Dungeon Item Shop: Volume 1

By: D.M. Rhodes, Razzmatazz

Narrated by: Andrea Emmes

[I was reborn too weak to become an adventurer, so I opened an item shop by the dungeon instead!]

Reborn into a fantastical RPG-system-based world, Fresh is offered a second chance at life.

Initially glad to have escaped her old existence, she quickly realizes that this new one might not be much better. Her new body is too frail to follow any grand dreams of adventure, her new mind is too dulled to allow any meticulous planning or thought, and this new, seemingly colorful, kind world is anything but.

Needing to find a way to survive in this horrible place, Fresh bands together with some unusual people as she undergoes an entirely unexpected challenge: running an item shop just outside of the dungeon!

Dungeon Item Shop is a wholesome, dark fantasy adventure series written by renowned and trending author D.M. Rhodes!

©2022 D.M. Rhodes (P)2022 Podium Audio

Another Hit!

This book admittedly took me a few attempts to get into but once I did, this became another wonderful series from this author that I know have to buy the rest of. Yes, this book's MC isn't for everybody and I can see why others wouldn't enjoy it, but for me, I ended up smiling every time I heard "JUBLIEEEE!"

The MC is self-admittedly dumb but it provides for a completely open take on the world and for a wholesome and innocent, if extremely naive, character. I personally loved it and it's got multiple sequels so if you do like it, there's more where it came from, not just a one-off. I also highly recommend all of the author's other series. They're all equally unique but have the distinct touch of the author's writing style.

some good some bad

The narrator was great. The story was interesting enough. The protagonist is a complete moron, and that is purposeful, not bad writing. I had trouble with her stupidity at times, making the story more frustrating than entertaining. Also her masked friend is an ass, their verbal abuse rivals the protagonists stupidity with similar results to my enjoyment.

The only real literary complaint I have is that the author can get a little too verbose in their descriptions.

Depending on my mood I may get the next installment when it comes out.

so good

I enjoyed it it was different from what I usually read but it was really good it was really in the characters are really different and adaptive they have depth I just think of all around good book

It would be a youth audio

There is too much foul language that did not have to be there. The story had entertainment value but you could not listen to it in mixed company. I would not buy or promote the material again because of this.
I believe it could easily be a book for younger audiences if they would clean up the offensive language.

Couldn't finish

I was hoping it would be similar to Wandering Inn. A MC who is kinda dumb at times, but also brilliant and emotionally engaging. This MC is just dumb and cursed.

She’s endearingly stupid… somehow!

Actually a really good slice of lice book. Worth the purchase with economic and fantasy element but the focus is the idiot main character that you just have to love. With great voice acting to tie it together I’m listening to every book in the series!

Abusive supporting character

Not bad, but very scattered plot. Main character is whiny and that gets old. However the supporting character is just a jerk. Can’t go two seconds without calling someone stupid.

A good story, but for the main character...

As a few other people mentioned, from the title, I picked this up looking for something with a Wandering Inn feel. The story almost has it, and it gets quite interesting by the end. However, the main character is frustrating and challenging my desire to continue with the series.

If you liked the Wandering Inn, from 30k feet, it looks like there might be some similarities, and there are, and it's a good enough story to carry interest. The main character, Fresh(the MCs name), like the story, has some surface similarities to Erin Solstice from The Wanderin Inn, but only in some broad strokes.

They both start off as as something of an architypical annoying little sister personality. The difficulty is that as a character, Erin Solstice grows from her experiences, and evolves as a character. Fresh, on the other hand, does not. She never learns from her mistakes, even in the times that she proclaims a desire to do so. Her mannerisms, intended to be endearing, become grating after a while. Imagine a 7 year old girl following you around, tugging at you every few minutes, asking you an inane question. It's cute the first 3 or 4 times, but an entire book worth, with no indication it will ever change, becomes a lot to cope with. In the end, Fresh feels like what would happen if you took a somewhat minor side character, with some particular affectations, and made them the main character, and then didn't explore them much, just left them as a side character thrust into the central role.

While other readers took issue with the supporting characters, I found them to be better filled out, and more complete as personalities. There's a clear intent to make the primary sidekick a grating, even unlikable character, but I suspect the amount you'll dislike them depends on what you are as a person, and what kind of traits you find admirable in people. The character is not necessarily likable, by design, but is one with respectable traits, admittedly though, they also are a somewhat abusive personality as well. This also makes that character more in-depth though, they feel like a more fleshed out character because they aren't nearly as one dimensional as the main character.

You may have noticed the lack of gendered pro-nouns applied to the descriptions I used with the main supporting character, this is because it is reflective of how the character is presented in the book. However, it gets a little bit annoying because of how much it stands out. Where the excellent Ancillary Justice book and its follow-ons did so by choice as well, it served as an important aspect of the society through the book. In this case, it comes across as a bit of a ham-fisted attempt to acknowledge on-going societal changes of our times. There's nothing wrong with it, it's just done in a very in-elegant way, instead of a seemless blending into the story, it just ends up a very clunky device. It may be that this done intentionally, to reflect the challenges many of us have as we adapt to this very thing, and make it more relatable, but the fact that I can't really decide if that it is intentional should be indictive of how uneven the effort is.

In the end, the real challenge I have is I really want to know more of the story, I just wish there were some other character I could follow around instead of Fresh. She's shallow to begin with, and that's ok at the beginning, but she doesn't ever fill out, and it really makes me pause. The writing style is very much like a slice-of-life type anime, with an odd-couple set of characters, extended out into a novel. There are a number of scenes that literally read like they are descriptions of scenes from that kind of anime. Will I read the next book? Hard to say, I want to see where the story goes, but I may need some time to build up tolerance to hearing "Jubileeeeee" every other sentence, before I do(you'll understand if you give it a listen).

The narrator does an excellent job, and for better or worse, absolutely nails the voice and presentation of Fresh. Maybe she did a little too good of a job, even.

Good story bad mc

I actually liked the story but the mc is a bit to much acting like a child all the time. Some parts where done great and I actually laughed but rest was a bit hard.

pretty good

so I just have to say yes the book starts off a bit slow and yes I could do with less whining but dam so far I'm really happy with the series so far can not wait until book 2