Read Time: 3 Minutes
Entirely by chance I happened upon this series having never heard nor seen anything about it before, and now all I want to do is tell as many people as possible about it! It starts like any other where the protagonist is going about their life on earth before being pulled away into a new world, a new body, and a new life of danger and adventure.
For Evelyn, she’s in mortal peril from the second she gets to the new world, being summoned as a sacrifice for a demon lord.
Finding herself in the body of a kitsune (a fox-spirit from Japanese folklore) Evelyn outfoxes (ha!) the demons and escapes into the countryside where she begins to come to grips with her new self. Generally clueless about how the new world works, she is taken under the wing of a Lilith, an adventurer guarding a merchant caravan.
Evelyn is such a fun character! She has an interesting outlook on life and an almost irrepressibly positive attitude. Not quite Cinnamon Bun levels, but infectiously happy, nonetheless. With Amélie (another isekaied kitsune) by her side, a sister not in blood but more spirit, together they build alliances and friendships with the various townsfolk, adventurers, and nobles they stumble on.
There’s standard D&D style adventure involving bandits as well as dungeon dive into a rather gross dungeon filled with… I want to say snot slug/scorpion type things, giant trapdoor spiders and really big wasps. There’s meeting with gods, level ups, a high-society ball and bad guys that are easy to hate!
Overall, there’s a whole bunch of great stuff in this first book that kept me finding excuses to put my earbuds back in just so I could continue listening.
The narration by Charlie Keegan James was good and I think she did Evelyn’s and most other characters quite well. Her voice and delivery reminded me a lot of Reba Buhr in her style… a similar warmth and energy if I had to point to something in particular. I think perhaps the character might have something do with that as well.
Production was generally good, though I did notice some plosive sounds- those little mic pops on certain words where too much breath seems to hit the mic – but they weren’t too distracting. Certainly, an easy and pleasant voice to listen to though, and I’ll be looking up what else she has narrated to see if there’s anything that strikes me.
So, it should be obvious by now that I was a big fan of this book. I’ve already dropped a credit on book two, so continuing the adventure will be in my short-term future.
PS – Check out that cover art! I know like most things that art is subjective, but I love that style and just wanted to share that!