Loyalties

A Cozy Fantasy LitRPG Series (Cozy Isekai Craftsman, Book 2)

By: Blaise Corvin, C. Cheesecake

Narrated by: Garrett Michael Brown

Book two of a cozy fantasy LitRPG series that proves that even in the quietest lives, the most dramatic things happen. A recipe gone awry because you lack one important ingredient and you need to make this cake for someone you love for their birthday, which happens to be the next day. Low-stakes? Nah.

©2023 Aethon Books (P)2023 Aethon Audio

fun read

Honestly the growth Ana development of the story plot and characters. I also approved of the tenacity of the intrepid hero.

Niamh is pronounced Neave, not Neeahm

I'm becoming more convinced by the chapter that Blaise Corvin has nothing to do with this series other than lending his name to it. I can also find no information on C.Cheesecake. I would only be very lightly surprised to find out that this was written by AI and then proofed. There are multiple parts where other characters are reacting to things that are clearly only narrative thoughts and not spoken aloud. like one scene where a farmer gets upset because Joe asks "what's it for" then thinks to himself '...some sort of demarcation' the story then goes on a tangent about the farmer not knowing words, as if the farmer didn't understand demarcation, a word only thought and never said.

The narrator is good for the most part, though many characters sound exactly alike and some pacing is weird. sometimes there will be little to no pause going from what is exposition to "character said" then a pause and then what the character said. this makes it seem like the exposition or scene description is what the character said. one thing I hoped desperately would change between books is the pronunciation of Niamh, Niamh is a traditional Irish name that is pronounced Neave, this would be like having a character named Siobhan and not pronouncing it Shivaughn, or for a more classic English example, someone named Stephen and pronouncing it Step-Hen.

Fun

A continuation of fun with a few pebbles both mundane and otherwise thrown in, love it as much as the first and can’t wait for the next

I wanted to like it but...

I enjoyed the 1st book, but I'm struggling with the 2nd. I understand that Joe is trying to live a life that doesn't hurt others, but businesses are SUPPOSED to compete with each other! It's what drives innovation, the desire to provide a good product that people will pay money for. Which Joe can do! But this weird council, which I think is acting like a Paton office but stupider. They get mad at Joe because people fought while playing Monopoly? Hello?! it's called accountability? who the heck gets mad at the guy who introduced monopoly instead of the idiots who accidentally started a fire during a fight? It's like the Council is trying to stop him from sharing anything about his homeland. In my opinion Joe should give up on doing a business, if he's not willing to compete it's not a good fit for him. he's better off being a fixer, someone others can go to when they have a problem and he fixes it not by being a badass or threatening but just with his nifty ability and friendly demeanor. I think that would better, but it's not my story. Also Joe should invent all the cool things the Council rejected for businesses and then just keep them at his home. All the games, the refrigerator and oven are at his house and when his friends and neighbors see it and say they want one, he can say, "Sorry, can't sell you any, the Council won't let me." That way the town blames the Council for being the reason they can't have all the cool things Joe is bringing to the table! Sorry for the rant. It really made me mad listening to that part. I honestly don't know if I want to keep reading. I like Joe, and I really like the idea of a protagonist that's a pacifist. it's very different from most isekai. it's definitely a fluff story, which can be good. Anyways, I think the story could be good if Joe develops a bit more backbone. I don't want him to be a big powerful lead who is aggressive, but being a pacifist doesn't mean you can't be firm, confident and steadfast.

Still good

I like the pacing and world building of this series. It takes unexpected turns. I'm looking forward to the next one.

good time

had a good time, Joe is a big ol softy. looking forward to the next one

wtf

lost all respect for the main character when he got bullied by flower not only that like his pacifist ways of starting to annoy me like he doesn't stand up for himself at all through the entire freaking book just rolls over

Good Performance muddled by mediocre/poor Story

Good performance by Garrett Brown, no complaints from me. Story leaves much to be desired, I had a hard time getting through each chapter. Joe has no agency and is a complete pushover, it’s somewhat endearing in book 1 but the continuation is book 2 is enough to make me gag. Quite disappointed in how much this story lags behind, nothing much going on.

Joe

This entire review is based on Joe's business sense and the ability to stand up for himself. Oliver for the emergency union keeps going on and on about single point of failures which is not their problem it's a single business owners problem. Also Joe can just up and leave the town and go to a city or bigger place that accepts him and his inventions its totally ridiculous that he's on trial for getting approval for a business idea, During that "meeting" he should have just given them the finger and walked out.

The only reason that these scumbags want him to like produce other stuff easy is so they can reverse engineer it and sell themselves. Noooooooo business owner and investor gives up that much information on the item.