Party Favors by Jaime ClevengerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the third time I've read this book, all reads this year. I don't know, there's just something about this book that pulls me back time after time. There are many paths that can be taken - but then this is a choose your own adventure - for adults! type book. But that wasn't what I was getting at, but the part where the individual paths make such satisfying reads on their own terms - as if, beginning, middle, end, I was reading one book . . . each time I open the book, and it's not the same book. Most of the beginnings/middles/ends make damn fine books, a few, surprisingly, make damn fine erotic romances, while another few make damn fine erotic flings (the nature of the story 'shows' that you won't actually end up with that specific individual . . . or you do, that's the pathways you chose).
Last month I read a path that I thought I'd already gone down, but everything seemed new - especially the sex scene, I'd remembered it as a tease, a tease that got interrupted. But it wasn't interrupted this time. Which is both confusing and vaguely alarming (in an 'am I losing my mind' kind of alarming). I had just followed the natural flow like I'd thought I had before, I hadn't taken any detours or moves that would have lead me to some other conclusion, but weirdly I found myself on a path that I had thought I'd traveled before but hadn't really. But that was last month. And last month's read would have made a damn fine standalone erotic short story. But we are talking about this month, well, I wasn't, but I should be.
It's not really a reread if you just go down one path (or is it), and yes I did go down more than one path last month and this month. But the path I went down this time, the memorable path at least, was one I do not believe I traveled down before. Which is odd since I thought I'd travelled down all paths the first time I read the book (is Amazon updating the book behind my back or am I, in fact, going insane?).
This specific path started off the same, as all paths in the book do. Since, all paths start with me in a batman costume (it is a choose your own path not a choose sally's path, so yes, me in a batman costume, not some random woman), at the entrance to a rich house waiting for my estranged girlfriend. And realizing, with horror, that while it is in fact a fancy dress party, fancy dress did not mean, as I apparently thought, a costume party. Or, in case others have the similar confusion - the party involved formal clothing, nice dresses, and tuxes; while I'm there in a rather expensive looking outfit . . . but it's still a Batman costume. That's how all the paths start. I'm caught in the costume, I talk with a few people, my estranged girlfriend turns up and . . . paths diverge here - do I brush off girlfriend and immediately leave, or try to explain to her why I'm there dressed as Batman (or, in other words, do I leave, or do I go into the party dressed as Batman).
Well, on this specific occasion I brushed off the estranged girlfriend in a kind of fit of embarrassment at being caught in a Batman costume, and fled. Stopped at a fast food place because my stomach's making noises (weirdly get only fries and a drink, eh, whatever). Then immediately head across the street to a sex toy shop. Still dressed as Batman. Because hey why not. No choices were allowed me, by the way, between leaving the party and arriving in the sex toy shop as Batman.
I'm not going to continue down this path of telling what happened to me, no I'll allow others to enjoy or not. One of the paths, this time, led me to diving into a rather riveting romance with someone I lusted for and perhaps loved for many years (but she's straight! - by the way, one of the benefits of a choose your own adventure for this specific story line is the part where I've read this type of story line many times - and most of the time it bloody annoys me, because I 'know' the two are the 'designated couple' and the 'I must not make a move' *three hundred pages go by while both pine for the other but don't say anything; suddenly, a look! a kiss! A . . . the words 'The End' NOOOO!!!); but here, in a choose your own adventure, there is not 'designated couple', I don't 'have to' end up (or get to or . . .). So it added an extra layer. An extra insight into the situation that oddly made it seem both more real and more realistic. Because in real life you can pin away for a friend, straight or otherwise, and never make a move; or make a move and have things turn awkward for a little while; or make a move and have everything blow up and now you have no friends because, oops, apparently all of your many friends were actually friends with that other person who is now grossed out (or other words similar) by you 'making a fool of yourself' - real life's a bitch not a romance novel). And most of the paths in this book don't find you with the love of your life ((view spoiler)).
Early on in my romance reading days I'd read a book by Lynn Galli that involved a specific coupling. I mention this because I'm actually relatively new to romance book reading. So the fact that most of the book, in that specific instance, involved a woman dating another woman only to turn around and end up with a different one worked for me. I saw it through my mystery reading eyes - that first woman was a red herring! I mention all of this because romance books, no I mean capital R romance books, follow a pattern - two people circle each other, there's some conflict of some kind (most of the time internal (i.e., miscommunication); occasionally only external (mad man with gun chasing them)) and by the end the two will either be in HEA (happily ever after) land or HFN (happy for now). So a lot of the things that are done to create conflict, which in the past I could enjoy (or not) in non-romance books, bloody frustrate me and drive me up the wall in a romance book because I know the two are supposed to be together - it's the law . . . of romance writing. If I'd read that Galli book today I'd probably be quite harsh about it; at the time it was great, red herring and all (part of the harshness is the part where it was something like 90% of the book involved that other wrong woman, and not even 5% involved the 'correct' woman - the rest of the percentage involved basketball). But here? As in Party Favors, I have many books in one. The conflicts are there, but they don't bother me as much as normal, because there is in fact no 'designated couple' here. So a mistake here, there, a choice that drives that woman away, or pulls that one in - well, that's all part of the 'game', and not a frustrating side-trip of wasted time and wasted words/pages.
As indicated, I think, I did travel down more than one path on this read. The 'fell for friend' path is one I read first. But I also traveled several more - like the one where I somehow ended up back at my apartment and flirting with my next door neighbor (who is both bi and currently dating a man) - there's at least two paths that flow on from finding that neighbor there - I end up in some kind of 'situation' with the neighbor (with or without the man involved), or I blow her off and end up watching her screw her boyfriend (it's very easy to see across into their apartment). I mention this further reading for two reasons: not every path is actually fun; not every path leads to sex; not every path involves just two women (fuck I went beyond two reasons). And there were other paths I followed, which I only quickly mention - tack on to this paragraph - because one of them involved a different threesome - different couple, with me in the middle. And all three of us were women in that scenario.
Right, I don't think I actually wrote what I specifically was intending to write, but some part of it is there so . . . good and stuff.
Crap. I now remembered what it was I actually wanted to write. Okay, I'll very briefly tell the simplistic version:
This choose-your own adventure book contains, it seems, many quite satisfying 'books' in it, with great ideas. That's what all that beginning middle end was supposed to be about. That there are several satisfying books in Party Favors. And while I've read this book at least three times now, I've still never attempted to read anything else by this author. And they do have at least 8 or 9 other books out there for me to maybe try. But no, still I've failed to read anything else by them. Partly because every time I look at the other books, none scream at me 'read me now!' so I don't. Let's see, witches, barn . . . next . . . massive waves of flashbacks in this one, next . . . 'Waiting for Love Song' oddly looks like a book I've already read, but not under this name, next . . . 'Sweet, Sweet Wine' looks vaguely interesting but no digital version, next . . . 'All Bet's Off' looks quite crap no digital edition, next . . .
Rating: 6.0
December 8 2017
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