I had doubts about this book. after reading the reviews I was still on the fence, but the fact that Jeff Hays and Annie Elicott were the narrators pushed me over the edge. Jeff is my favorite narrator and imo this was one of his best performances. The MC in this story was very likeable and Jeff made him even more so. There was not a lot of development of side characters, but I suspect that will change in book 2. I have found many books of this genre to get overly bogged down with stats and system. not so with this book. It was very balanced imo giving the reader just enough to make it interesting without making it tedious. I don’t want to give too much away so I’ll just end by saying that this is a quality book in every regard and I can’t wait for the next installment. If you’re on the fence about it my advice is go for it. When I pick books I don’t focus on the positive reviews. I read the negative reviews. This book has very few negative reviews for good reason. You can disregard that one review about pet abuse. Not true. One of my favorite books of the past few years.