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LitRPG

Monster Girl Tamer #2 is officially out on KU! Also, a $.99 SALE!

August 14, 2025 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Hey, y’all! 😁 H.P. here!

I’m an Isekai Hero! Of Course I’m Fighting a Demon Lord (Monster Girl Tamer #2) is now officially out on Kindle Unlimited (and Audible, and in paperback)!

That said, if you’re into chaotic monster girls, chosen ones who’re still figuring out how to do this chosen one thing, smut with feelings, goblin girls, demon girls, oni girls, minotaur girls, sexually repressed weeb succubi, monsters with names like “Raging Buttlord,” go check it out!

GRAB MONSTER GIRL TAMER #2 HERE

TROPES/CWs: All romance is positive and consensual, but the series as a whole includes mild BDSM/bondage, spanking, lactation, exotically long tongues, sexy magical power-ups, and LitRPG spice (i.e. spicy scenes involving sexy stat manipulation).

✨ BUT ALSO ✨

To celebrate its release, I’m running a ✨ $.99 deal ✨ on both Monster Girl Tamer #1 AND the box set of the original series that spawned this one, Monster Punk Horizon.

So, basically, you can get the entire universe under the Dazzling Skies for less than $7.00 through 8/20! 😁

Monster Punk Horizon isn’t harem, and leans more GameLit than LitRPG, but if you like the redonkulous hijinks the characters in Monster Girl Tamer get up to, you’ll probably enjoy it. (Not to mention see some familiar faces … 😉)

GRAB MONSTER GIRL TAMER #1 for $.99
GRAB MONSTER PUNK HORIZON BOX SET (Books #1-#3) FOR $.99

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the ride! 😁


I’m an Isekai Hero! Of Course I’m Fighting a Demon Lord

Monster Girl Tamer #2

by Edie Skye & H.P. Holo

A thicc cowgirl with a thicker accent. A bookish succubus with an absurd secret. A demon, goblin, and oni girl who’re as chaotic as they are good.

And they’re going to defeat a demon lord … how?

It’s been three months since Axel Hunter Radcliff fell through a magic portal into another world of dangerous monsters.


Hailing from a family of Chosen Ones, he’s trained his whole life to be a hero. He just didn’t expect destiny to involve taming monster girls into semi-civilized adventurers. Or training them to form his tactical harem.

Or their giant robots. Or their conspicuous anime tropes. Or the geeky succubus “Sexy Wizard” who transformed them in the first place.

When a new minotaur girl shows up at his hot spring, he realizes the Sexy Wizard needs his help, too. She’s been captured by some of her own creations—but this time there’s a twist. These dragon ladies used to be two of his monster hunting friends, Jaz and Pix.

With all the isekai tropes tied up in his destiny, Axel expected a demon lord. What he didn’t expect was Demon Lord Jaspartina “Jaz” Red and her Demon Lord General Tailer “Pix” Weaver!

And, after a mere three months, he doesn’t have the stats to face his final boss.

Fortunately, his magic power grows with his romantic bonds. And he has a whole harem of devoted monster girls eager to help raise his stats.

WARNING: Monster Girl Tamer is a fun isekai LitRPG fantasy action adventure where the hero saves the day and gets all the girls. (So don’t read it and then complain about the spice. Y’all know exactly what you’re getting into.)

GRAB MONSTER GIRL TAMER #2 HERE

NOTE: As Amazon Associates, we earn a wee little commission on any Amazon purchases made through qualifying links on this page.

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: adventure, Edie Skye, Fantasy, HaremLit, hp holo, isekai, LitRPG, Monster Girls, Monster Punk Horizon

Monster Girl Tamer #1 – First Chapter Challenge

August 11, 2025 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Hey, y’all! 😄 H.P. Here! I’d pondered posting a sneak peek at the first chapter of Monster Girl Tamer #2 … and then realized that since I’ve never posted any sneak peeks for the series here, a bit of Book 1 would probably work better. 🤣

Anyway, Monster Girl Tamer was always going to be significantly goofier than the other spicy series I wrote as Edie Skye, so I tried to make that obvious with the sheer ridiculousness of the first chapter. (Though readers who are familiar with the Monster Punk Horizon series that originated it won’t be surprised at all.) At readings, I frequently introduce it as “If you can survive this chapter, you’ll probably like the series.”

Thus, the Monster Girl Tamer First Chapter Challenge!

But, if you want to pick it up without reading, I’m not gonna complain about that, either:

GRAB MONSTER GIRL TAMER #1 HERE

Book 1 is already out on KU and Audible, and Book 2 releases on August 14th! In the meantime, enjoy:

Monster Girl Tamer #1 – Chapter One

“Son, it’s time for The Talk.”

Axel had known those words were coming since last night.

The Talk meant something different in his family. Oh, he’d gotten the, “We’ve noticed how you look at girls, here’s a condom, don’t get anyone pregnant” talk when he was thirteen, but that was small potatoes compared to the talk every man in his family got at twenty. That Talk was a Very Big Potato.

Which was why his dad’s nonchalance surprised him. When Axel came through the front door, his dad simply waved the same distant hello as usual, then went back to the kitchen sink, cleaning the last dishes from the birthday party Axel had been called away from—not that anyone blamed him.

When you made a hobby of running toward fires, you had to go when the fire summoned you.

“Can I clean up a bit first?” Axel said. He still smelled like smoke from the night’s job.

His dad waved again, and Axel went downstairs. He’d left his gear in his locker at the firehouse, but despite the hours spent cleaning the gear and tools, the scent and soot of his work still lingered. He was always vigilant about maintaining his gear, as much to preserve its reliability as to fend off the inevitable carcinogens he’d encounter; he was just as vigilant about his own body, and so he took a long shower to fend off the rest. It was an irony, he reflected, that so many firefighters spent their lives saving others, only to be killed by their own work, either in a fire or the slow cancer resulting from the things that burned around them.

Then he chuckled darkly.

Given what his father was about to say, he was not likely to die of cancer. Few of the Radcliffs ever died in such mundane ways.

When he came back upstairs, his father greeted him by cracking open a beer. He wasn’t even twenty-one yet, but he recognized the beer, one that only emerged on serious occasions. The brew was based on one his grandfather had brought back from overseas.

Well, “overseas” was only loosely correct. The bottle was a recycled original, and its label was in a language he’d never seen on this earth.

“Damn, that’s good beer!” Axel exclaimed after his first swig.

“There’s a reason your grandfather founded his microbrewery once he came back,” his father said, taking his own as they flopped onto the living room couch. “Glad one of your grandmothers knew how to make this stuff.” (Grandpa had a lot of adventures.) “If you’re lucky enough to survive whatever’s coming, you’ll inherit the recipe, too. For now, though, you get this.”

On the coffee table before them was positioned a thin, hard-shelled carrying case that resembled the ones Axel used to transport his wargaming miniatures. His father clicked it open with all the slow pride of an uber nerd about to show off an unholy amount of money spent on plastic and paint.

“Axel, meet Mel.”

The case did not contain painted miniatures.

It contained a whole-ass M4 carbine, fully assembled and maintained to such perfection that it looked fresh off the production line, but Axel knew that wasn’t true. First off, because there was a sparkling pink cat head on its grip that had likely been slapped on as a joke. Second because, if the family stories were true—and all the family stories were true—that thing had already delivered some top-quality dakkas.

World War III had been in progress before Mel and his father had gone to fight.

World War III was no longer in progress.

“I’d hoped to present her to you at the party last night, but well …”

“Duty called.”

“As it does. And given how often duty called you even before your birthday, I thought I should equip you sooner rather than later.” He lifted the carbine from the case and extended it toward his son, like a blessing. “Axel Hunter Radcliff, if she’ll have you, she’s yours. Take her.”

If she’ll have you.

That was the key, and why every man in the family trained. Because there was no way of knowing who Mel would choose until …

Axel braced his muscles to accept the heirloom. He hadn’t even fully gripped it when the weapon began to glow. Little streamers of sparkling light whipped off its form and then came back to envelop it, like some over-the-top magical girl transformation sequence, but with a badass gun. When the magical ribbons finished encasing it, its shape changed.

Its protruding bits withdrew into the main length of the gun, which then stretched out and back in a curve, except for one glob of light. This separated and hovered before him, stretching into a rectangle—no, a cylinder with a strap—which then zipped around to his back. In front, he could see additional details working into the piece still in his hands. Multiple layers of cables slipped around what looked like pulley wheels on each end of the elaborate curve. A final whip of luminescence encased his forearm and hand in the shape of an archery gauntlet, and when the light flashed away into a rain of sparkles, Axel’s suspicion was confirmed.

Resting in his hands was a shining silver compound bow, complete with that weird little cat head on the grip.

“Huh,” Axel mused. “That’s … not what I expected.”

“You were expecting anything?”

“Dad, it’s hard to have a family history like ours and not expect some kind of weirdness. Granted, I didn’t expect the transforming anime weapon, but once I saw what it was doing, I didn’t expect a bow, either.”

“That ‘transforming anime weapon’ is formally called The Arsenal, and it adapts to the user. It’s been passed down through our family for generations.”

“Oh! So the ‘Mel’ grandfather used was the same as your carbine, and the same as my bow? I thought it was just the name that got passed down.”

His father shook his head. “Nope, it’s both.”

“Why’d grandpa get a whole tank?”

“Different time, different place, very different threat.”

“Where’s the name Mel come from, anyway?”

“Actually … I don’t think even your grandpa remembers. We’ve always called her Mel, as far as I know.”

Axel positioned Mel in his hands and tested its stability and tension, then drew an arrow from the quiver that had materialized on his back.

“Not in the house,” his father said. “We’ll never hear the end of it if you blow up your mom’s new couch. Let’s take it outside to the range.”

* * *

“The Range” was a bit of a misnomer. Oh, there was definitely a shooting range in their backyard, both for firearms and bows. But there was also a variety of obstacle courses, such that anyone flying over might mistake it for a little boot camp, were it not for the children’s playground positioned on the other side of the house. Even that was an intense, elaborate structure, meant to teach its users to fall down hard and get up quick.

Both were necessary skills in the Radcliff family.

Axel went to his favorite spot on the archery range, put his beer down, and nocked an arrow to his new bow. He was amazed at how familiar it felt, like he’d been using this very bow since he’d picked up the sport.

“Our family has a great destiny, son,” his father said, creaking down into a nearby lawn chair.

“I’m aware of that. Hard to miss when your grandpa’s sucked into a war in another world and your dad fought off the elder gods.” (World War III had been complicated.)

“It goes back further than that. And it’s stranger than you realize.”

“But isn’t the short of it that we’re all called on to be heroes?” Axel asked.

It was one of the reasons he’d been given a name like Axel Hunter Radcliff, in fact. One only had to pay half-attention while growing up to realize that, at least once in a generation, someone in his family earned a place in a history book somewhere, and like hell were any of them going to go down in history with names like John Smith or Chris Jones. His father had lucked out with the normal-sounding name of Byron, but most Radcliffs had names that sounded like they’d been pulled from old pulp adventures—and were expected to live up to them whether they were that generation’s Chosen One or not.

And so Axel had prepared as best he could.

It was not as simple a task as it sounded.

Chosen Ones were an immutable fact in his family, but there were few ways of knowing what the One was Chosen for, which meant the best approach was a well-rounded one.

Most of the family heroes benefited from physicality, so he’d participated in every sport he could when he was in school. Competitive archery was the only one he’d pursued after high school, but that was primarily because his work in the family landscaping business met a lot of his exercise demands. (After defeating the elder gods, his dad had wanted to do something low-key.)

Axel didn’t find the job all that fulfilling, though, which was where volunteer firefighting came in. He’d never considered taking the career route, because like most jobs that were essential to the functioning of society, the pay was shit—but it allowed him to both test his limits and, more importantly, to do something meaningful. Heroic, even. Plus, he couldn’t deny that he enjoyed the surge of adrenaline that flooded his veins every time the alert came. He didn’t wish fires on anyone, of course, but the joy he felt facing them was real—and specifically, the joy of taming such a volatile force.

It was like conquering a part of nature itself.

And the money he made off posing for the yearly firefighter calendar wasn’t bad, either.

He let the arrow fly. The cable thumped against his gauntlet with a powerful crack, and the arrow pierced its target with a near-silent swish. A good shot, but mundane otherwise. No magical sparkles or anything. He prepared another.

“We’re all called to be heroes,” Byron Radcliff continued, “but we’ve never told you the full story, nor what it means for each generation’s Chosen hero.”

Axel let the arrow fly. It landed, again a good shot, but again mundane.

He suspected he knew more than his father thought—after all, kids picked up a lot when the adults thought they weren’t listening—but he also knew his father wanted to tell the story. He’d probably been looking forward to this for years, and so Axel returned to his beer and took the seat next to his dad.

“It’s not that’s we’re called to be heroes, like some holy vocation. It’s that we get summoned, and we have no choice in the matter. And we have to make it work, because if we don’t, awful things can happen. Whatever you’re chosen for, you’re not destined to win. You’ll need to make clever use of the resources available to you. Mel, for one, and … let’s call it your support staff.”

The way his father said it suggested there was more to the phrase than allies. Namely, the way his eyebrows raised.

“Some Radcliffs are sucked into conflicts around our world, but not all. Your grandfather was one such exception, summoned to another world to fight a demon king and his four generals. It was a fantastic situation to say the least, but the thing that got him through it was not his weapon, but his harem.”

Axel had just taken a swig of beer, and now it shot up through his nose.

“Did you just say harem?”

“You know the phrase ‘Behind every great man is a great woman’? Well, when you’re in extreme situations, having more can help.”

“Wait, so … that was an intentional, organized thing? It wasn’t just that grandpa slept around with a bunch of women on his adventure?”

“Oh, he slept around for sure. But mainly with women who brought some kind of skill to his cause. They were his support as much as his lovers.”

“Even the crazy cat lady?”

The crazy cat lady was the only one Axel had ever heard described in any detail, and now that he thought of it, something else about her was odd. Namely, that she’d never been described as having any cats. And given what kind of world she’d come from …

“Was one of my grandmas secretly a catgirl?”

Byron shrugged and took another swig of beer. “She certainly had … cat in some form. But that’s not my point. My point is that he’s not the first Radcliff to succeed because of his harem.”

“You, too? Then why do I only have one mom?”

“Because after the elder god thing was over, she was the one I chose. You don’t have to marry them all. You just need to build a harem that helps you win the day.”

“How will I know what my challenge is, then? What kind of skills I need to gather?” Axel asked urgently. This complicated things. More than his father realized. “Dad, I’ve always avoided getting a girlfriend because I didn’t want to endanger her. I don’t know how to flirt!”

“You’re a firefighter. Just take your shirt off and they’ll come.”

“That’s not my point. Have you seen the size of my wargaming collection? No girl I bring to my parents’ basement is going to see that and want to stay with me.”

“She will if she’s cool.”

“Oh god, I live in my parents’ basement, too!”

His father set his beer aside and looked him dead in the eyes. “Axel. The only reason we didn’t tell you this before is because we didn’t want your hormonal teenage self to take advantage of it. Your mother and I have, in fact, soundproofed the basement in anticipation of this day, so that you can freely get up to wargaming or … not. Whatever it takes to build your harem and save the world.”

Axel froze with his beer halfway to his mouth. He’d thought he’d had some idea of how this day would go, and it had not involved his father telling him, “Go forth and fuck to save the world.”

It had especially not involved the portal.

Nonetheless, he became aware of a sudden sparkle beneath his chair. Before he could register that it wasn’t coming from Mel, the sparkle whirled around his feet like a circle drawn by a speeding comet.

He didn’t even have time to scream before he fell, nor before the circle closed, leaving only empty ground and his father, who said:

“Huh. That happened faster than expected.”

And then he drained his beer and went inside.


Did you survive? If so, check the rest out here: 😁

GRAB MONSTER GIRL TAMER #1 HERE

OR PRe-ORDER MONSTER GIRL TAMER #2 HERE

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: Edie Skye, Fantasy, H.P. Holo, harem, HaremLit, LitRPG, Monster Girl Tamer, Monster Punk Horizon, Romance For Men

My author pals and I are doing another Kindle + eBook giveaway!

August 8, 2025 by hpholo 2 Comments

Hey, y’all! 😄 H.P. Here! Some author pals and I have teamed up for another eBook + Kindle giveaway!

This one’s over on Facebook, so if any of the above books catch your eye, hop on over to these groups and comment with the best book you’ve read this year.

  • Fantasy/Sci-Fi Focus: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasyscififocus/posts/4137238389755261/
  • The BOOKLounge for Readers and Authors: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1235434550405615/posts/1806336979982033/
  • Shami Stovall’s Capital Station Lounge: https://www.facebook.com/groups/capitalstationlounge/posts/1860146027867356/

The winner will be drawn randomly from the comments, so go comment on all of them! 😁

Want to know more about the books? Check ’em out here:

  • Words of Power by Shami Stovall: https://amzn.to/45CRdMt
  • Rise From Ruin by Melissa Olthoff: https://amzn.to/4mTLpEn
  • Shadow Card Guardian by Kacey Ezell: https://amzn.to/4oqgRvi
  • A Plague of Magic by Marisa Wolf: https://amzn.to/4mCqMfz
  • Magelight by Kacey Ezell: https://amzn.to/4ftuCoP
  • Titan Mage by Me! (writing as Edie Skye): https://amzn.to/3J8HYLe
  • The Noble’s Luck Trilogy (Lady, Lord, and Bastard) by Mel Todd: https://amzn.to/45muq6b

NOTE: As Amazon Associates, we earn a wee little commission on any Amazon purchases made through qualifying links on this page.

Filed Under: Giveaways and Contests, Holo Books Tagged With: contest, Fantasy, gaslamp fantasy, giveaway, LitRPG, progression fantasy

Monster Girl Tamer #2 (Series Finisher!) is now out on Audible!

August 8, 2025 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Hey, y’all! 😄 H.P. Here! (NOTE: This is about one of our 🌶️ spicy 🌶️ collabs, so if that’s not your thing, feel free to ignore. We’ve got non-spicy news coming soon! 😁)

Royal Guard Publishing’s so ON IT that Monster Girl Tamer #2’s audio came out before the official release!

That said, if you’re into chaotic monster girls, chosen ones who’re still figuring out how to do this chosen one thing, smut with feelings, goblin girls, demon girls, oni girls, minotaur girls, sexually repressed weeb succubi, monsters with names like “Raging Buttlord,” and Jess Trepanier and Daryl Mayfield’s stellar narration, go check it out! 😁

GRAB MONSTER GIRL TAMER #2 ON AUDIBLE

TROPES/CWs: All romance is positive and consensual, but the series as a whole includes mild BDSM/bondage, spanking, lactation, exotically long tongues, sexy magical power-ups, and LitRPG spice (i.e. spicy scenes involving sexy stat manipulation).


I’m an Isekai Hero! Of Course I’m Fighting a Demon Lord

Monster Girl Tamer #2

by Edie Skye & H.P. Holo

Narrated by Jess Trepanier & Daryl Mayfield
Published by Royal Guard Publishing

***

A thicc cowgirl with a thicker accent. A bookish succubus with an absurd secret. A demon, goblin, and oni girl who’re as chaotic as they are good.

And they’re going to defeat a demon lord … how?

It’s been three months since Axel Hunter Radcliff fell through a magic portal into another world of dangerous monsters.


Hailing from a family of Chosen Ones, he’s trained his whole life to be a hero. He just didn’t expect destiny to involve taming monster girls into semi-civilized adventurers. Or training them to form his tactical harem.


Or their giant robots. Or their conspicuous anime tropes. Or the geeky succubus “Sexy Wizard” who transformed them in the first place.

When a new minotaur girl shows up at his hot spring, he realizes the Sexy Wizard needs his help, too. She’s been captured by some of her own creations—but this time there’s a twist. These dragon ladies used to be two of his monster hunting friends, Jaz and Pix.

With all the isekai tropes tied up in his destiny, Axel expected a demon lord. What he didn’t expect was Demon Lord Jaspartina “Jaz” Red and her Demon Lord General Tailer “Pix” Weaver!

And, after a mere three months, he doesn’t have the stats to face his final boss.

Fortunately, his magic power grows with his romantic bonds. And he has a whole harem of devoted monster girls eager to help raise his stats.

WARNING: Monster Girl Tamer is a fun isekai LitRPG fantasy action adventure where the hero saves the day and gets all the girls. (So don’t read it and then complain about the spice. Y’all know exactly what you’re getting into.)

GRAB MONSTER GIRL TAMER #2 ON AUDIBLE

Monster Girl Tamer #1 Audiobook Cover

OR START FROM THE BEGINNING HERE!

Also, if you want to help an author out, hop on over to Reddit and upvote and interact with these posts! 😁

  • r/haremfantasynovels – https://www.reddit.com/r/haremfantasynovels/comments/1mkvtql/monster_girl_tamer_2_series_finisher_is_now_out/
  • r/haremlit – https://www.reddit.com/r/Harem/comments/1mkvwsu/monster_girl_tamer_2_series_finisher_is_now_out/
  • r/harem – https://www.reddit.com/r/Harem/comments/1mkvwsu/monster_girl_tamer_2_series_finisher_is_now_out/

This helps boost the visibility of the posts and thus helps new readers find us! 😁 Thanks a bunch, and we hope you enjoy it!

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: adventure, Edie Skye, Fantasy, HaremLit, hp holo, LitRPG, Monster Girl Tamer, Monster Punk Horizon

Monster Girl Tamer #2 is up for pre-order!

June 18, 2025 by hpholo 2 Comments

Hey, y’all! 😄 These days, it’s not often that I write under my H.P. Holo pen name, largely buried in writing as the surprise best-seller my spicy Edie Skye pen name became.

Titan Mage Book Cover

However, as I was writing Titan Mage, my first series under that name, a funny thing happened: Readers started asking for a monster girl series, and on my H.P. Holo pen name, I’d already written Monster Punk Horizon …

All that combined to result in Monster Girl Tamer #1: I Power Up with Every Monster Girl I Defeat!

Read Monster Girl Tamer #1 HERE!

And now series-finisher Monster Girl Tamer #2: I’m an Isekai Hero! Of Course I’m Fighting a Demon Lord is finally up for pre-order!

PRe-ORDER Monster Girl Tamer #2 HERE!

I’m an Isekai Hero!

Of Course I’m Fighting a Demon Lord

Monster Girl Tamer #2
by Edie Skye & H.P. Holo

A thicc cowgirl with a thicker accent. A bookish succubus with an absurd secret. A demon, goblin, and oni girl who’re as chaotic as they are good.

And they’re going to defeat a demon lord … how?

It’s been three months since Axel Hunter Radcliff fell through a magic portal into another world of dangerous monsters.

Hailing from a family of Chosen Ones, he’s trained his whole life to be a hero. He just didn’t expect destiny to involve taming monster girls into semi-civilized adventurers. Or training them to form his tactical harem.

Or their giant robots. Or their conspicuous anime tropes. Or the geeky succubus “Sexy Wizard” who transformed them in the first place.

When a new minotaur girl shows up at his hot spring, he realizes the Sexy Wizard needs his help, too. She’s been captured by some of her own creations—but this time there’s a twist. These dragon ladies used to be two of his monster hunting friends, Jaz and Pix.

With all the isekai tropes tied up in his destiny, Axel expected a demon lord. What he didn’t expect was Demon Lord Jaspartina “Jaz” Red and her Demon Lord General Tailer “Pix” Weaver!

And, after a mere three months, he doesn’t have the stats to face his final boss.

Fortunately, his magic power grows with his romantic bonds. And he has a whole harem of devoted monster girls eager to help raise his stats.

WARNING: Monster Girl Tamer is a fun isekai LitRPG fantasy action adventure where the hero saves the day and gets all the girls. (So don’t read it and then complain about the spice. Y’all know exactly what you’re getting into.)


Spice level differences aside, this series continues the same redonkulous monster-hunting hijinks you know and love from Monster Punk Horizon (and the spicy scenes are largely skippable, for those who don’t enjoy that kind of content 😊).

Whatever your taste, I hope you enjoy it! 😄

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: adventure, Edie Skye, Fantasy, h p holo, HaremLit, isekai, LitRPG, Monster Girl Tamer, Monster Punk Horizon

Book Blast: Shadow Card Guardian by Kacey Ezell

April 16, 2025 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Hey, y’all! 😄 I have lots of cool author friends who write lots of cool books, and occasionally I like to show off those books.

If you’re a fan of John Stovall‘s LitRPG Deckbuilder Demon Card Enforcer series, you’re in luck, ’cause my pal Kacey Ezell has a new book out in that universe, Shadow Card Guardian! I’ll be interviewing her about it Friday:

But if you’d like to read it before then … 😁

READ SHADOW CARD GUARDIAN HERE

Shadow Card Guardian

The Nyx Cards #1

by Kacey Ezell

***

Dania Ellis has faced warzones and Emergency Room chaos—but nothing prepared her for Drop Night.

Once every ten years, the gods give a deck of cards to a chosen few. These new “deckbearers” are capable of great magical feats, and are the top of every food chain, both metaphorically and literally.

As a combat veteran and ER nurse, Dania knows what it takes to fight for a better life. She’s worked tirelessly to build a future for herself and her orphaned nephew, Jake. But everything changes on Jake’s fourteenth birthday when he receives a Drop Night deck—straight from Nyx, the goddess of night.

The deck grants Jake power, but it also paints a target on his back. Suddenly, he’s a deckbearer hunted by forces that would do anything to possess his special deck of cards. But those hunting him and others like him failed to consider one important thing: Jake may be orphaned, but he’s not alone…

Because Dania will do anything to protect her kid. Survival isn’t just an option—it’s a promise.

Fast-paced, gripping, and full of heart, this story is in the same universe as Demon Card Enforcer, and perfect for fans of All the Skills and Goblin Summoner.

READ SHADOW CARD GUARDIAN HERE

NOTE: As Amazon Associates, we earn a wee little commission on any Amazon purchases made through qualifying links on this page.

Filed Under: Book Blasts Tagged With: Book Blast, Deckbuilding, Demon Card Enforcer, John Stovall, Kacey Ezell, LitRPG, Shadow Card Guardian

THIS FRIDAY! Q&A with Kacey Ezell, author of SHADOW CARD GUARDIAN

April 14, 2025 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Q&A with Kacey Ezell, author of SHADOW CARD GUARDIAN

Friday, April 18th @ 8pm EST

H.P. Holo chats with author KACEY EZELL about the new deckbuilding LitRPG SHADOW CARD GUARDIAN … and gives away a signed copy!

Read SHADOW CARD GUARDIAN Here: https://amzn.to/42jCTWc #AmazonAffiliate

Visit Kacey’s Website Here: https://kaceyezell.net/


Dania Ellis has faced warzones and Emergency Room chaos—but nothing prepared her for Drop Night.

Once every ten years, the gods give a deck of cards to a chosen few. These new “deckbearers” are capable of great magical feats, and are the top of every food chain, both metaphorically and literally.

As a combat veteran and ER nurse, Dania knows what it takes to fight for a better life. She’s worked tirelessly to build a future for herself and her orphaned nephew, Jake. But everything changes on Jake’s fourteenth birthday when he receives a Drop Night deck—straight from Nyx, the goddess of night.

The deck grants Jake power, but it also paints a target on his back. Suddenly, he’s a deckbearer hunted by forces that would do anything to possess his special deck of cards. But those hunting him and others like him failed to consider one important thing: Jake may be orphaned, but he’s not alone…

Because Dania will do anything to protect her kid. Survival isn’t just an option—it’s a promise.

Fast-paced, gripping, and full of heart, this story is in the same universe as Demon Card Enforcer, and perfect for fans of All the Skills and Goblin Summoner.


Support the podcast (and/or buy Dazzle treats) at …

Buy Me A Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/holowriting
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/holowriting

Filed Under: Q&A Tagged With: Author Q&A, Deckbuilding, Demon Card Enforcer, Fantasy, John Stovall, Kacey Ezell, LitRPG, Q&A, Shadow Card Guardian

Book Blast: Discount Dan (Discount Dan’s Backroom Bargains #1) by James A. Hunter

March 17, 2025 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Hey, y’all! 😄 I have lots of cool author friends who write lots of cool books, and occasionally I like to show off those books.

Now, for this one: A bunch of my friends frequently tag me as the one who got them hooked on Dungeon Crawler Carl, so 1) I am delighted to be your corruptor 😈, but also 2) author buddy of another author buddy James A Hunter has just released a LitRPG with BIG DCC VIBES.

Admittedly, I haven’t read it yet, but c’mon, it’s got a series title like DISCOUNT DAN’S BACKROOM BARGAINS and this googly eyed dog monstrosity on the cover and a mimic toilet LIKE WHY ARE YOU STILL LOOKING AT THIS SCREEN GET IT NOW

READ DISCOUNT DAN HERE!

For real, how can you turn down this face?

Discount Dan: A LitRPG Adventure

Discount Dan’s Backroom Bargains #1

by James A. Hunter

***

Noclip In, No Way Out…

All Dan wants is to find a way home. He’d settle for a beer, a bite to eat, and a place to sleep off his hangover.

But, in an endless, ever-changing dungeon cobbled together from twisted carnivals, abandoned shopping malls, janky laundromats, and condemned insane asylums, getting a bit of shut-eye is harder than it sounds.

Dan has accidentally “Noclipped” into the Backrooms—a bizarro, extra-dimensional Alice-in-Wonderland world, overrun with horrific nightmare creatures known as the Dwellers. No one ever gets out. Hell, forget about leaving, if Dan wants to survive the week, he’s going to need to harness the strange game-like magic of the Backrooms, make some very sketchy allies, and carve out a little safe haven to call his own.

And he’s going to need to do it fast because Dan is being hunted. The Flayed Monarch of the 999th floor has marked him for death and no one walks away from the Skinless Court with their hide intact…

“The book is a f***ing delight. I enjoyed the absolute hell out of it and think it’s an excellent use of pop culture to make something fun and horrific and awesome.”– Eric Ugland, Author of the Good Guys and Bad Guys

“Buckle up, buttercup! James Hunter takes you on a balls-to-the-wall adventure that’s as insane as it is awesome.” – Jez Cajiao, Author of Arise and Rise of Mankind

“
Discount Dan is a fun, fast-paced read with awesome game mechanics, surprising humor, and a brutal adventure you won’t want to put down!” – Dakota Krout, Author of Completionist Chronicles, Full Murder Hobo, and The Divine Dungeon

READ DISCOUNT DAN HERE!

NOTE: As Amazon Associates, we earn a wee little commission on any Amazon purchases made through qualifying links on this page.

Filed Under: Book Blasts Tagged With: adventure, Discount Dan, Discount Dan's Backroom Bargains #1, Dungeon Crawler Carl, James A Hunter, LitRPG

Monster Girl Tamer #1 is out today!

May 16, 2024 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Hey, y’all! 😄 These days, it’s not often that I write under my H.P. Holo pen name, largely buried in writing as the surprise best-seller my spicy Edie Skye pen name became.

Titan Mage Book Cover

However, as I was writing Titan Mage, my first series under that name, a funny thing happened: Readers started asking for a monster girl series.

Now, monster girls hadn’t been established as a part of Titan Mage lore, and I didn’t want to retcon something so potentially complex into that world.

However, on my H.P. Holo pen name, I’d already written Monster Punk Horizon—and, in fact, I’d already planned to write a monster girl harem parody in that series (albeit a chaste one in the style of early-2000s harem anime like Tenchi Muyo and Love Hina). Moreover, Monster Punk fans have been asking me for a continuation of that series for years.

And I do love giving my readers what they ask for! 😉

Since the basic groundwork was already in place, it wasn’t hard to re-work my original Monster Punk harem concept into a sexy monster girl series. As much as I love Pix and Jaz, they don’t fit the archetypes of the harem genre all that well, so I ended up creating a new cast for readers to follow. (The old favorites still end up making significant cameos, though. After all, I love them too much to stop writing them! 😊)

Read Monster Girl Tamer #1 HERE!

Our MC in Monster Girl Tamer, then, is the heroic Axel Hunter Radcliffe. He’s from a family of Chosen Ones, destined to be his generation’s Chosen One … but he doesn’t know what he’s been Chosen to do. All he knows is that he’s fated to assemble a group of skilled women to do it—a “tactical harem.”

Things get even more complicated when he falls through a portal into the Dazzling Skies.

And even more complicated when monsters start turning into hot monster girl versions of themselves—Thicc Variants—and wreaking havoc across the Monstrous Continent. Are they the problem he’s been Chosen to stop? Or are they the essential pieces of the harem that will help him save the world?

He doesn’t know, but either way, these monster girls need to be tamed! 🤣

Obviously, a series of that nature would be written under my Edie Skye pen name, since that’s basically my shorthand for “This is smut.” (If spiciness isn’t your thing, be warned: It’s a lot spicier than Monster Punk Horizon was.) However, I also wanted to be clear that it’s set in a world I created as H.P. Holo.

Thus, we have this odd little situation where I’m co-authoring a book … with myself. 😂

Spice level differences aside, this series continues the same redonkulous monster-hunting hijinks you know and love from Monster Punk Horizon (and the spicy scenes are largely skippable, for those who don’t enjoy that kind of content 😊).

Whatever your taste, I hope you enjoy it! 😄

Filed Under: Holo Books Tagged With: adventure, Edie Skye, Fantasy, H.P. Holo, HaremLit, isekai, LitRPG, Monster Girl Tamer, Monster Punk Horizon

Into the Real – Book Review

October 26, 2022 by hpholo Leave a Comment

I’ve been looking forward to this book since the moment I heard it described as Pokemon Go meets Monster Hunter—and by the standards both properties inspire in my brain, it does not disappoint. 😄

Into the Real Book Cover

In John Ringo and Lydia Sherrer’s Into the Real, Lynn Raven is a shy couch potato of a teen who would rather stay home and play WarMonger 2050 than go be around people. Even her narrow circle of IRL gaming friends—all guys—are generally unappealing, because the alpha nerd of the group is of the “girls can’t play video games” variety and would become insufferable if he knew the truth of her gaming hobby. See, through the power of near-future voice modification technology, a lot of intense forum research, and a lot of practice, she moonlights as the grizzled military veteran Larry Coughlin, an absolute legend in WarMonger’s multiplayer circles, a well-paid in-game mercenary-for-hire, and most importantly, routine kicker of Ronnie’s in-game butt.

So legendary is she as Larry Coughlin that, when Tsunami Entertainment rolls out the invite-only beta for its upcoming augmented reality game, TransDimensional Hunter, she’s invited by the head of the company himself to test this new game. It’s a tremendous honor and testament to her skill … but stepping outside her home, into the real, to conspicuously play this highly-anticipated game means she risks revealing her online identity. It also means she’ll have to deal with, eew, people.

But it also presents an avenue for her to earn more real-world money through gaming, and things haven’t been easy for her and her mother since the death of her police officer father. So Lynn takes on the opportunity—and with it, the challenges of navigating adolescence, competitive gamer boys, savage popular girls … and maybe something even bigger than that.

In recent years, I’ve become a huge fan of the LitRPG/GameLit genre (obviously, since I now write in it), and while Into the Real lacks some of the more iconic qualities associated with indie LitRPG (detailed stat blocks, for example), it’s entirely worth a read for LitRPG fans, especially those looking for something a little more complex than the usual power-fantasy adventure that dominates the genre.

Into the Real stands out for many reasons. The most conspicuous one for me was that it not only follows a female main character—uncommon in LitRPG—but that it depicts the specific experience of being a female gamer in a male-dominated competitive hobby, while also exploring the challenges inherent in simply being a teenager.

There is a definite power fantasy element—Lynn’s masquerading as Larry Coughlin can’t be anything but—but in a clever subversion of the trope, it’s also presented as the mask she wears to cope with her very teenage insecurities. She’s self-conscious about her body and about being a girl gamer amidst a bunch of immature boys, while potentially having a crush on one of those boys. She also has to deal with socially vicious popular girls, even on the gaming front, when the local rich queen bee (and popular streamer) has her father pull some strings to get her into the closed beta-test for TD Hunter … and proceeds to harass Lynn in the process (sometimes violently). Larry Coughlin and WarMonger 2050 are the shields she hides behind when being Lynn Raven becomes too unpleasant—but in playing TD Hunter, she can only be Lynn Raven, and participation in the game itself forces her to face those hurdles and thus grow as a person.

All this to say, while I don’t think it was necessarily written for a YA audience, this is definitely a novel that teen gamer girls in particular can relate to.

And the experience of being a gamer girl is intrinsic to the story. One of Lynn’s greatest social challenges is Ronnie, alpha nerd of her friend group and firm believer that “girls got no game.” When a high-stakes TD Hunter competition is announced—requiring four-player teams—Ronnie begrudgingly lets her fill the fourth spot on the group’s team and then, despite insisting upon being the leader, fails to give her serious consideration when forming the team’s strategies (i.e. completely fails to act like a leader). A non-gamer might look at his character and view him as a stereotype … but anyone who has ever spent time on a gamer girl forum will recognize him instantly. Discussions on these forums are overwhelmingly dominated by girls trying to find other girls to game with, and it’s largely because of the disrespect and sexist harassment they receive in chat from players like Ronnie. It’s a genuine problem in gaming culture at large and Into the Real completely nails it with this storyline. Lynn has to overcome her difficulties with Ronnie if she—and her team—are to succeed in competition, and the way the story handles it is both realistic and wholly appropriate to its coming-of-age theme.

What makes this book succeed, though, is that alongside the strong realization of its themes, it’s a whole lot of fun, and it particularly nails the unique fun of gaming culture, while also presenting a genuinely cool view of what gaming could look like in the near future.

Lynn’s is a future where augmented reality glasses are common and used in daily life even outside gaming contexts, where smart fabrics can mold to fit individual body shapes, and where games as complex as TD Hunter not only have special shape-changing peripheral controllers, but virtual AI assistants to help manage in-game data. TD Hunter itself is a game that I found myself wanting to play as I read, largely because it reminded me so strongly of some of my own favorite games. The AR component of Pokemon Go makes it an obvious comparison, and given the game’s goal, Monster Hunter feels like an obvious comparison, too … but (speaking as someone who takes days off work to play new Monster Hunter games), it’s also wholly appropriate. TD Hunter is a game that understands the pleasure of tracking and discovering new monsters, gathering new data on them with each encounter, and heck, gathering loot in general. For that matter, it’s also not inaccurate to compare it to Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter International series, given that modern-style weaponry is used in the game (and that there’s at least one MHI easter egg for sharp-eyed readers).

Also notable is how seriously the novel takes the physical aspect of the game. Lynn’s mom is a medical professional, and there are moments where she delivers advice that made me go, “Oh, one of those authors definitely played ridiculous amounts of Pokemon Go” (I say as I look at my own dedicated gaming bag of sunscreen, bottled waters, emergency protein snacks, and UV-blocking clothes). TD Hunter, of course, is on a whole other physical level, requiring players to jump around and physically exert themselves as if fighting real monsters, and while Lynn’s mom is cautious about the general safety of Lynn’s endeavor, she’s also refreshingly supportive and offers detailed dietary and general health information to enable her daughter to succeed without overwhelming her body. It’s a nice realistic detail in a genre that usually doesn’t pay attention to such mundane details. (Plus, it’s also great to see a parent in a teen-led story who isn’t an absolute idiot.)

The only place where Into the Real slips for me is the literal last set of paragraphs. These include a twist that sharp-eyed readers will see coming, and serve more to set up the next book in the series, rather than contributing anything significant to this one—but then, ultimately this first novel is about Lynn’s personal struggle, more so than the coming wider struggle that’s implied in the twist. Taking that into account, the book becomes a strong setup for what is sure to be a unique, fun series.

Ultimately, the thing that stands out most about Into the Real?

Many books about gaming get me so pumped to game that I stop mid-read to do just that—but Into the Real was so hypnotic I couldn’t bring myself to put it down, despite wanting to boot up my console for some Monster Hunter every other page. (And y’all know how I feel about Monster Hunter.) That said, it’s a must-read for gamers, but also for anyone who wants a fun, smart story about a shy teen finding her way through an exciting technological future.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: AR Games, Augmented Reality, Game Girl, GameLit, Gamer Girl, gaming, Gaming Fiction, LitRPG, lydia sherrer, Science Fiction, YA Fiction

By the Grace of the Gods, Vol. 1 – Book Review

September 5, 2022 by hpholo Leave a Comment

Sometimes you find a book that, against all odds, ends up being a surprise favorite. For me, By the Grace of the Gods, Volume 1 by Roy is one of those books.

By the Grace of the Gods Book Cover

The novel starts out as a standard isekai/reborn-in-another-world story, with the main character dying and appearing before the gods of a fantasy world, who determine where he’ll be placed in his afterlife. The thing that sets this character, Ryoma, apart from others, is that when he learns he’s died, he’s pretty chill about it. His response is essentially, “Welp, I’m a 40-year-old Japanese salaryman and even younger coworkers have died from the stress of our job, so honestly I’m just glad I made it this long.”

To which the gods say, “OMG That’s sad. We’re going to give you a good life.”

Ryoma is thus reincarnated as a 10-year-old boy who lives out in the woods away from all human contact and just spends his time chilling and researching slime monsters. When he finally does encounter people – by accident – they’re good people, and they take him to the city, where he finds that, by the standards of this world, his slime research is actually pretty revolutionary, such that he’s able to use it to save the city from a pandemic!

The storytelling is very relaxed; even the climax where he saves the city is hilariously chill. There’s no anime-style action here. Ryoma literally realizes the presence of a potential disease by noticing that the disease resistance of his cleaning slimes has risen – a consequence of exposure and adaptation – and saves the city from that illness by using his slimes to clean the public toilets where it’s thriving.

Yes, the whole climax of the book is “Main character cleans toilets.”

And yet, the utter chillness of his book is what makes it so appealing. This was my nighttime before-bed read, and the leisurely pace of the plot and charming positivity of the characters made it one of the most stress-relieving books I’ve ever read.

It’s also absolutely wholesome. General kindness of the entire cast aside, there’s not even a hint of a scantily clad character or sexy thought (in contrast to most other light novels), which makes it a safe recommendation for preteens and younger.

Finally, for those who enjoy LitRPG and stats, its stat system is simple and easy to keep up with, and Ryoma’s slime research is truly interesting to read about. (Different slimes serve different functions, and he uses them to interesting effect.)

All in all, By the Grace of the Gods, Volume 1 is a delightful surprise of a novel, and I recommend it highly to anyone looking for an easy, relaxing read.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Easy Reads, Fantasy, GameLit, light novel, Light Novel Review, LitRPG, Relaxing Reads, Stats

Cinnamon Bun – Book Review

April 17, 2022 by hpholo Leave a Comment

I’m slowly making my way through my massive LitRPG backlog, and this month’s book was Cinnamon Bun by RavensDigger! 😀

Cinnamon Bun Audiobook Cover

Admittedly, it took me a while to get into this one. It bills itself as a wholesome LitRPG, and it’s definitely that.

In fact, despite being eager to embark on the adventures promised by the new world she’s been dropped into, the main character Broccoli Bunch is initially hesitant to kill monsters out of a general discomfort with the idea of killing things, and spends a significant chunk of the early book literally leveling up her Cleaning skill. She discovers some neat uses for said Cleaning skill – for example, it’s unexpectedly useful against the undead – but it’s still just … cleaning. 😐 Hours of it. 😐😐😐

Still, Broccoli Bunch herself is such a sweetly endearing character that I powered through that part of the book. (And honestly, I do a lot of my audiobook listening while I’m doing chores anyway, so it felt strangely appropriate.)

I’m glad I did, too, because once she starts meeting other characters and exploring different areas of the world she’s in, the reader is introduced to a genuinely fun fantasy setting with one of the more interesting magic systems I’ve encountered in LitRPG. I generally don’t pay attention to stats and other such details in LitRPGs because they just don’t interest me, but RavensDigger works that information into the story in such a way that it feels natural, as opposed to a numbers and information dump, which I appreciated.

Despite my initial impression, I now actually consider it one of my favorite LitRPGs and will probably continue to the next once I’m in the mood for it – and you do have to be in the mood for a story of its type.

It’s very gentle LitRPG for readers who mostly just want a cute, relaxing read, as opposed to an action-packed adventure. However, within those limitations, it does what it aims to do very well, and I appreciate that about it, too. Also, aside from some mild bad language, it’s clean enough that it could easily be recommended to kids (even though it doesn’t necessarily feel like it was written for kids), so it could be a good book to hand to a youngling you want to introduce to LitRPG.

I don’t consider Cinnamon Bun a LitRPG must-read, but I do recommend it highly to readers who are looking for a story of its unique type. 😄

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, Cinnamon Bun, Fantasy, LitRPG, LitRPG Review, Portal Fantasy, RavensDigger, Wholesome

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