Book review: The Last Donut Shop of the Apocalypse

The Last Donut Shop of the Apocalypse by Nina Post

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

Amazon blurb:

As Pothole City races to rebuild, a bounty hunter-turned-building manager must find a missing Cluck Snack executive, settle a bitter dispute between warring donut shops, and foil yet another plot that threatens to eradicate the single-purpose angels.
After narrowly preventing the last apocalypse, Kelly Driscoll finds herself with an unlikely day job. She’s the interim manager of Amenity Tower, one of the few buildings still left standing in the rubble of Pothole City. But after answering a mysterious phone call, she signs up for a new mission that’s a perfect match for her skills: locating the missing president of the famed Cluck Snack brand.

As Kelly quickly learns, the missing executive is only the beginning of Pothole City’s problems. The city’s leading donut shops — run by two very different Gorgon monster siblings — are engaged in a bitter territorial dispute. Plus, the residents of Kelly’s building have hatched a new plot to kill the beloved single-purpose angels and set the stage for another apocalypse.

Teaming up again with her allies from the first book — including Af the Angel of Destruction, Stringfellow the ferret, and Tubiel and the other single-purpose angels — Kelly is up for the challenge. But can she rescue the missing president and restore peace between the donut shops before Pothole City is destroyed yet again?

The Last Donut Shop of the Apocalypse is the second in a series — the first book was The Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse, which I read and had previously reviewed for In Case of Survival. I had mixed feelings about the first one, since it hopped around and did an excellent job confusing me. But the second book and I, well, we get along a bit better.

For one thing, there was a single plot. Which consisted of Raum, the fallen angel bound to Amenity Tower (Pothole City’s first and only luxury condominium), trying to cause the apocalypse. Again. (Persistent, that one.) He does this with Don’s help, even though Don is stuck in Hell Lodge #3. (Don being the angel of the apocalypse — I thought there were four? Oh wait, those were horsemen. Right.)

Raum forms a committee to kick off his plan to set off the apocalypse. Now, committees are ubiquitous at Amenity Tower, since they form committees for everything. (I guess when you’re stuck inside a building for the rest of eternity, you have to find something to occupy your time.) Thanks to the overabundance of committees, the formation of another one raises no suspicion. In fact, people may think it’s just part of their day-to-day to-do list (you know, “today I fought a demon, picked up the mail, formed a committee”).

Raum et. al. give their new committee some ridiculously boring name that I can’t actually remember at the moment (well, it was supposed to be boring) so that nobody gets suspicious. I suppose if I heard about the “Committee for Causing the Apocalypse,” I’d stop by for a meeting. And that, of course, would ruin their plans.

So. The plan. Don, the true mastermind behind all this, has come up with the brilliant idea to poison the Cluck Snack mix to kill the single purpose angels. Because, of course, single purpose angels can only eat Cluck Snacks, and Cluck Snacks are all made from the same base mix. (They really need to work on that; it makes it much too easy to sabotage.) Then Kelly Driscoll, superwoman extraordinaire, will be too busy trying to save her mute, genius, adorable, angelic friends to pay attention to what Raum, Don, and all the other apocalyptic angels are doing.

But! Only one person has true access to the Cluck Snack mix, and that’s Cluck Snack CEO Archie Driscoll. (Yes, he and Kelly have the same last name. Pay attention, kids, this becomes important later.) So Don has him kidnapped and replaced with an impostor.

Yeah, you read that right. An impostor.

Anyway, stuff happens with Archie, including a Big Revelation (that you’ve probably already guessed, what with the whole name thing and all). The poison goes through, but doesn’t kill any of the angels. But it does distract Kelly enough for the next part of Don’s plan to kick into place.

And that is…turning Medusa’s (yes, the Gorgon) super-fancy, high-tech donut fryer into a demon portal. No, I’m serious. This fancy fryer starts spitting out demons instead of donuts.

Which is a giant waste of a donut fryer, if you ask me. I mean, think of the donuts!

Ahem. Anyway. I don’t want to say anymore because I don’t want to give away bigger chunks of the plot than I already have.

did enjoy this book a lot more than I enjoyed the first one, The Last Condo Board of the Apocalypse. This book was a lot of fun to read. What’s unfortunate is that it does cross over into what I found to be just plain silly, which lessened my enjoyment of the book.

As in the first book, Nina Post’s writing is once again very good; she’s clearly a talented writer. And I do plan to check out her other books.

Overall, though, this book was fun. Silliness aside, it was fun to read. I had fun following Kelly around as she juggled managing Amenity Tower, taking care of the single purpose angels, and trying to save the world from being eaten by demons.

See what I mean? It’s just fun.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5


 

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