Amber
So I went in assuming LitRPG was gonna be one of those things where I have to pretend to care about loot drops and character stats while my brain slowly melts into the carpet. Joke's on me because I just powered through this entire thing and at no point did I want to throw my phone across the room.
Jeff Hays narrates Carl exactly like Patrick Warburton having an existential crisis and it's chef's kiss. It took me exactly forty five seconds to figure out who the narrator reminded me of, and when I did I was delighted. Donut is unhinged in the best possible way—she's literally insane and also your emotional anchor which should not work but somehow does.
The achievement notifications? Genuinely funny. Not "I'm being charitable" funny. Actual laugh-out-loud at 2am to the point I scared my dog from a deep sleep funny.
Some books use profanity like adjectives and it feels way too much. This book has profanity in all the right places. To the point that I'm like "If he wasn't cursing up one side and down another right here I would seriously be side eyeing the crap out of him"
Here's the part that caught me off guard though: there's actually something going on underneath all the smashing and looting and boss battles. (Which BTW are hilariously named! The Juicer being a gym bro? OMG So on point!) Questions you want answers to. Mysteries that don't feel like filler. The world's building itself sideways while Carl's just trying to survive (and find himself some goddamned pants!) and you're sitting there going "wait what the hell is actually happening" right there with him.
Not convinced the whole LitRPG thing is my genre long-term. But this book absolutely earned its spot and I'm already hunting down book two.
DNF at chapter 29. No regrets..
I tried. Genuinely, sincerely, nine hours of my life tried. I came in fully prepared to love this because BookTok told me to and I trust BookTok approximately 70% of the time. This was the 30%.
Here's the thing nobody warns you about before you commit nine hours to this audiobook: Pierce Brown writes like you already passed the exam on his world. He drops terms like you took the prerequisite. Helldiver, clawDrill, bloodydamn, and fifteen shades of the same Irish accent all blur into a wall of "I think something just happened but I genuinely cannot tell who said it to whom." The narrator (Tim Gerard Reynolds) is beloved by approximately half the internet. I am firmly in the other half. Every character, internal narration, battle cry, whispered threat, and casual piss joke sounds exactly the same. I lost track of who was speaking so often I started treating it like white noise.
Which brings me to the piss jokes. There are... so many. I get that they're teenage boys. But good Lord....lay off the bodily functions please.
The school section, which is where I spent the bulk of my listening time, is basically Lord of the Flies on Mars with extra steps and significantly more bodily fluid references. I kept waiting for a plot. Actual plot. The kind where things happen for reasons beyond "power is good, weakness is death, also here is a sentence about urine." It didn't come.
I care about zero characters. Darrow included. Especially Darrow. Multiple literary critics have confirmed this is a known issue and not a me problem, which is the one thing this book gave me that I'll hold onto.
The anxiety this book produced was not the good kind. Not the Sanderson "oh no what's happening to my favorite found family" kind. More like the "I have seventeen things due and my inbox is on fire" kind. I don't read to feel like I forgot to file my taxes.
Never Again. Ever.
I feel like I've been on an emotional roller coaster reading this series, and more to the point, this book! My head has been in Horstberg since I picked up this first book.
This is hands down, the BEST book she has EVER written! Some of her other books that she's written before have felt VERY preachy and this one isn't AT ALL! It talks of faith and putting your trust in God, but it doesn't over do it.
The real thing for me was the fact that she wrote so openly about having an affair and the things that go along with that. This is far beyond anything that she's ever written so openly (and non-preachy!) about in the past! The emotions that drive the charactors are so real I could reach out and touch them.
This book is so emotional because it goes into detail about losing two family members and the circumstances that surrounded it.It had me sobbing at the beginning of the book and I was downright depressed during most of it, because of the events at the beginning! Losing Cameron and Erich at the SAME TIME destroyed me! As I'm sure it did the people in this book.
Emotional roller coaster from the first page to the last. I'm so glad I read these books. My heart and mind will forever be in Horstberg! I hope she writes another one, because I don't feel like the stories are done yet!
This book was easily my favorite of the series so far. My only complaint is that it ended rather abruptly but it makes sense why when you start reading book 5.
This was great in terms of the plot and the love story and the real raw feelings.
She uses the word “instinctively” and “poignant” WAY too much, but other than that, it's a great book!
This was my LEAST favorite of all five books! It seemed to jump all over the place with no sense of continuity to the story or the characters. And I'm sorry but kidnapping a princess and buying her nice things and getting her drunk to think she'd been compromised so she'll marry you? SERIOUSLY!?!?!
I guess it sets up the next couple books in the series nicely and gives some filler, but it really only seemed like a filler book at best. There are far better ones in this series, and ones that she's written outside of this series.
Giving this book a 3 only because I'm in love with the series and can't put them down but this was PAINFUL for me to get through. The next couple are so much better!
Is it weird to say that this is my new favorite series by Anita Stansfield and still give it a four star review? It's a great book, and I was so glad to finally hear Lance's story! He was one of my favorites in the last book.
It's a great book with relateable characters and I”m glad to see it going forward and check in with my peeps again. That being said, Nadine was WHINY!!! She couldn't let go of the past, and the whole thing of pushing Lance away, I mean seriously? She can't let him explain himself at all, and just gets mad at him forever? sigh
However it came though well and it was overall a great book. This is most definitely my favorite series she's ever written and my new favorites to check in with. Reading #3 now!
I have been a great fan of Anita Stansfield (Elizabeth D. Michaels) since I was a teenager. I have read nearly every book she's ever written. This book did not disappoint! At times it felt as if it were super slow and I just wanted the story to move forward. And then it did and I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what was going to happen.
While I'm extremely familiar with her writing style and usual plot lines and development (And I got a good taste of that here) I was pleasantly surprised by the depth and the realism in these books. How the characters actually used curse words like normal people, and how they're drinking beer and things like that. While it's still very tame in the romance part, it was enough to give me a picture of what's happening.
Very very long book and at times I had a hard time plugging through it, but I”m glad I did because it was a great story! I'm currently reading the next in the series and am enjoying it as well. Definitely recommend these books to a friend. I only took off one star because it's a slow moving long book. Otherwise it's great!
Seriously Anita? I mean come on, really? I know you have better stuff in you than this drivel! For crying out loud it's basically the outline of a book! The plot is RIDICULOUS and so predictable I could tell you what would happen before it happened.
I want my money back! There's three hours of my life I won't get back! If this was the first Anita Stansfield book I'd ever read I wouldn't be reading another one. Complete garbage!