Review: The Vampire in the Potting Shed by Hailey Edwards

The Vampire in the Potting Shed (Groom & Doom #1)
written by Hailey Edwards
narrated by Leanne Woodward

My Rating: 2 stars

Genre: Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal Romance
Age Category: Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
There are two things Ana Sartori knows for certain. She can’t shapeshift into a wolf like her father or his pack. And, despite her being a latent, little more than human, he loves her despite her faults. She’s never going to be an alpha like him, but she can still hold her own in a fight. Not that her life is violent. He makes sure of that. Aside from occasionally wrestling pets into a headlock when it’s time to trim their nails at Gwinnett Street Groomers, Ana leads a simple life.

At least that was the case until someone broke into her pet resort and spa, leaving a mystery dog behind in one of the bougie boarding suites. Not to mention there’s a vampire hiding in the potting shed. A very tall, very handsome vampire. He even smells nice, minus the blood drenching his clothes.

Ana could handle those things, probably, but now there’s a new alpha determined to claim the town—and Ana—as his territory. Either she stands and fights for her home, or she runs to her father with her (metaphorical) tail tucked between her legs. Life is a lot of things, but for Ana, simple isn’t one of them anymore.

My Review

I received a free copy from Tantor Audio and voluntarily reviewed it.

The Vampire in the Potting Shed looked like a fun cozy fantasy read. The cover and title caught my eye and I really like the cozy fantasy genre and am always looking for more reads in the genre. Sadly I feel this cover and title gave me the wrong expectations as this book mostly read like a pretty typical urban fantasy/ paranormal romance book. It felt very trope-y and like the type of book I’ve read multiple times, even though I actually don’t read books like this very often anymore. The title also feels misleading, while it is in a way about a vampire in the potting shed, it also isn’t really the focus in the way I had expected. I can’t say more as that would give away spoilers, but yeah I expected a very different type of read.

The thing I struggled with the most was the plot as it did not work for me. It follows Ana who is part of a pack of wolf shifters, but she’s a latent and can’t shift. To get some distance from her overprotective father she now works in a nearby town and runs a pet grooming business. I actually did like the set up and the bits about her business. Strange things start to happen and her father gets even more worried and protective as usual. There are some hints of things going on with the pack as well, but Ana isn’t informed about this as she isn’t a wolf. This always bothers me as a plot device, there’s only a mystery because no one tell Ana anything and it bothered me.

The book is quite slow to start with a lot of the tension relying solely on the fact that no one tells Ana anything. Then toward the halfway mark I think things start picking up a bit and there are some interesting reveals, but most still feel off as they are only reveals as no one told Ana anything. I know I am starting to sound like a broken record, but it bothered me and it just isn’t interesting to read about. I also wasn’t too surprised about a certain twist as I had a feeling there was more to this than we knew, it just felt kinda obvious. There’s also too much of the whole Ana wanting to be independent and her father insisting she needs protection dynamic, that just didn’t work for me. It does make a bit more sense when a certain twist comes to light, but again it just wasn’t interesting.

Despite struggling with this book I actually started liking Ana and wanting to read more about her, although by the end of the book I had mostly lost interest. I liked how she handled her business and how she cared for the animals. I thought it made sense why she wanted to live away from her father and the way she handled some things, but then as the book progresses some of her actions and behaviors are a bit harder to understand and again it just felt kinda trope-y and predictable. I liked her friendship with Sloane, but also felt it went from just acquaintances to bets friends really quickly. I would’ve preferred it if they had been friends already before the start of the book and this situation brought them closer.

The paranormal aspect and world building is pretty basic. It’s mostly your basic wolf shifter pack with an alpha wolf at the top and in this case those called Sentinels who do the alpha’s bidding. I felt this book definitely could’ve done with more world building as it all stays pretty vague. There are some mentions of spells and vampires, but again very little details of what else is out there and how it all works. This book mostly relied on things being typical enough that I could fill in the blanks, but not enough detail to actually make the world come alive. Who knows maybe this happens in future books. This is a pretty short read.

The narrator was a new to me one, but I quickly grew used to her style and liked the various voices she did. It was pleasant to listen to this audiobook and I think it’s one of the reasons I actually finished this book. I would definitely listen to more books by this narrator.

To summarize: This book just didn’t work for me. It had some interesting concepts and it was an easy enough listen, mainly due to the narrator, but it just didn’t keep my attention and by the end of the book I had no interest in continuing the series. A lot of this book relies on creating mystery and tension because no one tells the main character what’s going on and that’s just not a very interesting plot device and it was not interesting. There are a bunch of big reveals later on, but again they are only reveals because no one told her anything. I had expected a fun cozy fantasy romance book, but got a pretty trope-y typical paranormal romance/ urban fantasy style book. The title and cover did not create the right expectation. There are some parts I liked and the main character was likeable enough, but it just lost my interest the longer I continued. The narrator was a good one and it’s a short read, which made me stick with it.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.