S.E. Babin's 3 favorite reads in 2024

LitRPG was never a genre I read until I kept getting hammered over the head with this book in all my online book groups. As soon as I read the first page, I was completely hooked! So funny, so fresh, so original, Carl is a main character we can't help but root for. Even though the odds are stacked against him, Carl keeps plugging along and surviving.

At times, this book is heartbreaking, but there's one consistent thread through the entire series: hope. You can't help but fall in love with all these characters and root for them to stick it to the man.

Alex is a character who isn't all that powerful when we first meet him. But he's crafty like a fox, and that's what keeps him alive. Shunned by most of magical society, Alex spends his days running a small magic shop and keeping his head down.

Of course, that all comes crashing down soon enough, thrusting Alex into the high stakes world of magical society. I LOVED these books. Alex is a diviner, a mage who can see the future, but those futures change on a dime, so Alex has to be clever, quick, and witty to stay one step ahead of those hunting him.

This novel has a great found family thread and gets consistently darker the longer the series runs. I was hooked from the very first page.

You gotta love a character who finally gets fed up with everyone's BS and decides to do the complete opposite of what's expected of her. That's Davi in a nutshell. Plus, every time she dies, no one remembers anything, especially not her, so she has a tactical advantage from the get-go.

This book is hilariously funny. Davi is witty and a bit of a horndog, but she's also loyal to the people she cares about. I couldn't help but root for the bad guys in this one.