I picked this up expecting the series to suffer from the things that plague series: beloved characters become static and functionally immortal, plot lines become retread or go past the initial world build suspension of disbelief, and writing gets rushed to meet deadlines and make a buck. Here we have the exception. Story succeeds in developing main characters (donut even shows a little kindness to a dog!), some nice foundation prep for following volumes, and a good story in and of itself. The cookbook is genius. Well done Matt. And the commercial at the end is a must listen too Easter egg.