The book opens with a prologue which sums up the (mis)adventures of the first book, which was both well written and entertaining,as well as helpful since I hadn’t read book one. And if you enjoy the voice of the character in the prologe, you’re in luck because that’s the voice and humor of the rest of the book. For me, the voice is fine. I liked Davi, and thought she showed a fair bit of growth through the story, from treating people like they were disposable to realizing that every person died was someone she couldn’t get back without resetting her progress, without giving up what she’d already achieved.

However, the humor didn’t work for me. It felt very calculated, sometimes forced., especially when the author was using an innuendo only to have to use the footnote to say “Look at this! Look at me! I’m funny!”. It lessens the impact of the original sentence, and kind of kills the flow of the joke. However, that’s just my opinion. Other people may find that the humor works for them and have a much better time with this book because of it.

The plot was well put together, the writing is solid, and the pace was nice and brisk. If you’re a fan of the author or enjoyed the first book in the series, you’ll probably have a good time with this one. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC.

A humongous thank you to Orbit Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Well, we are back in the world of footnotes. Oh and Davi, too I guess and her hot orc girlfriend Tsav. The heroine with the least of aspirations and drive for glory has just been crowned, you guessed it, the Dark Lord. The leader of what will be a genocide of evil humans. Yay? Mind you this is after she finds out that a) she’s not the first person from Earth to have landed here and b) they’re not exactly interested in her leadership skills. After a brief yet footnote-laden recap, we are off to the town of Shithole. Where everything is brown. Every. Thing. Is. Brown. And Davi has a plan, er, set of objectives.

This one overall hits different. The first book was filled with frenetic energy that was essentially Davi. The frustration of starting over repeatedly, of trying to navigate something that after hundreds of years didn’t feel real, it made sense to be flippant. But it’s different now. After the loop only set her back a day, she’s coming to terms with the permanence of her actions and their consequences. We get to see her mature a bit and really lean into being a leader that has to make hard decisions.

The ending is the duology is exactly what you might think it is. I’m not mad at it either. It really could only end this way. Surprisingly touching, to be honest. I’ll definitely be pre-ordering a copy of this book!

Also. Octopanzer. *snort* That is all.

3.75 on StoryGraph

I was thrilled to be able to get my hands on this book. The first in the series was such a delight, hilarious and had so much heart.

This book does get to that balance of heart and humor again, but it takes a minute. I struggled to get into the beginning of the book. The way the start of this book is written is a little jarring and disjointed as we separate from the majority of the original cast quickly at the beginning. I missed them a lot. It took a minute before I really felt like I could enjoy the new human characters and felt myself getting back into the story.

Once things hit their stride again, I really enjoyed the story. The expansion on the world was great and I really enjoyed the last third of the book.

I wish that there was more of a resolution at the end. I felt like the end was a bit rushed and I wanted to see more of where everyone ended up.

Overall, a fun follow up to the first, and I was happy to see everything wrapped up well.

I cannot even begin to explain how much I love these books. From Davi’s hilarious internal monologue, to the action packed storyline, to the ROTFLMAO footnotes that had my family side-eying me as I cackled like a crazy person, I didn’t find a single thing to dislike about this book or the first one.
I loved Davi’s wild ride through the Wilds and the Kingdom and all her friends and foes along the way. I enjoyed the quick end to a character who I’ve disliked since book 1, and was surprised by but not the least bit disappointed by the Big Boss fight at the end.
Would I have loved to see more of Davi, Tsav, Johan, Mari, Droff, and Amitsugu and their lives after this wild journey? Absolutely! Will I be rereading both these books despite that? Yes, yes I will. Will I still be pining away for some shorts or novellas in this world so we can see what the characters are up to now? For sure. 100%. Until the end of time.

While this book wasn’t quite as amazing as the first, it was still a great read. I’d definitely recommend this duology to anyone who enjoys humorous fantasy. However, if strong language is a concern for you, be warned—both books are filled with profanity and might not be to your taste.

This installment leans more toward the serious side compared to the first, which is likely why I didn’t enjoy it as much. I had expected the same level of humor, and while it was still present, it wasn’t as prominent. That said, it remains a solid conclusion to the duology and worth reading if you liked book one.

I received this ARC from Netgalley, but these opinions are my own.

ARC Review

Wow! That was so much better than I thought it would be!!!!! I flew through this book! After reading the first story, I was unsure how the duology would play out, but this ending is fantastic! The twists and turns make so much sense for the story but left me shocked! I loved the creativity in this book. From the battle strategies to the double crosses and everything in between! The imagination it takes to produce something this bright and thought out and down right hilarious is astounding! I’m so glad that I got to see how things end up for our main girl, Dark Lord Davi! This book is the perfect mix of Deadpool humor and meta fantasy! I can’t wait to recommend it to all of my friends!
Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for giving me the amazing opportunity to read an ARC of this book!

Davi is back! I loved the first book so much and I was so excited to find out what adventures awaited Davi and her crew next. While the first book was over the top ridiculous and hilarious, this one felt a little more low-key. It didn't make it any less entertaining, but it was definitely more focused and reached a satisfying conclusion. Plus, the added romance was chefs kiss. All in all, it was a great duology and I look forward to reading what Django Wexler writes next.

Humans suck, am I right?


Last we heard of our favorite fem-fatale she had been crowned Dark Lord. With the main quest being the death and destruction of all humanity.

Damn, that’s quite a cliff hanger. Davi isn’t too keen on mass murder.

Throw in betrayals, grief, poop jokes, and all the 4th wall breaks you desire in one novel & VOILA! A sequel! I absolutely loved our horde members, and treasured all the hilarity & banter between. Davi is certainly one of the most unique characters I’ve read, and getting to know her more in this book was just so satisfying. Her character development was incredibly heartwarming to see from the beginning stages of manipulation for power to complete trust & love for those she’s grown to love.



I had some hesitation when I got closer to our “climax”, and the some of the filling felt unnecessary, and just a little too long. Was there more than one call back? I won’t spoil. But I laughed out loud nonetheless. Thank you so much Orbit US & Netgalley to give me the great opportunity to read one of my most anticipated novels this year.

Please love me? I’m writing with a broken nail bed & sweaty hands.

I absolutely loved the first book (immediately drawn in by the cover) the premise was unique and the humor (and subsequent foot notes) reminded me of Discworld which is a favorite series for me.

Recap for book 1 included which should be the standard. Love this.

Again 10/10 for the cover of this sequel. I still thoroughly enjoyed this installment, I feel satisfied by the story which is sometimes difficult to do in a duology. I would have no problem recommending this to you if you loved the first book.

If you thought the first book was just ok or you were put off by the footnote punchlines, this installment may not be for you, since they are turned up to 11 as they say.

Come for the dick-and-fart jokes, stay for the genuine character development and heartwarming, if not dark humor, story.

I absolutely loved reading this book! It was a fantastic sequel, and end to the duology, and one that was just so much fun to read! It's a bit more serious, since Davi knows that there's a bit more permeance to what is going on, but her narration style is still the same.

There were a bunch of big questions after the end of the first book. Like, now what? She worked so hard to become the Dark Lord, and now she has, and a) they want to kill all the humans, and b) everything she's done to this point, all the people dead, will stay dead, there's no reset. But also, there's the whole human bible in that city, and what is causing the time loop, and why it changed.

Here in this book we get to explore the human Kingdom, the politics and the history. Because Davi doesn't want to be in another loop that ends with violent death, she's pretty motivated to negotiate peace between the humans and the wilders. Which is understandable, but also difficult, after all the attempts that she's made, she's never succeeded, and there's those on both sides that don't want peace.

I wasn't sure how this book would end, but I absolutely loved seeing where it went! There was a point when I looked up from the book and there was 80 pages left, I was like, oh boy, what's going to happen now, and oh, it was so good! Such a satisfying end to the duology!

Loved reading this book, and I need to read more by Django Wexler!

More of the same (in a good way) in a mostly satisfying conclusion to the duology. The things that got on my nerves in the first book (such as all the pop culture references) still annoy me but I was willing to let them slide a lot more this time. I still don't fully buy the central romance and I was sad that so many of my favorite characters got pushed aside in favor of new ones. Luckily, I am a full-fledged supporter of the new romance/characters introduced here. Johann and Matthias 4eva.

This sequel is less fun but more satisfying than the first book, and it's definitely worth the read. We get answers to all the questions we had, which is great, but the higher stakes make the endeavor a more weighty one and that inevitably saps some of the levity.

There's a lot more battle in this book than the first, and thus a lot more death. My gut sense was that this book was a little bit less snarky, with a lot less levity. Davi knows what the stakes are for once, and that can't help but put a damper on some of the willingness to fuck about. This is good characterisation, and I think that the story would have been cheapened if that hadn't happened, but unfortunately the willingness for bullshit was a thing that I really liked about the first book, and I missed its inclusion. In it's place, we got a bunch more cool magic and some genuinely fun characters (Hello, Johann. What a wonderful mind you have.) but I'm not sure if I think that was an even trade.

In my review of the first book, I noted that it had some interesting ideas about human expansionism and tendency to damage the native world, and I hoped that they would be further explored here. They were, mostly, and I did appreciate that, but I don't know that I would describe it as a philosophical text. I'm not sure what I think of the opinions that it has overall, or if I could adequately describe its point of view. I do continue to appreciate the ease of the queerness, though, the ways in which that is just a part of the world.

I'd say that overall, this is a very solid example of first-person snark, that it does a competent job of plotting (and of acknowledging directly when the reader can predict a twist coming), that it is a fun book that is willing to have opinions about things. If you liked the first one, you should definitely read this book; if you didn't, why are you reading this review?

9/10

Just like the first entry in this series I found myself both laughing out loud at moments, and sitting on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. It is hard to say much about the plot here without spoiling much of, including the big twist of, the first book but know that the plot directly continues here. Many questions posed in the first entry are answered throughout this one, although some things are still a bit mysterious, and there is a surprising amount of character development for a comedy. Moreover the plot has a satisfying conclusion (even if I am sad about that conclusion part as I would have loved a trilogy or more).

Let me be the first (or one-hundreth) person to tell you that Django Wexler simply does not miss! Davi is just as quippy and hilarious and insane as the first book and truthfully I would be first in line to be her bff. I think the ending was really satisfying. I love the way the story flowed. But I truly cannot speak highly enough about the character writing.

The second of the Dark Lord Davi books provides an interesting ending to the duology. Although I do have mixed feelings about this book and this series. I understand that the high amounts of crass humor and cultural references is a greater appeal to others than myself (not my cup of tea here), although Davi was maybe more level-headed about these things than in the first book. I sort of understand her forced humor- it's her defensive mechanism (Tsav is well-aware of this, and tells Davi this to her face).

I do like the fact that many of the recurring characters from the first book had useful role in this book, with many of them truly becoming friends and allies with Davi, despite her often having ulterior motives for 99% of her actions. The author, Mr. Wexler, does a helpful job with the recap (before the events of the book) and also Davi herself describing a list of a lot of the wilders.

The plot does help answer some of the questions about how this world came to be. The pacing gets rather frantic at some point (and the wrap up is even faster). Still, despite a lot of this being a mixed bag for me, I liked the originality of this, I liked how the questions I had were answered, and I liked the Epilogue even though it was quick.

Wexler is a very good author- I will definitely follow additional series he writes.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Orbit Books for the ARC of Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by Django Wexler.

I absolutely loved the first book in this duology, How To Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying. For those new to these books and attracted by the awesome covers, you do need to read the first book to understand the second.

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me picks up a few months after the ending of the first book, though it fills in the blanks of what happened during that time. Davi is now in control of the wilders as Dark Lord, but instead of eradicating the humans, she is scouting ahead of her army to try and make peace. She is also grappling with her forward progress in surviving her 1000th lifetime, while still trying to make sense of the artifacts from her world and what it means for her ability to end the time loop she is trapped in.

Despite her general worries, Davi is still full of humor with excellent zingers as she tries to bolster her himbo ex boyfriend's leadership or start a dance-off for peace. The book is laugh out loud funny, while still allowing Davi to grow and to question what kind of life she truly could lead if freed.

The only reason I removed a star was what felt like an imbalance between the first and second books. When I read the first book, I didn't realize it would be a duology, so I definitely felt the cliffhanger, but I also felt really deeply embedded with the wilders, and we spent about 400 pages in their world. The sequel feels like it cuts off all of the community building Davi strove for to push for peace and then, midway through, to end the time loop. We don't get to spend as much time with the characters we spent a significant amount with in the previous book, and so it felt like many of Davi's reltionships became a bit more transactional / momentary vs the first book as she tried to complete the tasks she's been working on for 1000 years. I wish we had just gotten a bit more of time with all the characters in the epilogue, and that there was more of an equal spread between becoming Dark Lord to peace to end.

Regardless of that one issue, this duology is a must for anyone looking for the funniest groundhog-day-esque-take on a fantastical time loop adventure.

I cannot explain easily what a guilty pleasure this book series is. I love Davi, our isekai sorta heroine but mostly unwilling participant in a time loop. She is irreverent, full of fun inside jokes and terribly dirty and horney. It is impossible not to love her. She continues in her quest to stop the dang war between wilders and humans by becoming Dark Lord. Small problem, her horde doesn't want to stop the war, The rusty high priest of the old ones, Artaxes, is pretty much the real person calling the shots. She has a snake woman on her tail trying to take over so what's a girl to do? She goes scouting back to the human lands with just her girlfriend in tow. She thinks the cure to her problem might be getting Prince Johann, aka Himbo boyfriend, on board with her plant. She finds surprises, scares, some actual fear and ultimately risks to her relationship with her girlfriend. It's a funny story that is a profanity laced joy from beginning to end. I really hope for more books like this series from this author. They are a great read.

I received an ARC of this ebook from NetGalley and Orbit Books in exchange for my honest review. This was just as ridiculous and hilarious as book one. I had fun reading it. The ending felt very rushed compared to the buildup of the rest of the book. I would have liked a more detailed wrap up for Davi’s story.

Witty, kept me so entertained. I love an unruly main character. Only thing was I didn't realize this was a second book, oops! But that just means now I have to read book 1! Thank you so much for this ARC!

Davi, fully realizing that her reset button is malfunctioning, has come up with a plan to hopefully save humans and wilders alike. And it would have gone absolutely wonderfully if Prince Johann was actually in charge but Duke Aster is running the show in the Kingdom and now Davi, The Dark Lord, must pretend to be The Wizard's Apprentice and hope that her predictions of the future convince the humans that going up against the Wilders would be a really bad idea.

Unfortunately, while Davi and Tsav are in The Kingdom trying to keep the humans from heading to their doom, Artaxes and Sibarae have taken control of The Horde. With Davi's plans completely unraveling, she is going to have to do something she's never done in a thousand years: Rely on other people.

That's an ominous rely on other people because many of you reading this I can guarantee just thought of that gives you anxiety, hell it gave me anxiety just reading it. Honestly, this was significantly better than I was expecting especially since it wrapped the whole story up with a truly insane villain who as far as I can tell is just a sad lonely little man who probably needed someone to tell him no a few times in his life. As Davi points out at one point, he'd be a serial killer on Earth, and I think that says everything you need to know about him.

How Davi actually gets to The Kingdom was oddly not as mind blowing as I expected, once you start hearing the bad guys backstory, that sort of takes backstage because my gods did he fuck Davi up. Although it does account for why she's got all this random 20/21st century pop culture knowledge which was honestly the *one* thing I needed to explain.

What makes this great once again is Davi. Her character growth was phenomenonal while still maintaining her smart ass personality. And I think what's great about this little found family Isekai is that this time loop thing can truly be viewed as breaking many, many toxic cycles. Assign your own accordingly.


Honestly, this is probably my favorite series by Wexler. Not only was much of this highly relatable in terms of Davi learning to rely on others even though it's fucking terrifying, I think it genuinely shows just how good of writer Wexler is if you've read his other books, especially doing an Isekai. Definitely recommend this one especially if enjoy Isekai of course but also if you just enjoy a found family story definitely not for children.

As always, thanks to Orbit Books and NetGalley for the eArc!