Series: The Dragon’s Crawl #1
Release date: April 29 2024
Publisher: Self-published
Pages: 410
Find it: Goodreads Amazon
Source: The author kindly sent me a copy of this book to review
Rating: 4/5 stars

Synopsis

Part cozy, part bloody, all fun.

Hidden underneath the small town of Haverly Arms lies an entrance to the Dragon’s Game, an extensive world where adventurers compete to collect power objects and progress to the next level.

Temerity’s father and brothers have been down in the game for years, leaving Temerity and her mother, plus their house goblin, Half-pint, to manage their tavern. Bored with small-town life, Temerity decides to enter the tunnel labyrinth, launching an adventure to survive Level One of the Dragon’s Game: Dark Town.

Review

Dark Town is a fun and gripping LitRPG novel that follows our main character Teremity. Bored with life working in a tavern in her small town she decides to enter level one of the dragon’s game and embark on a deadly adventure.

I’ve never read a LitRPG book before and I know very little about RPGs but I had absolutely tons of fun reading this book. It was fast paced, full of bloody action and I couldn’t put it down. There are also some cozy fantasy elements that I wasn’t expecting, but did really enjoy.

The characters are well crafted and while I did really like Temerity, the witty Half-Pint was definitely my favourite and I loved the dynamics between the two. I loved seeing them work together to puzzle out how they were going to complete the different elements of the game. The world building was very detailed and despite knowing pretty much nothing about gaming I was able to easily understand and get wrapped up in this captivating tale. I really enjoyed the writing style and can’t wait to try more from Palmer Pickering in the future.

Dark Town is a brilliantly addictive read and the book has some absolutely stunning illustrations. If you’re looking for something fun and compelling, this is definitely one to pick up in between heavy fantasy tomes.