All in Charisma

by Kyle West, West

Justin Talemaker spends his days raiding in his mother's a college dropout with no job, no prospects, and zero charisma.

But when a tornado sweeps him to Eyrth, a realm of magic and monsters, a strange voice offers him a second choose your class.

Faced with a lifetime of social failure, Justin doesn't pick warrior, wizard, or anything that seems remotely useful.

He picks Socialite.

Follow Justin on a zero-to-hero journey where charisma becomes his weapon. He'll haggle with shopkeepers, fall in with a classic adventuring party, win dungeons by heckling the boss, and get swept up in a conspiracy involving a power-hungry necromancer.

Can Justin prove he picked the right class, or is this just his latest failure—with his life on the line?

This story follows a classic adventuring loot drops, progression, with social situations and challenges mixed in.

Genres: Fantasy

602 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 9, 2025

About the author

I'm Kyle West, author of the Wasteland Chronicles, Xenoworld Saga, Starsea Cycle, and more. I try to write books with lots of action and crazy twists to keep you turning the pages. Every book of mine can be categorized as "science fantasy," blending elements from both genres.

Reviews

[Alyssia Cooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

All in Charisma is a fun litRPG romp that takes a misfit nerd and throws him into a high fantasy world with video game mechanics. I don't read a vast amount of litRPG so don't have a huge amount of comparisons to relate it to, but the RPG vibe was absolutely there and the game mechanics obvious enough without being too long-winded or slowing down the main narrative.

Justin is quite frankly a bit of a loser. Socially maladjusted, 24/7 video games, no job, no life and no friends. When he gets portalled to Eyrth however, he finds an orb that offers him the opportunity to choose his skill and his class. Despite knowing the value of a tank in a video game, Justin picks Socialite and from that moment on, his charisma is what he's going to need to rely on. Kind of.

What I was hoping for from this novel was an unusual spin on the RPG adventure where the lead character has to use words and wits to resolve things rather than swords and staffs and magic. Kind od like how you can play Fallout New Vegas and avoid a lot of the combat (although not all) if you put your skill points in the right places. That isn't quite what I got.

Justin quickly attracts a party of adventurers; paladin, ranger and bard who all have their own combat strengths even if Justin himself is reliant on moxie more than head bashing. This meant that the adventure very quickly falls into what I presume to be the standard tropes of litRPG; bash monsters and clear dungeons with nifty sword/bow work and some flashy magic.

Don't get me wrong, it's fun. It's a good, easy read that kept me engaged. But I do genuinely think that it could and should have been more. If the focus was actually on the charisma elements and Justin wasn't able to be the support character for the parties more standard fighters, this would have been far more interesting and genuinely unusual and gripping.

I liked the characters and found the narrative engaging even if it was a tad predictable and overly reliant on battles. Justin's development was perhaps a little quick, particularly to start with, but the cast of side characters were well drawn and the world well developed around them. The game mechanics were integrated well without massive info drops and the skills and boons Justin picks up were brought to life throughout the novel. There are elements where the characters are given high tier weapons/armour early on and quickly though, which unbalances the party further and gives them a combat specialty that the book would have been better avoiding.

All in all, 3.5 stars rounded up to 4 for Goodreads. This was good fun to read, but by running the standard adventurer party trope it really missed out on capitalising on the main selling point of this - that the lead character has (perhaps unwisely) been dumping all of his skill points into charisma and forcing him to use that to lead in most situations.

[Sam H · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting take on the portal fantasy/litrpg idea. I was excited to see a noncombat MC have to find creative ways around problems without simply killing monsters, unfortunately he fairly quickly found equipment that solved that problem and it turned into a somewhat more average "adventuring party" story. The MC still used his charisma stat for some creative problem solving in social settings throughout the story, but not as much as I was expecting from the premise. I also didn't fully expect him to turn into a ladies man and develop a harem or have James Bond style one nighters, but he only flirted with one inn keeper at the beginning and then focused his full attention on the obvious love interest that was also practically the first woman he met. An entertaining story all around, but somewhat disappointing considering its potential.

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

At some point I read this one on Royalroad. I made it to chapter forty-four and dropped it. I don't remember why or even what the story is about. I've added it back to my Royalroad reading list and will update this review in time.
Ignore the read dates as I don't remember this series at this time and will be making something up just for holding purposes till I can dig back into this story. I will most likely just start over. Till then this is a placeholder so I don't forget the story again.

[Brett Hull · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice book but falls into the trap of having battles and stuff.

Given that the MC is charisma based, I was hoping the book would play to their strengths and not so much to their weaknesses. For example, I thought a story about manipulating the class system would be good rather than MC relying on others as a support in a classic battle scenario.

I would like a story that takes into account game systems but without playing in a typical elder scrolls style.

[Cel Rince · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really entertaining book. A refreshing change of pace from the usual spellblades and swordsmen. There is still plenty of combat, but a lot more social duels and finding the right words to solve problems. The protagonist even has an attack based on insulting his opponent and stunning them with emotional damage.