Title: A Girl's Guide to Hardcore Gaming

Author: RappyTheDinosaur

Genre: Fantasy

Hey there! First, I'd like to say that I try to be super objective in my reviews, since I don't think my opinion should always drive what I say (but a lot of times, that doesn't work out for me), but you've made that difficult on me. I thoroughly enjoyed what you have so far, and most of that has to do with your lovely characters.

I love the way that you've grouped them. Elle and Marcellus (who are my two favorites, so naturally, I want much, much more of them) work so well together, and I can't get over how funny they are together since they're so different. I am a little in love with Marc, since he's such a sweetie who understandably doesn't have a clue about our world. And Faye, Maggie, and Kindle are another fascinating group. Kindle seems to be the calm, cool, collected one, Maggie is emotional, and Faye is another precious baby.

And Lydia is a piece of trash. But I'll get to that.

The plot seems fairly basic at first glance, which I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with because your characters can carry it, but with the addition of Lydia, you took it to a whole new level. Number one, she's the problem and problem-solver, in a sense, and just her presence makes everything more difficult and complex for the protagonists. She's an interesting antagonist for sure, especially with her interesting people skills. Number two, she addresses some issues that we typically see reversed in literature. Not much attention is given to emotional abuse women done by women, but it's a problem that's pretty prevalent in today's society, whether we acknowledge it or not.

Carlyle is my dude too. I'm interested to find out more information about him, since he seems like a charming guy, and he's almost like the all-knowing god of the place who likes to watch everyone else struggle to understand what's going on, especially Maggie.

Your writing style is casual, reflective of the narrator, and full of personality. We aren't left drowning in pointless descriptions. I wasn't expecting any of this at all, to be honest. A lot of the time, I find fantasy or science fiction hard to read because the style of writing and excessive descriptions can take the reins rather than the characters or the plot, so this was absolutely a style I could get into. It was absolutely a pleasure to read.

And the humor. Oh my dear god. Elle and Marcellus are amazing. I literally laughed out loud during the mobster conversation.

If you've read my other reviews, you know that a lot of times, I don't like switching the POV too much, but I think that it works well for you. Since you show the characters' personality through their narration, I think that the first-person narration is extremely effective, and it doesn't come across as forced or lazy when you switch characters. You have two different realms as settings, and you navigate that well. Part of me wishes I could read it without Kindle's perspective, just to keep a little mystery about him going, but I enjoyed reading his POV anyway, so I can't even fault you here, which is where I nail people a lot.

The main issue was that there were a few typos and grammar things. There wasn't anything consistent, just small mistakes here and there. But I don't think that they necessarily hurt you, because they're so infrequent. 

Final Assessment: I really, really liked this a lot, and I'm pretty difficult to please. It's funny, it's filled with life, the characters work well together and have distinct personalities, and they're strong enough to carry a story. I don't really have much negative to say, since the pace was good, and it's not an information dump. It's clear you've been working on this for a while. Nicely done.

I would recommend this to lovers of relateable characters, humor enthusiasts, and anyone who likes a touch of fantasy adventure.