User blog:General Khor/2022 In Review

Hello and welcome to another semi-annual review blog by General Khor. Yet another year has come to an end, so it's time we look back at the developments in Choices throughout 2022. Now if you ask me, what do I think of the future of Choices, let's just say, it's complicated, because there are some good news and some bad news. I originally planned to cover The Nanny Affair in this blog, but as you saw in my previous blog about the series, there's a lot to talk about, which is why I made a separate blog for it. Without further ado, let's get into it.

State of Choices, 2022 2nd Half
So as of now, the gender of choice wave seems to have ended with this year, as most books next year, especially in the first half, are forecasted to be genderlocked. Still, it was great while it lasted, as we had Immortal Desires in July, Laws of Attraction Season 2 and Murder at Homecoming in September and The Phantom Agent in October. This year also saw the end of the OG VIP era with the release of Slow Burn from August to November. As for the last book of the year, it's the sequel to the first VIP book to be serialised, which I don't want to talk about (In case you don't know, it starts with S).

Talking about sequels, Crimes of Passion is confirmed to be a series! Hooray! This announcement brought great hope to the fanbase for two reasons: Firstly, before the announcement of CoP Season 2, everyone assumed that only books made for horny women with a lot of sexual content are going to be serialised, so fans were over the moon when the announcement came out. Secondy, given that every mystery story in Choices up until this point has been a standalone, this may be Choices' first successful mystery series (then again, horror stories also don't have the best record when it comes to being serialised).

As for the other VIP books, Untameable and The Cursed Heart are also confirmed to have sequels, and here's the bad news: Starting from 2024 onwards, any sequels will go through a VIP phase as well, so we'll be entering the "full VIP era", as the VIP plan will affect all books, not just the first ones. It all started when PB announced that ID will be a solo book due to time allocation and staffing issues, but fans loved the series too much, and kept begging for a sequel, so they decided to renew the series for another season. I was going to include ID in this blog, but because of this announcement, that review will have to wait. Still, you know how some cancelled TV series were revived because of popularity? Well, never before has PB un-cancelled a Choices series, so the announcement of ID Season 2 was undoubtedly met with elation by fans.

Anyway, according to the latest blog by PB, when sequels were released directly to everyone, it caused an imbalance of resources for new books and sequels, so in order to rectify this, the had to extend the VIP plan to have sequels have a VIP phase as well. Now I understand where they're coming from, but to be honest, there's a chance this move will backfire on PB, and when that happens, it will be catastrophic for the company, but then again, who knows, maybe this move will pay off instead, only time will tell. As for me personally, all I hope is that more good stories can be serialised.

And now, with all that said, let's get into the reviews.

The Princess Swap
Rating: Meh

PB's version of The Prince and the Pauper, this story follows a princess who swaps places with a commoner student after they discover they resemble each other. Needless to say, drama ensues. In college, there's a childish bully who wants to get the commoner MC's sorority shut down by poaching its members, and in the palace, there's a court member who's pretty much the Winston Torres of this book: he's the king's advisor who is very much against Monterre's peace initiative with Ismar and wants to start a war with them. Since both MCs are in unfamiliar territory, they must come up with schemes to thwart the threats to each other's lives. But wait, did I see "twins" as one of the keywords? That means the "commoner" MC is actually a princess too, right? Turns out she is, but she and the princess we know are just half sisters, having the same father (the king).

While this story is good, with the antagonists standing out the most, it could have gotten a sequel if the king had gotten angry with us for deceiving him, and the next book will have us cleaning up the mess we've caused. Even if the writers decided to end the series with this one book, they could have included another chapter where the "commoner" MC reveals to her mom who her dad really is, and have the king meet the "commoner's" mom again, now that would have been a better resolution. Besides, have I mentioned I don't really like single LI books? This is a unique case of a single LI book, as it features two protagonists with one LI each: the prince of Ismar for the "commoner" and a fellow student for the princess.

Slow Burn
Rating: EXCITING!

So in this story, we play as an aspiring chef who travels the world with a world famous chef to help struggling restaurants, and depending on our performance, we get a star rating for each quest. Not only that, we can also collect recipes for our cookbook, which we publish in the bonus scene we unlock if we collect all of them. The characters that stand out the most are Chef Flynt, with his/her fiery temper and impulsiveness, and Zara the showrunner, with her demanding attitude. Yes, Zara's very much the Piper of this book, but much worse, as she attempts to destroy our relationship with Flynt by forcing us to provoke him/her, as she thinks Flynt's meltdowns will drive up the ratings, and indeed, Flynt was ready to break up with us when s/he found out about it. Needless to say, I asked for Zara to be fired in the finale. But then again, I don't like Flynt's attitude and how s/he reacted when they found out what Zara was coercing us to do without asking us about it, so I chose the other LI, Navarro instead.

Murder at Homecoming
Rating: EXCITING!

So you want to write a good murder mystery? Well, there's one thing you should know: every detail is important when it comes to this kind of story. Sure, the discovery, the investigation process and the list of suspects are pretty convincing, but some parts kind of made the rating take a hit. First, the motive. Why? Well, the murderer is revealed to be a troublemaker's sister who did it in revenge for her brother's imprisonment. They could have given a better reason, say April found out that Gabbie helped Tyler get out of trouble after he got her hospitalised, or maybe Gabbie caused April and Claudia to break up. Besides, doesn't April hate Brett? So her avenging his imprisonment doesn't really make sense to me.

Second, the reveal. Unlike previous murder mystery stories such as Veil of Secrets, The Unexpected Heiress and CoP, where the murderer suddenly reveals themselves (false accusation optional), here a few crucial points make it kind of obvious who the big bad is. As for all that evidence we collected, only a few can be directly linked to April, while some of it is tied to the red herring that is Mr Lewis, which is an indirect link to the victim, which can help eliminate names from the suspect list, but for others, like Tyler's stuff and Stevie's gifts, I can't see any connection between these and the case, I mean Tyler and Stevie couldn't have killed Gabbie, right? Also, why include a subplot about a missing sister if that's not going to be resolved? I mean, I'm sure you know that leaving plot threads hanging is one of the reasons for ratings to drop, right?

What I really like about the story though, is how it deals with LGBT issues extensively, including the trials and tribulations faced by the LGBT community. The story of Gabbie and Joanna is both heartwarming and tearjerking at the same time. There's also how the group discusses their sexuality, which I'm sure played a big part in attracting LGBT fans as well. So overall, it's still a good book with an exciting plot and a diverse group of characters with unique personalities. Besides, who doesn't like mystery stories?

Conclusion
All in all, 2022 has been an eventful year with its ups and downs, and as I mentioned, the gender of choice wave was great while it lasted. From what I observed, this year's VIP schedule pretty much reflects the seasons' feel: lukewarm books in spring, exciting books in the middle of the year that reflect the summer heat, cool books in autumn and boring books at the end of the year that match the cold feeling in winter, which means the first half of next year will probably see me stocking up on diamonds to prepare for the super exciting books to come, including Blades Season 2 and CoP Season 2.

So what do you think of Choices in 2022? Let me know in the comments. That's all for today, until then, this is General Khor. The end, and thank you for reading.