Divine Revivification: A Wholesome LitRPG Adventure

Golden Girl Gamer #2

by Rachel Ford

Retiree and barbarian fighter Barbara Callaghan is building an alliance capable of defeating Odin, king of the Norse gods. At least, she’s trying to. But as the local populations shy from the cause, and even Loki seems to forget about her, she realizes she’s missing something.

Or, someone.

Army veteran Caleb Dunn, meanwhile, didn’t expect his summer job to turn into a new life, and a quest to save humanity from vengeful gods. And yet, with the shadow of Odin’s wrath looming large in the North, that’s the mission.
Fair enough – except that Caleb was tricked into starting The Old Gods as a junior scribe, a glorified writer and tax collector with no martial skills. Now he’s stuck playing a build that taps into none of his strengths, and all of his weaknesses.

Caleb is the key she’s been missing. Unfortunately, he is a noob. Some rapid leveling is required, and the services of a barbarian brawler, to ensure he survives the process.

With Barbara’s brawn and Caleb’s brains, these two fish out of water just might build an alliance powerful enough to put an end to the chaos.

442 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 2023

Reviews

[Lana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barbara Callaghan a retiree, was now a barbarian fighter thanks to the evil trick played on her by Albert Vance. She was currently trying to build an alliance for Loki in order to defeat Odin, the king of the Norse gods. Caleb Dunn was another victim of Vance, and he was sent into the game as a scribe so had no way at all to defend himself because he was just a noob who paired up with a high priest Mdjai who was after finding all the body parts of the God Osiris. Meanwhile Caleb was what Barbara needed as she was all brawn and he was all brain and together they just might make a great team. Carwyn silver-tongue was Barbara's elf companion, an NPC, a bard and a pain in the backside for everyone. During their travel to forge this alliance Barbara and Caleb, with the sometimes help from the angriest of victims Mike, the wizard who had been a one time business partner of Vance also met up with Joel, a dwarf and his NPC companion L'Arna and Brit, the mistress of death and her NPC companion Sykkander a necromancer mage. Their group seemed to be growing and they were managing to get their quests seen to, and upgrading however their path was difficult as not every player was ready to join their alliance. Enter Cratos aka Keith Baur, a psychopath thrown into the game because Vance thought he would liven things up and Jayden the kid, his own nephew who was a liar and a deceiver but aided the faction as he was a gargoyle and could fly. This is such a thrilling series in the LitRPG genre, Barbara though now a barbarian warrior never forgot who she really was and was all heart whilst Caleb the brain amongst all of them when finally angered was out for revenge. Can our group of heroes get their revenge on Vance and can they save Asgard from the war between the gods? Roll on book 3!

[Douglas Williamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

When our hero agreed to playtest a sub-optimal character, no one told him he would be stuck with it for the duration. Turns out he is not the only one stuck, though, so perhaps there is some hope when they team up. If they don't annoy each other too much in the first place.

This is book two of the series, but it does just fine as a standalone. You will be missing a bit of background, but nothing essential at this point.

This is a litRPG story set in a video game. While that has been done many times before (can you say "isekai?"), this one is a bit different from the ones i had read before. The story is well written and easy to read with an intriguing and diverse cast of characters. I like the mix of personalities and the chaos the ensues from that. The setting is also well done and quite fun to explore. Add in the quest elements of the game and you have an very engaging story. Overall, I really enjoyed this one and I look forward to reading the other books in the series.

Highly recommended.

I received an ARC from the author for review purposes.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Divine Revivification: A Wholesome LitRPG Adventure (Golden Girl Gamer Book 2), my forty-third enjoyable read from author Rachel Ford. No matter the genre a Rachel Ford book can be counted on to be entertaining & enjoyable. A Rachel Ford read is like a visit with an old friend. This one delves into the realm of LITRPG which I find really enjoyable and this one although good, not as good as the first book in this series! “I received a free Kindle copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review." The gifting of this book did not affect my opinion of it. (RIP Marley January 20, 2014 - July 24, 2018).