Leveling With Liam

by G.W. Dursteler

Liam has died twenty-seven times in four months, and he’s getting really tired of it.

Trapped in a world where death means respawning at a random graveyard, Liam is stuck as a level 3 warrior who can’t swing an axe to save his life—literally. The only quest he wants to succeed at is getting home, and he is losing hope that will ever happen. When a chance meeting with Mia, a fire mage, leads to a quest for a legendary item, everything changes.

Join Liam and Mia as they face Dwarven immigration officers, loquacious beavers, the occasional cyclops, impossible heists and more.

Liam must figure out what truly is worth living for in a world where death is temporary, but where the friendships he makes might be forever. Join the party and go on the adventure of a lifetime in this humorous LitRPG/Gamelit adventure about relationships, second chances, and finding your true self.

If you are new to the LitRPG genre, don’t let that scare you off! Fancy folk might call it a postmodern take on science fiction and fantasy, but I’d say it’s just good clean fun. Enjoy a family friendly, quick paced, funny adventure that will appeal to both young and old adults.

219 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 16, 2025

About the author

I have been captivated by science fiction and fantasy books since childhood. Growing up as a military brat, I had the opportunity to discover not only a new town but also a new library every three years. Each one was a sanctuary and gateway to countless new worlds.

I currently call Texas home, where I live with my wife and very spoiled Cavapoo named Maive.

My dream is simple: to spend more time creating the stories you love to read. Every reader who picks up my work helps make that dream possible.

Reviews

[⋆. shiloh 𝝑𝝔˚ · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 ★ | 10-11+
leveling with liam | g.w. dursteler

the biggest thank you to netgalley for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review .ᐟ.ᐟ

⇰ 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 ⋆. 💭 ₊˚‧
wow! this book was so fun! It was such a pleasant surprise. originally the cover caught my eye, then the blurb sounded interesting, so I picked it up! I really truly enjoyed this so much and I’m glad I read it! It opened my eyes to a whole new subgenre I definitely wanna try reading again!!
(also my sister just read it on kindle unlimited and adored it, so yay there!)

⇰ 𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐭 ⋆. 🦫 ₊˚‧
liam has died 27 times in the last 4 months in this monster filled, quest centered, convoluted fantasy world. not fun. he’s a level 3 warrior (but is he really much of a warrior when he runs away at every sign of danger?) and desperately wants to learn magic so he can cast a portal to get back to earth, his home. when an unexpected opportunity to team up with a level 12 fire mage on a quest comes up, liam decides to accept, and chaos ensues, including (but not limited to) ancient lichs, kind and not-so-kind cyclops, angry dwarves, and peaceful and valiant beavers.

⇰ 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 ⋆. 🎮 ₊˚‧
it definitely wasn’t perfect, with some typos, grammatical errors, and minor inconsistencies, BUT it was so dang funny! this author highlighted a lot of the humor in the ways and mechanics of video games, and I quite enjoyed it. it was probably my favorite aspect of the book!

⇰ 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 ⋆. 🌲 ₊˚‧
worldbuilding and setting is definitely the author’s strong suit! I could imagine everything so well, and the way he described things were very fluid and intricately detailed, while still blending into the story and not bringing me out of it.

⇰ 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 ⋆. 🧙🏼‍♀️ ₊˚‧
I loved Liam and Mia and can’t wait to see what happens to them next and how their friendship evolves!


content considerations:
romance: none
language: none
violence: moderate, mia’s leg gets ripped off, but it later is healed, and liam is slammed into a tree so hard he almost dies. liam and mia swim in an insanely polluted river and also get blown from a blast, so later their injuries are described with detail and could be triggering.
other: the main character visits a fortune teller and she tells him some cryptic poems about his future, and later mia says that in this world fortune tellers aren’t just scams, they’re real, and that they have power. at one point mia is frustrated about the imbalance of rewards from their completed requests, blaming it on sexism. (which, real, girlypop. I’d be mad too)

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received an ARC from NetGalley and the author in exchange for an honest review*

This book felt like a wonderfully whimsical RPG game, or for any fellow anime lovers, a mix of Solo Leveling and Frieren!

From the very first page readers are introduced to a world filled with danger, chaos and a lot of magic. The writing is simple to read, comedic and very deadpan- on numerous occasions I found myself huffing a laugh at the names, lore and conversations between the characters.

Speaking of, I really liked the main protagonist, Liam. Despite having a habit of repeatedly dying then respawning he's resilient, selfless and determined to escape this strange game-like world and return to Earth. In order to do that, Liam needs to level up. A lot. Alongside Liam is Mia, a fiery, confident and knowledgeable pyromancer. I really loved seeing Liam and Mia's bond grow, from being forced together to then learning to care and work together was well written, and whilst not explicitly shown, I think there's hints of romance too.

The story is very much like any typical fantasy game/ story, the adventurers must complete quests to level up, gain items and earn some coin. I thoroughly enjoyed the first quest with the mace, and found the second quest with aiding the beavers very sweet yet a little long winded, especially towards the end of the book. The author blends mystery, action and comedy very well, and I think this is their debut novel, so hats off for being able to pull it off so fantastically. I did find a few minor editing mistakes, so I would just recommend for the author to have another read through.

The ending leaves off at a good place, but definitely gives lots of leeway for a sequel, it's obvious Liam and Mia still have a lot of levelling up to do together before they reach the maximum (?) level of 60 and find a way home, if that's even what they want by the end of it all. I'm hoping for the sequel to have more characters to join Liam and Mia's party, but regardless, I can't wait to see what other mayhem they get up to!

4/5 🌟

[Katlix · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liam is trapped in a game-like world and is looking for a way to level up and get back home. Then he joins up with Mia and finally he's making the progress he's been looking for. With his optimism and her cynicism the pair is uniquely suited to tackle their quests.

As I've fallen into the LitRPG/progression fantasy wormhole this year I just had to read this ARC. It pleasantly surprised me. It has a couple of aspects reminiscent of Dungeon Crawler Carl (the sassy notifications when accepting and completing quests, and another thing that's been hinted to but I won't spoil!), but it's definitely its own story with its own worldbuilding. It's a lot more cozy, but brutal fights or injuries are still present. It's kind of what I expected The Wandering Inn to be, and I LOVE that series, but all the big events give me so much anxiety. So reading this was a nice change of pace and setting. The book is a lot shorter than I'm used to, novella length, and the chapters are mostly short as well. I think it would make an excellent introduction into the world of LitRPG for readers unused to the genre.

What worked for me:
- While Liam’s good-heartedness is easy to like, Mia’s more shrewd personality and outlook does help to balance it out and progress the story.
- The beaverfolk were hilarious. I hope there’s more of them in future books.
- Krul is love. Krul is life.
- The mystery around this game-like world. The mechanics are hinted at, but still unclear. I am completely fine with taking longer to find out what’s actually happening here or what rules the world/NPCs play by. We’re getting a smidge of a taste in this first book and it makes me very curious.

I am absolutely invested and interested in reading the rest of the series. For now it’s a nice palate cleanser between other series. There’s a bit of action, a bit of humor, a bit of strategy and some cozy vibes. While I hope the story and worldbuilding become a bit deeper the current vibes suit me perfectly.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for providing me with this ARC. All opinions are my own.

[Noah H-I · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks BookSirens for the advanced reading copy!

3.75 out of 5 stars (rounded up)

A light, trope-heavy LitRPG with a fun premise but uneven execution.

Most of the dialogue and character interactions were pretty simple, predictable, and often felt flat—especially in the early chapters. The banter between Liam and Mia had potential, but didn’t always land, and the reasons behind their partnership felt a bit thin. The sarcastic quest AI also didn’t add much, and often came off as forced.

That said, the story does start to evolve in the later chapters. As things progress, the plot becomes more layered and engaging, and the characters begin to grow into something more interesting. The humor works in places, the quests are entertaining (if occasionally too long), and there’s a charm to the world that kept me reading.

Not super original and definitely rough in places, but still a fun read with potential. I’m looking forward to the sequel!

[Courtney Pityer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a book that I won in a goodreads giveaway and I must say it was actually very enjoyable and I would recommend it to someone who really enjoys anime! I will say that the characters were enjoyable and the plot itself was like one big adventure from start to finish. I know that this is the debut work of the author so hopefully he will have more exciting stories like this in the future.

We are introduced to Liam and Mia who are total opposites when it comes to their stealth level. Which means Mia can hold her own and Liam would need the assistance of Mia in a log chopping contest. They do face a lot of obstacles but they know in the long run the outcome will be the ability to go home.

[Viking Jam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review: This was a whole lotta fun. The humor is light as are the quests and world interactions. A wonderful writer that should continue with this story line. Although written for a specific audience, I found this refreshing vs. the heavy blood and gore that tends to steep this genre.

4.7/5

[Minie · Rating 3 out of 5]

⋆˚☾⭒ 3.5 ⏾⋆.˚

“…the heart that longs for yesterday may find tomorrow has moved beyond its reach.”

How cute and fun! Liam and Mia were both well-rounded characters who grew loads even in this 100ish page book. The DND system implementation is super interesting and it was very easy to understand. Coming from a DND lover, I loved it. A feel-good, cozy time where you can turn off your brain a bit and still enjoy yourself and learn a moral lesson naturally. It was charming, but just not memorable for me and I was left with a feeling of 'just gotta get through it.'

Read via ARC from NetGalley—thank you to everyone who made this happen.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upfront, let me say that I went into this expecting the editing to be scruffy. LitRPG is one of those genres (along with supers and steampunk) that for some reason attracts writers who don't have a strong grasp of basic prose mechanics. They will leave out the comma before a term of address ("I don't know Mia" means something different from "I don't know, Mia"), mispunctuate dialog (the tag is not a separate sentence, and if the same speaker continues in a new paragraph, there's no closing quotation mark in the first paragraph), make vocabulary errors either by mistyping or by confusing two different words (instance/instant, near-do-wells/ne'er-do-wells, anymore/any more, exaltation/exhortation, dias/dais, test/tent, grim/grime, fairing/faring, twice/probably a typo for twigs or twine, deferred/demurred), miss out the past perfect tense, perpetrate sloppy typos like double periods, double commas, or a comma and a period together, spell several character names two different ways on the same page, and occasionally miss closing quotation marks.

This one made all the above errors, and more, but I have seen far worse in the genre. It's about as bad as, say, Beware of Chicken , which isn't good, but isn't so bad that it's unreadable, like some I could mention. Disclaimer as always: I had a pre-publication version from Netgalley, and there may be more editing done before publication.

Again like others in the genre, continuity is not a strength. Both beaver mayors change gender in the course of the narrative, one of them twice, and a boat trip takes place both downstream and upstream while heading in the same direction. Though in that case I may have misunderstood how the streams related to each other; it wasn't very clearly explained.

Also, of course, part of the genre is that some things only make sense by game logic, like a legendary artefact being in an unlocked chest in a random room off a corridor that a passing adventurer can just loot with no consequences.

Setting all of that aside, though, this is a mostly genial LitRPG without too much of the game mechanics - the narrator shares his character sheet a few times, but not every second chapter, and there's more of a focus on the traits than the numbers - and with a genuinely decent, likeable main character. Liam is a natural-born paladin, who will look after his party member before himself.

His party member, Mia, is less appealing: a fire mage who is blasé about collateral damage. For me, the part I liked least, and the reason I say mostly genial, was the utter, violent destruction of a large industrial facility, along with hundreds of people of all races who were just doing a job and may not even have realized that the factory was polluting the environment.

I did think that the leveling mentioned in the title happened a bit too often and too easily. Liam goes up by 15 levels in the course of three quests, sometimes as many as six levels at once, ending the book at level 18, and the level cap is 60. I'd like to spend a lot more time with Liam, but his rapid advancement means that I won't get that opportunity for as long as I'd like, especially given that this was a short book to start with. I'm not looking for a tedious grind, but something between that and this would be nice.

I will look out for the next book, because I enjoyed this and want to encourage LitRPG with a main character who isn't an egotistical tool. And I do recommend it, with the caveats above taking it to the Bronze tier of my Best of the Year for 2025.

[Ven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This is another fun addition to the LIT-RPG space, which feels more like it leans a lot more into MMO (mass multiplayer online) games than the other couple I have read, as well as pulling inspiration (i think)from some lesser known gaming gems!
Liam is full of heart and (at the start) completely useless, whilst his new party member, a flame weaving sorceress is the polar opposite, throw in the level difference and you have an odd mentor pairing that works.
I also like how it both subverts some of trope from fantasy gaming, while leaning in hard into the extremes of others, pushing them further than fantasy often does.
Add in the often sarcastic 'narration' from the quest log, and you have a good, fun story that clips along nicely, but keeps some mystery in reserve for the next installment

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25⭐️ I honestly ate this up!! I won this book in a Goodreads giveaway, and I’m so glad I got a chance to read this! I adored the writing style and felt transported into this fantasy videogame world. We’re left with a lot of questions at the end of the book that I’m looking forward to getting answers to. The characters were sweet with Grumpy Mia and Sunshine Liam, but the author really shines in highlighting the minor supporting characters. The beavers and Krul?! I mean, come on. This middle-grade kept me fully immersed and entertained, which some YA has been failing to do recently. There were some minor spelling and grammar errors, but I can definitely overlook them for such an adorable book!

[Maxx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and G.W. Dursteler for The ARC!

I'm not too familiar with Lit RPG's, but this felt like a quick an easy introduction to one. I loved the humorous banter between Liam and Mia since they seem so opposite to one another at times, and the situations they get themselves into. I do think someone not familiar to RPG mechanics might find it a bit confusing and a bit niche to get into, but things for the most part are explained in a way even beginners can understand. I just love the cozy yet very real vibes this book brings and I'm all here for it!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read alot of LitRPG stories but the description grabbed me and I'm really glad I gave it a go. There was a lot of humor in this story and yet there were some important themes in this story. Environmental concerns, gender equity and fair treatment of workers all make an appearance in this story rather seemlessly. I liked the characters and would really like to read another adventure including these two!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Effy Pittway · Rating 4 out of 5]

New achievement!!!
New LitRPG book unlocked!!


…. Reward?
…… you get new attachments to new characters, including a cyclops!


Levelling with Liam is a great way to transition into LitRPG after reading a series like Dungeon Crawler Carl towards the more traditional type of book in that genre.
Easy to read with an explosive plot, I look forward to continuing this series when there is another book.

[Jenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading Leveling With Liam. The characters are fun to get to know, and the world the story is set in is well developed and interesting. The story is fun and lighthearted, with some moments that had me laughing out loud. This is a great book to read if you want something to cheer you up. If you enjoy LitRPGs, give this one a read.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Sweetmusicwoman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you BookSirens for a copy of this book to read and give an honest review. I found it different but interesting. I do not normally read books like this. But I wanted something different. I had fun.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great start!

What a great start by a new author! I laughed at several points and enjoyed the story thoroughly! Keep writing and I’ll keep reading!!!

[Stacey Bretherton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay so I've never read these types of books before I'm not even sure of the genre, there was something that caught my eye and as a fan of platform type games as a child I thought I'd give it a go.
I read this is five days alongside a full time job and home life, I really enjoyed the description of the world, the adventures/assignments, the way every time they were successful it gave you the level ups and skills in bold writing.
How Liam got better with Mia's help and they became a great team working together despite sometimes him getting the better rewards.
I can't wait to see how this relationship continues to develop, the next adventure and if they ever get to level 60 and what happens next.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.