What do you think?
Rate this book
Tiny Souls: A LitRPG Portal Fantasy
If you suddenly lost your family in a tragic accident, how far would you go to get them back?
After a string of bad luck left her newly orphaned and homeless, Kara Andrews never expected to be approached by an angel. God sent the angel on a search for a pure soul to complete objectives in other worlds, and his crosshairs landed on her. The reward is worth fighting for.
Seven worlds. Seven opportunities for failure. One chance to bring her family home.
But the adventure is unlike anything she ever expected…
Tiny Souls is a standalone LitRPG portal (isekai) fantasy with religious undertones, crude humor, and mild adult content.
After a string of bad luck left her newly orphaned and homeless, Kara Andrews never expected to be approached by an angel. God sent the angel on a search for a pure soul to complete objectives in other worlds, and his crosshairs landed on her. The reward is worth fighting for.
Seven worlds. Seven opportunities for failure. One chance to bring her family home.
But the adventure is unlike anything she ever expected…
Tiny Souls is a standalone LitRPG portal (isekai) fantasy with religious undertones, crude humor, and mild adult content.
414 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 13, 2022
26 people are currently reading
17 people want to read
About the author
Phoenix Grey
18 books103 followersPhoenix Grey is the super secret nerd pen name of a USA Today bestselling author. She currently lives in a secluded podunk town outside of San Antonio, Texas where she can hermit away while working on books and playing video games. When she's not busy plotting her world domination, she can be found hosting game nights at the local comic book store or checking out the latest recommended anime.
She loves hearing from and interacting with fans, so feel free to stalk her in the following ways:
1. Phoenix Grey's Mailing List: http://www.subscribepage.com/TheRealm...
Sign up to learn when the next installment of The Realm Between is coming out.
2. The Realm Between's Facebook page: fb.me/TheRealmBetweenLitRPG
3. Phoenix Grey's Reader Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Phoen...
4. Phoenix Grey's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjxd...
She loves hearing from and interacting with fans, so feel free to stalk her in the following ways:
1. Phoenix Grey's Mailing List: http://www.subscribepage.com/TheRealm...
Sign up to learn when the next installment of The Realm Between is coming out.
2. The Realm Between's Facebook page: fb.me/TheRealmBetweenLitRPG
3. Phoenix Grey's Reader Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Phoen...
4. Phoenix Grey's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjxd...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 2, 2022
What a ride
This book was quite an adventure that surprised me. I totally love LitRPG reads. This one had me on the edge of my seat. I was surprised by a lot of things. This story was so interesting and I loved the level ups as well as the things you could choose from. This book combines my 2 favorite hobbies. Writing and gaming.
This book was quite an adventure that surprised me. I totally love LitRPG reads. This one had me on the edge of my seat. I was surprised by a lot of things. This story was so interesting and I loved the level ups as well as the things you could choose from. This book combines my 2 favorite hobbies. Writing and gaming.
April 21, 2022
What did I just read? 😂 😂 😂
I decided I wanted to read a book in a genre that I knew nothing about, which is how I stumbled on this book. I had done a little research about LitRPG before I started, so I knew that it was going to feel like being inside of a video game. Since this is the first LitRPG book that I’ve read, I’m not sure if this is a good example of the genre or not, so I’m going to limit my review to the characters and plot.
The book is about Kara, who is probably 18 (it doesn’t specifically say in the book, but this is the impression I was left with). She is homeless after losing her father and brother in a car crash (it isn’t clear how long ago this happened). Her mother died many years before that (during the birth of her brother). Basically, she’s a pitiable character in a sad situation.
Kara meets an angel who tells her that God wants to help her since she has such a pure soul, and offers to bring her family back if she completes a quest. She needs to visit seven different worlds and help the people there. The angel gives her some magic dust and tells her how to activate the portal to the worlds.
The first world had me laughing pretty hard. I think it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. It felt like it was poking fun at video games, and I liked it. Here are some quotes:
“Skill: Room-Clearing Fart
Type: Borrowed
Description: You let out the worst fart of your life. Think rotten boiled eggs and baby poop scented. The stench of it drives your foes back twenty feet in all directions.”
Here’s her description of the outfit she wore:
“It was absolutely crude and inappropriate! Various colors of licorice swirled around the shape of her breasts, culminating at pink gumdrop nipples. Used like boning, candy canes ran up the sides of the bodice, keeping her posture straight.”
Here is one of the monsters she had to fight (with a whip made out of licorice, by the way):
“Two burgers were hobbling towards them on french fry legs. They looked every bit as ridiculous and creepy as the pizza monsters had. Laid out in two circles, they had sesame seeds for their eyes. Angular cheese dropped over the side of their face, looking like a tongue. Ketchup drooled from the corners of their buns, which were opening and closing like mouths.”
It starts to become clear that the worlds she is visiting are modeled after the seven deadly sins. After some laughs in the greed and gluttony worlds, some of the other worlds were less action packed and more introspective instead. I’m not sure if this is typical for the genre or not, since this is the only LitRPG book that I have read.
The characters fell a little bit flat for me. Kara has a pitiful backstory, but she seems a little too well-adjusted for everything that has happened to her. You would expect someone who was grieving the loss of their family to think about them constantly, especially when the loss is recent. Something about it just wasn’t believable to me. She teared up from time to time, but it felt like losing her family was just a plot device added to explain why she was willing to believe the angel.
There were two things that made me a bit uncomfortable. Kara was homeless in the story, but despite a good portion of the story taking place in the homeless community, the people around Kara were never developed. The danger with using an entire group of people—particularly marginalized people—as nothing more than scenery is that you end up reducing them to nothing more than their most basic stereotypes. It is unclear exactly how long Kara had been homeless for (I got the impression it was around 1-2 months), but if she had lived in that community for any amount of time she would have made some connections aside from shelter workers. The only times other homeless people were mentioned it was never by their names, only by vague descriptions, and oftentimes unflattering ones:
“Luckily for her, cocaine was a rich man’s drug. Alcohol seemed to be a bigger problem in her homeless community than illegal substances. However, someone had offered Kara meth once, which she had politely declined.”
There was also another time where she described a homeless man as “mumbling and grunting as if he was either on drugs or had just lost his mind.” Another time, a homeless woman sat next to her at dinner, and the only way that Kara described her was as a Hispanic woman. Come on! She’s lived there for a while now… she didn’t know her name?
There was one description on a transgender person that also made me uncomfortable. Kara was friendly and polite to them, but her inner monologue was hard to read:
“Kara decided that the person was most likely a trans woman. Either that or a super effeminate gay man, but she was going with her first guess until she was given some other kind of social clue.”
Kara isn’t mean in any way towards the homeless or transgender people, but the way that the author chose to describe them just rubbed me the wrong way.
Overall, I would say that the story was OK. It could have been better if the characters were developed a little bit more. The pacing was good, and the cover art was really pretty.
I decided I wanted to read a book in a genre that I knew nothing about, which is how I stumbled on this book. I had done a little research about LitRPG before I started, so I knew that it was going to feel like being inside of a video game. Since this is the first LitRPG book that I’ve read, I’m not sure if this is a good example of the genre or not, so I’m going to limit my review to the characters and plot.
The book is about Kara, who is probably 18 (it doesn’t specifically say in the book, but this is the impression I was left with). She is homeless after losing her father and brother in a car crash (it isn’t clear how long ago this happened). Her mother died many years before that (during the birth of her brother). Basically, she’s a pitiable character in a sad situation.
Kara meets an angel who tells her that God wants to help her since she has such a pure soul, and offers to bring her family back if she completes a quest. She needs to visit seven different worlds and help the people there. The angel gives her some magic dust and tells her how to activate the portal to the worlds.
The first world had me laughing pretty hard. I think it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. It felt like it was poking fun at video games, and I liked it. Here are some quotes:
“Skill: Room-Clearing Fart
Type: Borrowed
Description: You let out the worst fart of your life. Think rotten boiled eggs and baby poop scented. The stench of it drives your foes back twenty feet in all directions.”
Here’s her description of the outfit she wore:
“It was absolutely crude and inappropriate! Various colors of licorice swirled around the shape of her breasts, culminating at pink gumdrop nipples. Used like boning, candy canes ran up the sides of the bodice, keeping her posture straight.”
Here is one of the monsters she had to fight (with a whip made out of licorice, by the way):
“Two burgers were hobbling towards them on french fry legs. They looked every bit as ridiculous and creepy as the pizza monsters had. Laid out in two circles, they had sesame seeds for their eyes. Angular cheese dropped over the side of their face, looking like a tongue. Ketchup drooled from the corners of their buns, which were opening and closing like mouths.”
It starts to become clear that the worlds she is visiting are modeled after the seven deadly sins. After some laughs in the greed and gluttony worlds, some of the other worlds were less action packed and more introspective instead. I’m not sure if this is typical for the genre or not, since this is the only LitRPG book that I have read.
The characters fell a little bit flat for me. Kara has a pitiful backstory, but she seems a little too well-adjusted for everything that has happened to her. You would expect someone who was grieving the loss of their family to think about them constantly, especially when the loss is recent. Something about it just wasn’t believable to me. She teared up from time to time, but it felt like losing her family was just a plot device added to explain why she was willing to believe the angel.
There were two things that made me a bit uncomfortable. Kara was homeless in the story, but despite a good portion of the story taking place in the homeless community, the people around Kara were never developed. The danger with using an entire group of people—particularly marginalized people—as nothing more than scenery is that you end up reducing them to nothing more than their most basic stereotypes. It is unclear exactly how long Kara had been homeless for (I got the impression it was around 1-2 months), but if she had lived in that community for any amount of time she would have made some connections aside from shelter workers. The only times other homeless people were mentioned it was never by their names, only by vague descriptions, and oftentimes unflattering ones:
“Luckily for her, cocaine was a rich man’s drug. Alcohol seemed to be a bigger problem in her homeless community than illegal substances. However, someone had offered Kara meth once, which she had politely declined.”
There was also another time where she described a homeless man as “mumbling and grunting as if he was either on drugs or had just lost his mind.” Another time, a homeless woman sat next to her at dinner, and the only way that Kara described her was as a Hispanic woman. Come on! She’s lived there for a while now… she didn’t know her name?
There was one description on a transgender person that also made me uncomfortable. Kara was friendly and polite to them, but her inner monologue was hard to read:
“Kara decided that the person was most likely a trans woman. Either that or a super effeminate gay man, but she was going with her first guess until she was given some other kind of social clue.”
Kara isn’t mean in any way towards the homeless or transgender people, but the way that the author chose to describe them just rubbed me the wrong way.
Overall, I would say that the story was OK. It could have been better if the characters were developed a little bit more. The pacing was good, and the cover art was really pretty.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 20, 2022
I have to be honest that I was disappointed in this book. How old was Kara supposed to be? She was apparently old enough to have not been enrolled into the foster program when her family died, but yet, her understanding and naiveite would suggest that she's in her early teens. Why did she take Thor's word for granted that he was a messenger from God? Pretty much everything that he told her was a rather classic example of evil masquerading as light and yet she never questioned, and never doubted. Did she simply want to believe that he could deliver on his promises so much that she failed to look critically at his actions?
I also didn't care for the fact that God "couldn't" return her family to her. And the reason being that their bodies were already dust, and that it would require too much effort on God's part to change memories. I can buy that He wouldn't make such a promise, and that it doesn't fit into His plan for her development and faithful trials, but that He can't because He can't be inconvenienced is just not right. But isn't the whole idea of resurrection based on the fact that God, in fact, can (and shall) restore those who have "become dust" to their bodies? Granted, I think the being that mentioned this is also probably a demon in disguise, but wouldn't a good lie have a seed of truth?
Kara was just too naïve to be believable, to me. She was presented as being nominally self-aware, and yet, any normal person would have been suspicious of this whole situation. Why would God tell you to kill creations that have souls? Why would He require you to collect those souls after killing them, and then consume them? It didn't make any sense, and this would have only worked against a child who wouldn't have been in Kara's specific situation.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.
I also didn't care for the fact that God "couldn't" return her family to her. And the reason being that their bodies were already dust, and that it would require too much effort on God's part to change memories. I can buy that He wouldn't make such a promise, and that it doesn't fit into His plan for her development and faithful trials, but that He can't because He can't be inconvenienced is just not right. But isn't the whole idea of resurrection based on the fact that God, in fact, can (and shall) restore those who have "become dust" to their bodies? Granted, I think the being that mentioned this is also probably a demon in disguise, but wouldn't a good lie have a seed of truth?
Kara was just too naïve to be believable, to me. She was presented as being nominally self-aware, and yet, any normal person would have been suspicious of this whole situation. Why would God tell you to kill creations that have souls? Why would He require you to collect those souls after killing them, and then consume them? It didn't make any sense, and this would have only worked against a child who wouldn't have been in Kara's specific situation.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.
June 26, 2024
Most of this story I was confused as to who the target audience was. When I realized it was religious propaganda I chose to stick with it a bit longer but when it got the the final part of the story and it starts perpetuating the same BS that Evangelicals and their ilk peddle I realized why I couldn't figure out this story. Honestly if you enjoy Lit RPG and but into Evangelical BS you'd probably like it. If not I'd say stay clear.
October 24, 2024
So absolutely disappointed.
September 20, 2022
A feel good story with dark undertones.
I did get this book free in exchange for a review. That being said I enjoyed the book. I’m not blown away by it, because in some ways it was quite predictable. There were more than a few editing errors that slipped through, but nothing too drastic. As far as the story goes, the main character, Kara, is likable in a distant kind of way. She’s not a very quick thinker, but a bit more character development would have smoothed that out. I didn’t like the way the story just started out of nowhere. It made it difficult for me to get into for a few chapters. These are just my thoughts on it without going into too much details that we’d be in danger of spoilers. I do like other stories by Phoenix Grey, but I feel like this one might have been rushed. I could be wrong though, as I am obviously not a published author, and likely will never be. I guess what I’m trying to say is, read it and decide for yourself.
I did get this book free in exchange for a review. That being said I enjoyed the book. I’m not blown away by it, because in some ways it was quite predictable. There were more than a few editing errors that slipped through, but nothing too drastic. As far as the story goes, the main character, Kara, is likable in a distant kind of way. She’s not a very quick thinker, but a bit more character development would have smoothed that out. I didn’t like the way the story just started out of nowhere. It made it difficult for me to get into for a few chapters. These are just my thoughts on it without going into too much details that we’d be in danger of spoilers. I do like other stories by Phoenix Grey, but I feel like this one might have been rushed. I could be wrong though, as I am obviously not a published author, and likely will never be. I guess what I’m trying to say is, read it and decide for yourself.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews