I’ll admit I was on the fence about the first book, but in Book 2 Mr. Dean knocked it out of the park. Ignore the weirdos who think this is a harem series!

Book 1 was the setup, with the depressed MC deeply grieving over the loss of his beloved wife. It featured 99% heroics and no real villainy.

In book 2, the MC is still grieving over his wife, but through the game, he is *beginning* to allow himself to have a little fun. He is still mostly doing good guy stuff, but with the coaxing of his online friends (viola, etc) he is getting better at playing the Villain. Really, the villain stuff in the book is mostly theatrics: Windy speeches suitable for a Bond villain. Disgusting acts like eating eyeballs…. etc but again it is mostly theatrics. He is still going after the corrupt nobles in the Empire (and outside of it). He takes on the (NPC) school bullies. He goes *out of his way* to *not* kill inconvenient NPC bystanders (even saying the typical “I know its just a game, but I can’t bring myself to do it” line.. ** see below) I could go on.

I’ve seen a couple of reviews complaining that he has gone in “too much” of a villain direction.

Frankly, I think they read a different book! I honestly don’t get it. I think have to be fake reviews trying to sabotage the book for some reason because they are so out there…

Regarding the so-called harem! What did these people read? There is no harem! Not at all! WTF are some reviewers talking about! Even from book 1 the “obvious” foreshadowed GF is Liu. There are other women in the game to obviously create some “will they or won’t they” tension for the two. But almost every other romance has the same thing! It is called dramatic tension. Liu loves Lucas, but she thinks it is unrequited. Lucas can’t get over his wife and still sees Liu as a sister. Will one of the other ladies in the game catch his eye, or will Liu be the one to win his heart? At *no* point does the author foreshadow Lucas somehow just getting the easy way out and getting all the ladies he wants. Is it because his eye wanders to some of the women? Last time I checked he was a single guy, not married to anyone. He is a allowed to look (even though he feels bad about even looking because of his wife!)

Have you guys watched any K-Drama? How about the TV Show friends? When Ross came back from China with his Chinese girlfriend Julie, people didn’t say: “Well obviously Ross is going to have a harem with Rachel and Julie”! Well, some of the deluded reviewers here must have thought so.

It is called drama people! Will Lucas get over his grief? Will he find true with again with Liu? Or will Viola screw things up for them? It is dramatic tension! It is good writing. I don’t know what some people are talking about here.

I was such a fan of book 2 that I even had a chat with Mr. Dean, telling me how the series was about a sad soul trying to get over his grief (basing the MCs grief arc on his own life experiences). Just to be sure I wasn’t missing something I even asked him and told me there is no harem planned! So enough with that nonsense.

So, there is an actual character arc for the MC! Incredible grief, to beginning to *maybe* move on from his wife. I look forward to book 3, where hopefully the MC will learn to have a little more fun as a Villain! After all, who looks like they having more fun in the Batman movie(the Tim Burton one)? Micahel Keeton as Batman, or Jake Nicholson as Joker? I hope that Lucas (the MC) will continue to learn to Role Play, and settle into a proper villain role in book 3.

I can honestly say, that I was looking for excuses to listen to the book. I shoveled the driveway 3 times in one day just to have an excuse to listen more. Top-notch book!

** P.S. I hate the line because it *is* just a game darn it. I mean, that’s the point of setting a book in a game! You can get away with stuff that you can’t get away within the real world.

Does anyone actually play GTA 5 while worrying about running over pedestrians while driving or worrying about smashing into stuff?