Temple of Sorrow: Stonehaven League, Book 1

World should be bigger and not wanting to spend money on servers is a weak excusefor the plot. Also missing some of that romance.

Enthralling could not be put down!! I had to keep reading. Great character development I can't wait to read more.

Better than the standard litRPG fare. Devon is a fairly well adjusted MC and there's a story beyond just "numbers go up." I think I'll continue reading this series.

This is a solid story with well-developed characters, plot and professional editing. She has an enjoyable voice and a solid writing style.The author's previous career as a game developer gave this story an authenticity and solid understanding of how games work which is wonderful for a LitRPG. To have someone who developed MMPORGs write this gives a fresh dynamic and a solid base to develop the whole series on. The reader can also see where the author thinks gaming could go/would be fun to go with technology - which is cool to see. Having industry insight over how something could develop in the future is what good SF and LitRPG does (even when the game is fantasy based.)The characters are multi-dimensional. This is huge for me. The women are likable - also huge. There are so many anti-women, misogynistic (and homophobic) LitRPGs everywhere, and more popping up all the time, to find an author who doesn't make me want to immediately toss the book for it's hatred is a big win (and also hard to do). There have been countless LitRPGs I cannot finish because of how the women characters are written. This is not the case at all here.The book does have a few cons for me.The prologue was a big rush of excitement and it became a book of hurry up and wait, which means after the initial prologue, the story was a bit slow-going for a while. Part of this is our MC is thrown in and having to grind out those initial levels. That is slow and can be repetitious in gaming, and that definitely translated a little too well here. But I was also interested enough to stick with it. So yes, there is a bit of a slow down initially but it was worth it. I have gobbled up the whole series and it has improved with each book.The whole series lacks diversity even if it writes women well. There is a tiny bit, but only a tiny bit. Call me what you want, but there are a ton of different types of gamers/RPGers out there (me and my friends/family included). Why not have diversity? Why not have it be actually representative of what's out there?The way the audio voice actor reads out the stats. I dunno. It threw me every time. Shrugs. I think that's a much more personal thing.Otherwise, as I said before, I thoroughly enjoyed reading a non-toxic LitRPG. I have read the whole series and have recommended it to many friends because it is so hard to find a book this well-written that's not toxic.

I love LitRPG, but it’s hard to find well written novels. This one did not disappoint in any way. RPG was great, characters were well written, NPCs were well done, an editing was spot on. Nothing worse than having an enjoyable read and then a bad or missed edit throwing you out of the world. Not so with this one. Congratulations to the author on a book well done.

I had reservations leading into this. I read litRPG almost exclusively ,but rarely enjoy books where the MC is able to log in and out of the game at will. The stakes just usually aren't there.There was a little bit of that with this book, but the writing was just so well done that I found I was able to very happily ignore it.The female protagonist is strong, smart and avoids the pitfalls of dumb, plot driven decisions. Storyline is interesting. Magic and leveling system was pretty good, although illusion and shadow based powers aren't really my favourite. Storyline dragged in places, with the whole thing feeling like a big slow burn setting up future books - an example of this being the 'Big Bad' who was introduced over multiple chapters, but never actually did anything or had any sort of confrontation with the hero.Still, I'd give this 5 stars within the litrpg genre. It's a fun, well written read.3.5-4 stars compared to the wider fantasy market.If you found this review helpful, please click the button below so it can assist other people too.

This is an enjoyable start of a series that focuses mostly on Devon, a gamer who's out of a beloved game and low on funds. When she's offered the chance to go full immersion in a new game, she takes it and finds herself set away from the normal game opening and left to forge ahead on her own.This is the start of a series so there are plotlines and hints that won't be wrapped up, but the initial storyline is. No cliffhangers, but lots of teases that makes me want to read the next one.Devon is an interesting long-time gamer in that she doesn't go seeking out the game boards (usually) or the walk throughs. Discovering this new world is entertaining seen through her eyes, and the snark of the game AI in quest setting is entertaining as well.

Devon is a gamer in need of a job who lets herself get one basically as a beta tester not just of a new game, but new hardware as well. In this book she sets her first steps in the game with promises for more both in and out of the game.The story is mostly told from Devon's perspective with the occasional switch to the developer of the AI behind the game to help give a bigger view. The switches are short and dispite my dislike for switching not distracting. I also like Devon as a protagonist: she is caring, cunning and brave, using trickery and talk as her main weapons and not overpowered combat prowess. The balance between in and out of game is good in my opinion with it being almost two sepetate stories at the moment. I am curious what is going on.The game mechanics are a bit lacking from a game perspective. It is mostly skill based with no planning ahead and for a gamer very little attention is paid what the mechanics mean exactly. From a story perspective this is maybe better, and at least we get to see spell effect growth in advance which lessens the feel of the mechanics being an after effect.All in all, a good addition to the litrpg genre.

I'm pretty demanding of my authors, and I'm a voracious reader. That, of course, leaves me having to find more authors to read as I tend to run through series in weeks..Some books I'll read for an hour or so, then simply get rid of them.. Some I'll read and find it a decent passtime.Every now and then, there'll be an author that comes to light that can write in a style that actually has me lying awake at night running quickly through the pages, waiting to see what's just around the corner.That's a mix of story and style. A good story doesn't count for much if the style breaks the suspension of disbelief and jars you out of the imagery they conjure up.. And a good style is useless if it goes nowhere and leaves you thinking "So what?"..I picked this up because of a Facebook ad, where the Author herself was humorously answering questions under the ad.. One of them made me laugh, so I picked it up just because of that, and I haven't been disappointed.She carves out an interesting world inside a world. Her experience as a game coder shows in the tech side (nothing makes me groan like badly written pseudo tech, as I'm in a related field), and the design of the environment (and also the trials of game players; the good, the bad, the bland and the interesting).Couple that with some intrigue that happens on several different levels, and it's a winner.Now I just have to curse her slightly for being slightly zombified when I wake up in the morning needing an extra mug of coffee to engage the brain as I stayed awake a little later than I really should, just to get the next bit of story!

This story is a good mix of base building, exploring and adventuring with a hint of intrigue thrown in for good measure. The story starts without much in the way of LitRPG elements although it is in a game, but this is just to set up the actual story. Once the main character gets into the game that the story revolves around, the standard expected LitRPG elements are there with stats, skills, levels etc. These elements are not intrusive but work well with the story, complementing each other to form a seamless whole.The story goes between the game world and the real world and each sect in progresses the whole. There is an over-arching story line, both in and out of the game that I assume is going to span the whole series (or at least the current section of it) as well as clear quest/goal for this book which reaches a satisfying conclusion by the end of this book.The main character is likeable without being a complete goody-two-shoes and the game mechanics have some novel aspects as well as the tried and true classics.Highly recommended!

After working my way through several little series (Awaken Online, The Land, Completion Chronicles etc) I honestly thought I would have to take a break from.the genre because I had read all the decent releases but by happy accident discovered Carrie Summer's Stonehaven League series. The first book I've read that has a female protagonist and I was not disappointed. MC is great and the blend of adventuring, dungeon diving and town building accounts for all tastes. It's also nice that it sets up to the entry into the gameworld rather than just thrusting you into it. But enough waffling, book is ace and if you like little then it's a.no brainer you're going to like this book. Straight.into the 2nd for me. F2f Me Summers, gg.

Slightly slow start (though relevant as the book progresses) but this was a really good book in this Genre. The MC was very good, the game world very well thought out and really playable. Quietly in the background there is a RL plot building (with more clearly to come) and it made for a very good Sunday read in the garden with a bottle of Rose..Very good game world, with great mecanics and a game world I would like to go too.Very commendable book and I look forward to book two and I will read other books by the author.

Utterly boring Prologue which despite the many attempts I could not finish reading (skipped quite a few paragraphs). Skimmed over the first 2 chapters and I could not find anything even remotely LitRPG. The style is great for a novel but I am struggling to find a true RPG element and a story. This is the first book which I would gladly return if I could.