Decent premise, but that’s about all it has.

I realize the first story in an AU series needs to include a lot of world-building, but if you don’t have a plot or reasonably engaging characters, the audience isn’t going to stick around for the next book.

ALL the characters are 2-dimensional, at best. The most disappointing is the protagonist, who is whiny, pining, and uninteresting, bringing absolutely nothing to the table as the “Alpha” of his little group.

The not-quite-manic pixie dream girl sidekick could be a good character, if she had any depth, backstory, or story arc besides being the object of the protagonist’s pining, and the mechanism to introduce the game. She’s written so simplistically that I figured she MUST have a big twist or hidden secret angle, but no, she’s just a paper doll of a character.

I’m not a fan of harem stories, but this one doesn’t even earn the title. There’s no sex, just stereotypically-drawn “hot” girls who flirt with the shy little protagonist, without ever actually doing anything.

Finally, though the premise of this universe is fun, it’s also VERY derivative. Which is a shame, since it wouldn’t have taken much to tweak this into a more original AU.