Soulstone Bakery

Low Stakes. High Carbs. LitRPG Slice of Life.

By: John Broadway

Narrated by: Hannah Schooner, Giancarlo Herrera

Wholesome. And whole wheat.

Gavric Restweary, the Nephilim Reborn, has vanquished a legion of Hell singlehandedly. At the end of his quest, a gleaming jewel awaits him—the Duke of Terror's Soulstone. But it was never intended as a reward.

Now forced by the Heavens to bear the Soulstone himself, Gavric must find a measure of peace by taking over his mother's bakery, lest Diabolicus escape his prison and corrupt the land anew. A heavy burden for one man to bear, but doing so gives him hope that he may live to find some reprieve from his trauma.

He won't be alone, however. Kyrael, Rose Maiden and Angel of Innocence, the sole daughter of Tyranor the Golden, soon arrives outside Torstram as a falling star. Her mission? Watch over the hero and the Soulstone. But just how will the dynamic between the Angel and the Nephilim unfold? Will they find peace and comfort together, or will Gavric succumb to the Soulstone?

Action. Connection. Peace. Adventure. And lots of bread. This book has it all.

©2023 John Broadway (P)2024 Royal Guard Publishing LLC

5 stars

🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞I hope there are more books to come in this series! The MC is great along with a really good supporting cast! The story is captivating! The narrators also do a good job of bringing the story to life! Great job John Broadway!

hell yeah

loved it. no questions about it. the plot is great. laid-back and super coY with some action in the mix. the romance is lovely as well

Can an OP MC find rest after the quest is over?

The story is really good. Best Mono romance, clean men's romance, and humorous slice of life tale I have read. Possibly the first I've read like this in a long while. The dark universe themes make this suitable only for teen and up, but is not 18+ like many stories coming out of the men's romance category. Even in its grimness there is humor. Kyraeal is adorably clueless and the narrator, Hanah Scooner, brings her to life wonderfully. Giancarlo Hererra is a good gruff voice for Gavric.

John Broadway is one of my new favorite authors.

Wholesome and Beautiful

A beautiful rom com. Watching the relationship build between the Gavrick and Kurial (not sure if I spelled that right) is wonderful and cozy. She is ditzy, but not in an annoying way, and you really feel for Gavrick and what he went through before the story starts. I recommend this to anyone who wants a clean laid back adventure with the right amount of cute romance.

Bread, cakes and dead demons!

Soulstone bakery is a sweet mono romance story between nephilim and angel from the high heavens. Gavric just "saved" the world but the threat of Diabolicus still lingers. In order for our hero to stay strong and not succumb to the influence of duke of terror he has to find peace from task in his day to day life.

Soon everything in his life starts to change after Tyranor sends his daughter Kyrael to accompany Gavric. Kyrael is totally lost when it comes to peoples living habits but atleast she is cheery and bubbly and always ready to learn something new.

Together they keep the people of stonemeadow fed and protected and hopefully the duke of terror sealed away. Lastly I must thank Hannah and Giancarlo for their superb voice acting! This was the first narration that I have listened from either of the two and they 100 nailed this one! 10/10 audiobook!

Retired MC

This was my first book I read about a retired MC. The story revolves around Gavric, who is retired, and romance. A good read.

Very wholesome and charming

Where to start? First of all the performers are amazing. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on them in the future. I don’t think this was as good as some of the author's other works, but mainly because this one is a one and done that being said, the ending was very sweet and cute. The writing here was arguably stronger, but that could be the switch to third person POV instead of first person in his other books.

The chemistry between the two main characters was a lot of fun. The lead female is very quirky and bubbly, but because of the fact that she is new to being in a human body, it can be a little bit awkward at times since she doesn’t have full understanding of how things work. The author navigated this with care, but it might be weird to some (based on the other review). I didn’t get a creepy or inappropriate vibe from it.

That being said, there is no s*x in the book and the relationship is very wholesome. The male lead really looks up to the female lead and respects her for who she is. The female lead is a little over-the-top sometimes but very funny. She is clearly a man's fantasy about what a feminine woman is, but that being said, Kyrael gets fleshed out through the story.

This is obviously a tribute to a certain game franchise, but it doesn’t actually use any of its real lore or characters. That means that the story feels pretty fresh and interesting for a book like this. At the very least I can say that I enjoyed it a lot and I haven’t read anything quite like it.

I recommend it to fans of the author's other work, and generally fans of romance for men. I do not recommend it for women, because the lead female is, as the author says, a manic pixie Dream girl in a way, which women will probably find more annoying than men because she’s feminine to an extreme, almost a caricature at times, but not in a way that is abrasive or unattractive. Just... too perfect, I guess.

Some pluses, though, although the lead female is described as beautiful, she is not sexually described. There is some violence in the story, mostly just killing demons, and one of the funniest scenes is a rather silly date in which they kill demons together and get very lovey-dovey about it.

Overall, very good. Not my favorite book, but one of my favorites in this particular genre for sure. the fact that the audiobook itself is so good means I’ll probably come back to this one more than most.

Love the Diablo references.

I usually prefer steamier books but this one was great. The Diablo references were really amazing and fun to hear. Not to mention the it’s one of the few books that made me get emotional more than once. Great story telling, awesome voice acting, and overall an awesome book. Give it a shot. If you love these kinds of books you won’t be disappointed.

Great story hits the feels hard.

I made the mistake of listening at work and totally didn't cry. I have read the book before so I should have been prepared but the narrators do a great job.

Great book by a newer author!

John Broadway has done it! Crafted a story with such down to earth characters that it’s not just the MC that you care about.

I loved this story to pieces and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a light hearted LITRPG story. Kyrael is such a breath of fresh air and I want to just take her and Gabric and put them in a bubble so they can be happy. However the bakery does a fine job at giving them something to do with their time and provides plenty of interaction with the townsfolk. Loved this so much!

Please note: This book is PG, though there are some discussions that might not be youth appropriate. But nothing is explicit.