Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Apocalypse Alley
SERIES: Blue Unicorn #2
AUTHOR: Don Allmon
PUBLISHER: Riptide Publishing
LENGTH: 201 pages
RELEASE DATE: February 26, 2018
BLURB:
Home from a six-month assignment to war-torn East Asia, genetically engineered supersoldier Noah “Comet” Wu just wants to kick back, share a beer, and talk shit with his best friend, JT. But JT’s home has been shot up like a war zone, and his friend has gone missing.
Comet’s only lead is a smart-mouthed criminal he finds amid the mess. His name’s Buzz Howdy. He’s a con man and a hacker and deserves to be in jail. Or in handcuffs, at least. The only thing the two have in common is JT. Unless you count the steamy glances they’re sneaking at one another. They have those in common too. But that just makes Comet all the more wary.
Despite their mutual distrust, they’ll have to work together to rescue JT before a cyborg assassin gets to him first. Racing down a miserable stretch of road called Apocalypse Alley, they must dodge radioactive spiders, a lonely cannibal, and a killer Buick. They also try to dodge each other. That last bit doesn’t work out so well.
REVIEW:
Wow, this was good! I do have to admit, in the interest of full disclosure, that I wasn’t sure I would like this particular installment of the Blue Unicorn series at first and I’m thrilled to be proved wrong! The first book, The Glamour Thieves, was great and the author did a really good job with the world building and setting up the entire Blue Unicorn storyline. The characters were also really well developed (the main ones anyway) and the secondaries were, for the most part, interesting enough to keep my attention…except for one. I never warmed up to Buzz. At all. So, really, despite how much I enjoyed the first book, seeing that Buzz was back as a main character in this latest installment didn’t exactly fill me with giddiness and joy. I absolutely love that the author managed to change my opinion so thoroughly.
Maybe it just took getting to really see him in his element or maybe it was that I was privy to what all went on in his head but I adored Buzz by the end of this book. Despite physical appearance and everything about himself he seems to perceive as a weakness, Buzz repeatedly proved his mettle over the course of the story and I was rooting for him the entire time. Comet was a bit of a harder nut to crack; you don’t get a lot of information on his background (just enough to make me curious and him interesting) and he really didn’t seem like a good fit for Buzz at first glance. As the story progressed, however, it was nice to see their perceptions of each other changing along with my own thoughts about these two men belonging together. By the end I was totally sold.
While there was a good amount of action in the previous book, this one has it in spades. Most of the plot set up for the series was in the first book and there wasn’t a lot of forward progress in this one on that point until near the end but did I care? Hell no! This was action packed and full of character development on the parts of Buzz and Comet and I loved every bit of it. There are also quite a few little nuggets of humor and things that just downright made me smirk so that I was entertained the whole way through. My only complaint is that the author left me wanting more and I now have to wait for book three. Still, it was totally worth it.
If you enjoy urban fantasy and like a lot of action in your books, I’d highly recommend this one but it is necessary to read the first book, The Glamour Thieves before diving into Apocalypse Alley.
RATING: 
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