Visual Novel / A Very Scandalous Proposal

Simon Montjoy and Sophie MacDonald.

A Very Scandalous Proposal is one of the many stories under the Choices: Stories You Play collection. It is released for regular players on May 19, 2021. The book is a sequel to The Unexpected Heiress.

You set out for England determined to uncover one of the aristocracies' oldest family's secret. But will you find romance instead?

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A Very Scandalous Proposal includes examples of:

• Affectionate Nickname: Sophie's is "Toffee" given to her by Nigel due to her drink of choice. Chapter 2 has Sophie give one to Montjoy which can either be Bunny, Marmalade, or not bother and just call them by name. Benedict Highgates' name is "Bones" due to streaking at Kingsbridge...especially during Halloween.
• Alice Allusion: While taking a premium choice to learn social etiquette from Juliet in Chapter 8, when you meet Cecile, one dialogue choice is to say that social protocol is like being in the titular book.
  Sophie: "Counts don't exist, but an earl's wife is somehow a countess... and nothing seems to make actual sense. It feels like a lot of running just to stay in one place."
• Animal Lover: Lord Gerald had seventeen spaniels seated at the dinner table every night and swore he could read the future in their droppings, not letting anyone clean them up until his psychic read them.
• Arranged Marriage: Speaking with Genevieve in a premium scene in Chapter 4 reveals their parents have been plotting her and Hugo's marriage since they were little. It started off quite well at first with him being a loving husband, but then he became emotionally abusive.
• A-Team Firing: Talking with Genevieve in a premium scene in Chapter 4 reveals Hugo's taken up pheasant hunting, but he couldn't hit anything. She had to race ahead of him and drop dead pheasants on the field to pretend he hit them.
• Awful Wedded Life: Earl and Countess Rathbone haven't spoken to each other for ten years and won't divorce because it's "just not done" in the upper crust. As for the cause, Montjoy is unclear on why. Rumor is because of a starlet catching the Earl or Countess's eye.
• Big Eater: When you duck out of the tour with Montjoy to the kitchen, you can have Sophie be this by selecting "The works."
  Sophie: "Ham, turkey, sliced cheese, cream cheese, lettuce, tomato, mustard, a tiny bit of mayo... maybe olives if you have them?"
  Montjoy: "Perhaps I should rephrase. Is there anything I should omit?"
  Sophie: "What's wrong with wanting everything all at once?"
  • Chapter 5 starts with Montjoy wheeling Sophie breakfast in bed which is a trolley full of food which involves orange juice, pancakes and cinnamon rolls. Sophie can say it's just what she needed.
  Sophie: "Nothing like every food I could possibly want to take my mind off last night."
  • Chapter 12 has Montjoy make Sophie a British fry-up to take their mind off the tabloid investigation. Said plate consists of black pudding, fried eggs, baked beans, sliced tomatoes, sausages, bacon and kippers.
• Big Fancy House: Barrington House is this, the home of the Montjoy family.
• Big "WHAT?!": Chapter 2 has Sophie say this to Montjoy when they suddenly propose marriage.
• Bookcase Passage: While the Blythe Suite in Chapter 13 is revealed to have a hidden stash of port in the bookcase, Montjoy reveals that there's secretly a hidden passage behind the bed, which Sophie never knew was there in all the time she's slept there. Montjoy tells the hidden chambers were originally used by the servants in the old days when the upper crust didn't want to see the help, and they used to use them to play hide and seek with their mother.
• Character Customization: Chapter 1 decides who the Montjoy heir is that you meet during the tour with a male being named Simon and a female being named Ava.
• The Chanteuse: A premium scene in Chapter 7 reveals Margaret used to be a lounge singer in her younger days, though she hid it by going under her maiden name of Mosley.
• Child of Forbidden Love: The second premium letter you find between Thomas Montjoy and Moira reveals she became pregnant with his child. The third letter reveals Thomas meets his son by accident.
• Clear My Name: While it doesn't involve a murder, everything after Chapter 9 involves Sophie having to prove she didn't leak her investigation of the Montjoys to the tabloids.
• Clock Tower: Chapter 6 has Sophie, Montjoy and their party finish their night at the top of Big Ben to hit golf balls, though only to the House of Parliament and the Thames River.
• Dodgy Toupee: A Duke in the 1950s wore a bad wig in the 1950s after World War II and lied about it when questioned. He absolutely refused to have his wigs made from anything but sheared moose hair, had different ones and took over an entire bedroom, including wigs in different styles.
  Sophie: "Are we talking early 2010s Bieber? Because that's amazing.
  Montjoy: "Trust me, it suited Justin far better."
• Driving Question: Chapter 1 has Sophie wanting to learn what Gemma meant when she wrote, "I bought my freedom from him, and comfort for life, in exchange for silence." Collecting all the hidden letters between Thomas Montjoy and Moira reveals once their son, Oliver, was officially sworn in as Andrew Oliver Montjoy, they would run away together. The bonus scene at the end reveals Ollie would be claimed as the legitimate heir to Barrington House, especially since she hasn't been able to conceive an heir for him. For that, she has an affair with Mr. Carruthers, a silk merchant. It's then revealed that Thomas and Moira faked their deaths to live with each other.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In Chapter 13, a premium choice has Sophia and Montjoy take a secret passageway from Sophia's room and into Tommy's personal guest room and knows about the passageways. Sophia is now starting to believe Tommy leaked her story to the tabloids.
• Face of a Thug: During the tour of Barrington House in Chapter 1, Sophie can ask if one of the Duchesses in Chapter 1 was as "cruel as she looks." Juliet than says that the eighth Duchess was a humanist and known for her kindness, but had a pronounced case of RUCF, aka Resting Upper Crust Face.
• Fake Charity: Montjoy feels the Whittenby Gala, a charity ball to help families below the poverty line, is this as not only boring, but not as useful to the people they should be helping.
  Montjoy: "Merely another opportunity for the wealthy attendees to faff about and feel self-righteously benevolent...when half of it goes to pay for the admittedly exquisite canapes."
• Fake Relationship: Montjoy proposes to Sophie to be their fiancee not only to keep their cousin Hugo from becoming heir of House Barrington, but also to secure their inheritance.
• Fat Bastard: Hugo Lawson is an unlikeable bastard who thinks of Sophie as a gold digger stealing his birthright, as well as yells at his wife Genevieve for being friendly to her.
• Fire-Breathing Diner: Chapter 6 has Red Hot Phall Curry, which Sophie takes a bite out of. Toughing it out or taking a bite out of yogurt wins points with Montjoy's friends while going for the wine or letting time out doesn't.
• Forgetful Jones: After passing off Sophie as her secretary to Duchess Arundell, she asks Montjoy how they're gonna pass her off as their fiancee. They say she has the memory of a goldfish and can't remember the names of her own staff most of the time.
• Gay Best Friend: Nigel is this for Sophie.
• Get Out!: In a premium scene in Chapter 7 which shows the breakup between Montjoy and Arabella, one option on how they ended their relationship was shouting this at her.
• Hangover Sensitivity: Chapter 7 starts like this for Sophie after partying with Montjoy's friends.
  After a wild night out on the town with Simon/Ava and his/her friends, you wake up sluggishly to rays of morning light slanting through the curtains... ...And stabbing straight into your eyeballs, like tiny little icepicks."
• Hedge Maze: A premium scene in Chapter 4 has Sophie and Montjoy go into one after Sophie is insulted by the nobility for being Montjoy's new fiancee, but American as well. It was commissioned by the twelfth duchess years ago. Margaret wanted to get rid of it years ago, but Montjoy convinced her to keep it.
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: As with all Choices characters, you can name your character. The default name here is Sophie MacDonald.
• Hideous Hangover Cure: Chapter 7 has Montjoy whipping up a hangover cure for Sophie. It involves a pomegranate and beet juice base for antioxidants, shaved ginger for nausea, an egg white for protein. They'd normally put vodka for hair of the dog, but since they take pity on her, she gets coconut water and sriracha. The final touch is either pickle juice or alka seltzer. If she goes for pickle juice, she says she saw it replenishes electrolytes and she knows it's gonna taste horrible anyway.
• How We Got Here: Chapter 1 starts with Sophie being introduced as the newest Lady Montjoy and then rewinds to how she ended up in that position. It's at Chapter 4 when we get to the party.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Both Margaret and Montjoy feel Hugo would be a lousy fit for House Barrington.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: After the tour, and also sneaking up on Montjoy and Margaret's discussion in Chapter 1, Sophie and Nigel get a drink at a pub. She can either have wine, stout, or water.
  • Chapter 2 has her need another drink after Montjoy shows up at her hotel room and proposes marriage.
• Interface Spoiler: The game lets you know which chapters you can get stories for secret paintings. Chapter 1 is a freebie, but the other paid chapters are in 4, 6, 7, 10, 11 and 15.
• Intrepid Reporter: Sophie is one who's investigating the Montjoy family after finding a memoir from the thirteenth Duchess of Wessex, Gemma Montjoy.
• Iron Lady: Margaret "Mitzi" Montjoy is this, having been the matriarch of Barrington House for the last 30 years.
• Jazz: Margaret loves jazz, especially Billie Holiday and the song, "My Funny Valentine."
• Lessons in Sophistication: A premium choice in Chapter 8 allows Sophie to take lessons from Juliet, the Barrington House docent, about high class society so she doesn't embarrass herself at the Royal Ascot, as well as gaining Juliet as an ally.
• Mundane Made Awesome: Montjoy groans at the tour stopping at the dumbwaiter each time.
  Montjoy: "She always spends eons on the bloody dumbwaiter. You'd think 'food up, food down, occasional maid delivers self to lover's room' would be simple enough."
• Noodle Incident: The "quail-duck-oose" incident in the Drawing Room which caused a rift, though it's now considered by modern historians as the first "food in a food in a food" achievements.
• Precious Puppy:
  • A premium scene in Chapter 3 takes place at Chatwin House for the Hounds for our Hearts charity, a corgi and hunting hound rescue group.
  • A whippet is first introduced in Chapter 1 during the tour of Barrington House if you sneak off with Montjoy. Chapter 6 allows you to adopt it with the default name of Queenie.
• Really Gets Around: Randy Miranda, the Eleventh Duchess who had lovers from every Great House. The only gentleman who didn't enjoy her favors was her own husband.
• The Reveal:
  • Chapter 14 reveals Tommy was the one who leaked Sophie's story to the tabloids.
  • Collecting all of the hidden notes between Thomas Montjoy and Moira reveals that their bastard son, Ollie, is really Andrew Oliver Montjoy, Gerald's father and Simon/Ava's great-grandfather.
• Returning the Wedding Ring: In a Chapter 7 premium scene which reveals the breakup between Montjoy and Allegra, one option in how they finished it is to ask for their mother's wedding ring back.
• Riches to Rags: Chapter 14 reveals Tommy Harrington is this. His father was up for knighthood until he was caught in an embezzlement scandal and soon after, Tommy's immediately cut off from his family.
• Riddle for the Ages: Played for laughs in Chapter 6 if you take the premium choice to go with Allegra. She talks about a prank Montjoy pulled at Kingsbridge that involved leading a herd of cows upstairs to the headmasters office. When Sophie asks where they found the cows, Allegra says that's still an answer she still doesn't know. Kingsbridge is in the country, but not that rural. Getting all the paintings has an in-universe one when Montjoy gives Sophie a painting of a woman implied to be Moira.
• Secret Relationship: The premium letters you find throughout the game detail the secret relationship Thomas Montjoy had with a commoner named Moira.
• Shipper on Deck: A premium scene in Chapter 8 allows Sophie to be one for Juliet and Cecile, seeing the two have feelings for each other. By Chapter 16, the two of them have started seeing each other.
• Shout-Out:
  • Montjoy mentions the Nevrakis clan's tabloid appearances, especially Olivia when it comes to RUCF.
  • A premium outfit in Chapter 2 is called Like A Boss.
  • In Chapter 5, there is an option for Sophie to ask whether Simon is an Animagus (after seeing how well he gets on with horses).
  • Buying the Lady of London outfit in Chapter 6 has Sophie taken to an expensive boutique store.
  Sophie: "It's like the party girl's Room of Requirement... I think they might have everything I ever wanted."
  • A popular children's book Sophie reads in Chapter 9 is "The Secret of Ninradell."
  • Reading the tabloid story says Montjoy had an affair with the Princess of Monaco.
• Stay in the Kitchen: A premium scene in Chapter 10 has Genevieve tell Sophie that Hugo is this, saying they have their "parts to play," which is why she takes designing classes in secret.
• Stealing from the Till: Chapter 14 reveals Tommy's father was up for knighthood until he was caught in an embezzlement scandal.
• The Stinger: Collecting all six letters between Thomas and Moira opens one up. Ollie is now living with his father in Barrington House, though not a fan of his stepmother Gemma.
• Taking the Heat: A premium scene in Chapter 1 shows Montjoy is taking the blame for their friend Lulu's Jaguar going into a pond cause she forgot to put it in park on a hill. Their grandmother is more worried about the scandal of the Montjoy heir destroying a £100K (~$128K US) car.
• Those Two Guys: Juliet and Cecile are this in the story, and can be recruited as allies.
• Time Skip: In Chapter 16, one year passes after Montjoy's birthday when they're now officially engaged to Sophie and made Duke/Duchess of Wessex. Depending on how many premium scenes were bought, Sophie's book is either a huge success, average or middling.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Sophie's favorite food is a toffee mocha latte, which is why Nigel calls her "Toffee."
• Upper-Class Equestrian: Chapter 5 involves horseback riding in the Barrington Estate. Buying the Horsey Set outfit boosts Sophie's relation points with Margaret.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 9 has all of Sophie's investigation published on a tabloid and read out loud by Hugo.
• With Catlike Tread: In a premium scene to get info on Montjoy after they go to talk with Margaret, regardless if Sophie tries to peek in through the door or window, she ends up making too much noise.