Alex's biggest worry in life was his job as a chef, cooking for people that otherwise wouldn't know he existed. That, and getting a date with the server he had a crush on. But when he finds himself thrown into another world, one with elements for too similar to video games he had played in the past, his only concern was survival. And maybe coming out of his shell for once.
Backed by internet trivia and video game lore, and armed with a strange magical ability that allows him to harness the power of his foes by literally devouring part of their essence, Alex isn't the hero he dreamed he would be. But maybe he's the hero that can save his new friends and a village that could be his new home.
(This book contains some adult themes and profanity.)
My Opinion: 104 pages, $2.99, Available on Kindle Unlimited
A chef is transported to an RPG game world, fights some monsters, makes some friends, and has some adventures. The game mechanics in the story are technically LitRPG. The main character (MC), Alex, has a stat page and those stats increase as he adventures and he gains some abilities as he fights. However, the RPG aspect is pretty superficial and the most interesting aspect, his innate ability Gourmand, which lets him gain stats, skills, and abilities from cooking and eating the flesh of his slain enemies, is only used twice in the story.
Storywise, the action is decently written but just about everything else in the story feels very forced and inconsistent. The MC is initially presented as a shy, meek, chef but within hours is transformed into a warrior-mage with enough charm and cunning to fool the locals into thinking he’s a new lord. Only none of the game mechanics supports this, he has terrible charisma, strength, and agility scores. Then he just happens upon several woman that just have to make him their husband and don’t mind sharing and the story turns into a harem aspect with badly described sex scenes. The main characters personality flips back and forth between unbeatable warrior and self pitying flop. Additionally, most of the action, though not badly written is forced and there really isn’t any explanation for most of it.
Overall, though I genuinely liked the Gourmand aspect I was really disappointed it wasn’t used more and most of the story just felt inconsistently built. The harem aspect also felt out of place and poorly done.
Score: 4 out of 10