I'm not really sure if I should call this a rant or just simply putting my thoughts out there. Mostly, it's just me trying to give some defense to the Royal Romance Mc. I don't really interact with the Choices fandom very often, but whenever I do see stuff, especially towards mc, it's mostly negative. Now, I by no means believe that there are NO issues with the books, but I do feel like mc receives more of the blunt of those frustrations than she really deserves.
First, before I get into this, I will be honest and say that mc is one of my favorite choices characters, so there is some bias. The way I view the story, the characters, and the various events that happen throughout are completely my own. I personally kind of add to the stories as I play through them. I'm definitely going to try to give valid reasoning here, but it's totally understandable if you disagree or dismiss this. I don't want to start any arguments. I personally greatly enjoy her and have played through the entire series multiple times now (I'm currently in book 2 as we speak). The main thing I've noticed throughout these replays, the thing I'm going to be using as my main driving point, is that mc is doing her best in strange situations that do not let up for even more than a moment.
At the very start, mc is just a regular person living in New York, working as a waitress/bartender, and probably isn't living the best of lives, again just trying to work with what she's got. Along comes this guy and his friends. She'll probably just thinking that their her last customers before she can go home and crash into bed, but then the guy comes up to HER and asks her to accompany them for the night. Her reaction is sort just like, "You know what, sure. Why not? I ain't got anything going on." If you do the diamond scene, she arranges an impromptu boat tour for Liam mostly just because she noticed how down he was, and then pretty much just shrugged her shoulders and gave Maxwell a thumbs up when he asked her to go with him to Cordnia.
Right from the start, it's shown that mc is impulsive and tends to just go with the flow and do without thinking too much about it. Now, if you're like me and like to mentally fill in the (many) gaps that the writers have left, you probably came up with your own reasons and background stories that explain why she's like that. Most likely on purpose, as even though mc is her own character, she is still supposed to be a representation of you. Her impulsiveness is simply an outline of who she is, and you, as the reader, color her in.
That's not to say that she can't stand on her own at all, though. One thing I find that I notice in all the books, at least in my perspective, is that mc is incredibly observant and clever. It may not come across that way all the time, and those two things definitely don't always mean smart, as mc has more than enough fumbles to show for it, but by no means is she at all stupid. Even in her sillier moments, she seems to knowingly like messing around, both for her own entertainment and to be petty and get under people's skins. Like with her whole "fwieeeends" bit with Olivia, for example. She is definitely well aware of the fact that it's annoying and seems to take great enjoyment out of it.
But that is to say, in circling back around to my earlier statement, she's just trying to work with what she's got. From the very beginning, when she arrived in Cordnia, she has people looking down on her, namely Drake, Olivia, and Bertrand. I'm not sure if Pixelberry ever gave them official ages, but I'd say she's around 24 or 25, maybe. She also clearly didn't have a whole lot of people close to her in New York. So all and all, she's a young girl brought to a foreign country to compete in a competition to marry a prince, but now also has the entire weight of the Beaumont legacy suddenly thrown on her back, is sorting through complicated feelings that she might be developing for other people, and has been all but shoved front and center into the national (and global) spotlight. Despite all of that craziness, she is STILL able to navigate through it all until the end when forces outside of her control send it all crashing down.
And it it pretty much like that in all the books. Mc is working with a semi steady bombardment of issues (mostly do to an extremely flawed monarchy system) and rarely really has time to actually stop, come to terms with what's going on, properly plan, of even just breath. Regardless of whether she's queen or duchess (especially if she's a duchess), she has way more thrown on her that she actually should. And all she can really do about it is roll with the punches, try to figure things out as much as she can, and make silly little comments and jokes to keep herself from having a breakdown.
