Pre-numbered label used for registration.

OK, I couldn't resist. I enjoyed Escape from Fire Island so much that I decided to try this one as well. It's from the same "Date with Destiny" line, but is by a different author and is aimed at straight women instead of gay men, so I have no idea if it'll be as entertaining as the other book was, but I shall soon find out.

These things are GOOD! That is, they're well-done choose-your-own adventures - which to me means that the choices are plentiful and varied, most of them with at least a little logic behind them [but with the occasional completely random choice to keep you guessing], with a generous assortment of entertaining (and often unexpected) plot lines, nicely edited such that you don't wind up on a page that assumes you've been somewhere that you haven't. On top of that, they're very, very funny, from cover to cover. [There are even little frivolous bits in the readers' quotes, the list of future "Date with Destiny" books (I don't think "Doctor, That Tickles!" is a legit title, but I could be wrong), the small-print disclaimer under the copyright, and the author bio.]

I expected that I'd enjoy "Fire Island" more than this one, but I actually think it's the other way around - although both of them are lots of fun. This book's more grounded in real-life choices and fears, such as losing your ATM card or getting stuck on a blind date (although there are some life-altering choices here too - but no zombies). The storylines vary widely here; some are prosaic and might happen to anybody, others... aren't. {grin}

Despite a number of sexual situations [sex clearly takes place but the descriptions are not explicit, FWIW], this is a rather moralistic book; several of the choices are very clearly between being a decent human being or a selfish {expletive deleted}, and there's usually a price to pay - but there are also choices where the author gets playful with the logic, morality, or common sense of the situation, and pretty much dares the reader to see what happens if... and some of those turn out VERY unexpectedly. Oh, and there's one lovely hack that I'll try and hide in a white-out spoiler [to see it, select the text in this journal entry]:

SPOILER: AFTER you've gone through the book and are sure you've hit all the paths [or if you're just dying to know what I'm blathering about], read page 51. (If you've already found page 51 on your own this won't be a surprise, but if you haven't - well, it's worth a moment or two!)

So - these "Date with Destiny" things aren't profound, but they're very well done for their type, and if you enjoy fooling around with choose-your-own adventure books you might get a kick out of these.

Sending this to my sister in New York.