain assignments to win $100M left for them by their grandma, all while their scheming Aunt Lemonface and annoying cousin try to sabotage them. This series fits the bill for the Typical Romance Trilogy (so does D&D, even though one of the LIs is female). To understand the reasons behind this rating, I think it's best to analyse each book one by one.

Book 1: Girl Meets Boy
So, we start off like: "What? Nana left us a hundred million dollars each?! Woohoo!" "Yes, but in order to get the money, you have to complete these assignments by the end of the summer." We are then introduced to our tasks: we have to get married, Nicole has to do all the fun activities Nana wants her to do, Jess has to hold a job throughout the summer, and Alex... let's just say, he has to lie in the bed he made before Nana's passing. What do I mean by this? I'll get to that later. We're then introduced to our LIs: first we have Dean the bartender, then we have William the businessman, and it isn't until Chapter 6 when we meet Leo the European guy (Remember the name! He's going to be big. Well actually, he has a brother who's going to be big, but that's not really important now).

While there are several chapters dedicated to certain LIs, the more interesting parts are what our siblings have to go through. Nicole meets this girl who's being chased by Chaz for stealing the captain's hat, and they have a lot of fun together. Oh, and she also has this interview with the mom of Grace from Endless Summer, who leads this tech company that is full of swanky futuristic tech stuff. Meanwhile, Jess found a job with the ship's restaurant, and then she discovers that one of her LIs is her boss. Now that's awkward. Not to mention, in Chapter 7, she has to serve the bratty teenage daughter of the ship's owner, Claire Fancypants, on her 16th birthday, and Claire pretty much tries to get Jess fired (which is why I prefer calling those rich snobs the Fancypants family). Then in Chapter 11, she has to serve Uncle Antoine Fancypants, and she also has quite some accidents then. As for Alex... well, serves him right for not telling Nana his assistant isn't his girlfriend before it's too late. I kind of feel sorry for Elena, aka the girl Nana forced into a relationship with Alex. This goes to show that it's better to tell the truth than to lie to keep someone happy. Oh well, now that the ship's already sailed (pun not intended), we get to enjoy several awkward moments during their fake dates.

At the end of the book, due to us rushing to complete our assignment, we unwittingly sign a marriage contract with our cheating ex-fiance Trent. Well, even if the document is in Greek, we could have at least asked Dinesh or Alex about it, I mean come on, they're both lawyers, for goodness sake. Look what we've gotten ourselves into!

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

EXCITING!

Yes, this book has the most exciting moments, but there's more to come.

Book 2: Girl Pursues Boy
Come Book 2, and we're furious with that scumbag Trent for tricking us into signing a marriage contract with him. Also, Aunt Lemonface has arrived, no doubt to cause trouble. Oh, and Nicole left the cruise to pursue her career, where she meets her boss-slash-idol, Blaire Hall, and a fellow intern, who pretty much stabs her in the back by stealing her keycard, and he has the audacity to tell her "It's not personal". And then, she also learns what Blaire is like, and needless to say, she opts to leave. Oh, and we also get to see a flashback of Blaire and Grace, so that we know what the former's like as a mother.

Cut to Jess, and it turns out she has a new coworker, who disagrees with her on just about anything culinary related. Mira's ideas turn out to be a flop, but Jess still manages to save the day (in fact, she even got Nomade Michelin certified), and Mira warms up to her after that. Oh, and let's not forget the pregnancy scare she suffered in the middle of the book after she slept with Blake, aka her boss. Back to Nicole, who has returned to the ship to look for Audrey, her only true friend. When she finds out Audrey has kind of given up on her, she went all the way to LA to look for her and apologise. Good thing Audrey's willing to forgive Nicole for everything.

And of course, we got to have more adventures with our LIs, who are more than willing to help us get out of our sticky situation with Trent. While Dean talks to Trent, William finds us a lawyer who happens to be his friend, who's kind of unhappy with us because he thinks we're distracting William from his work, but we manage to convince him William will be fine. The biggest surprise comes from Leo, who turns out to be a prince, and we manage to convince the king and queen, aka his parents, to help us. Oh, and even if we didn't end up with Leo, this won't be the last time we see Their Majesties, but that's not important right now. In the end, we did get freed from Trent's marriage scam and dump him for good. As for Alex, we get to see more fun and awkward moments of him and Elena.

At the end of Book 2, we have to decide once and for all who we want to marry. And then, Aunt Lemonface exploits several loopholes and convinces Dinesh that we don't deserve our inheritance and all our money should go to her. Oh, did I mention she also wants her own daughter's money? I kind of feel sorry for Violet because of the way Lemonface treated her, including forcing Violet to work for her. Needless to say, everyone's ready for a fight, but then Dinesh reveals there's a second set of assignments, and I bet most players groaned when they heard that.

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

Meh

Sure, this book isn't as good as Book 1, but still kind of ok.

Book 3: Girl Marries Boy
Well, when you're supposed to get married, you know what this means: wedding planning! This book has several long chapters in a row, due to all the wedding planning scenes and LI time, which kind of wore me out. But then again, this book isn't all sleep inducing LI time, as we still get to play some interesting games devised by Nicole and Jess, and we also get to see Nicole and Audrey go on more adventures, as well as see Alex and Elena's relationship develop.

But of course, most of the drama comes from Aunt Lemonface, who is still trying to sabotage us. Oh, and let's not forget about Jess, who's now working as a tour guide after Lemonface exposed her relationship with her former boss, Blake. She has to deal with two naughty kids in her tour group, but real trouble arises when Aunt Lemonface tricked those two brats by giving them real swords from the exhibit, telling them those are toy swords from the gift shop. Doesn't she realise what she did?! Lemonface is basically letting two minors swing dangerous artifacts that can hurt others, and guess what, she got away with it, and Mr Fancypants doesn't even suspect a thing. In fact, he seems to have taken a liking to her.

Also, we get to know more about Cousin Violet in this book. First we learn that... what?! She's pregnant?! Needless to say, her mother is scandalised by this, and the one question on players'minds is: how did this happen? Then, we learn that her task was to earn our approval. We also learn that the reason Aunt Lemonface resents us is that she felt sidelined by Nana, as she thought Nana loved Mom and our family more, so she cut all contact between us and Violet. That story made me sympathise with Violet even more.

Speaking of Lemonface, her most despicable act of sabotage is in Chapter 12, when she put a hole in our boat. As if that's not enough, a freak storm set in, leaving everyone stranded on several islands, and we and our LI almost drowned. I mean, she pretty much tried to kill her own niece! Good thing we can call her out on that as Violet later on. But still, in the end, everyone gets rescued, we get married and the whole family gets their inheritance. And also, at least Lemonface truly regrets what she's done and tries to make amends in the last few chapters.

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

BOOORIIING!

Yes, this book has some exiting moments here and there, but all that wedding planning and LI time really tired me out, which is what made the rating go down.

But wait, it's not over yet. After Book 3, there's a 5 chapter epilogue story where we have a family get together since getting married, as well as a housewarming party. Oh, and it turns out Alex was married before, and Elena was really mad with him for not telling her about it. Good thing they made up sort of quickly. In the grand finale, we finally get to know how Aunt Mallory (you know, Lemonface, but since she's changed, let's not call her that anymore) came to be the way she was. Oh, and Violet has a daughter now.

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

Meh

So overall, this story is not bad for a Typical Romance Trilogy, and the characters are great too: we have knowledgeable Nicole, fun loving Jess, secretive Alex, cold Violet, wicked Mallory, adventurous Audrey, determined Elena and more. Recommended for beginners. Whew, there's a lot to talk about in this series, I should have put it in a separate blog.

Conclusion
In a nutshell, 2021 is another trying year for PB and for us, the fandom, mainly because of the Covid-19 pandemic, but also because of the new VIP plan. It seems PB must really be struggling, and now that the cash cow era has come to an end, who knows how much longer Choices can last. I only hope we can see an end to the Choices Dark Age, so that the game can survive for years to come. That's all for today, until then, this is General Khor. The end, and thank you for reading.