The Vampire in the Potting Shed

Groom & Doom #1

by Hailey Edwards, Leanne Woodward (Narrator)

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.

Genres: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Paranormal, Vampires, Shapeshifters, Romance, Dragons

Audible Audio

First published June 16, 2025

About the author

Hailey Edwards writes about questionable applications of otherwise perfectly good magic, the transformative power of love, the family you choose for yourself, and blowing stuff up. Not necessarily all at once. That could get messy.

Hailey isn't on Goodreads.

Please email her via her website:
https://haileyedwards.net/contact-form/

Reviews

[Marsha]

I’m a big fan of Hailey Edwards and did not think twice about trying out this new series: Groom and Doom. I have to say that I was very surprised by the brevity, lack of characterizations and world building.

I mildly enjoyed the storyline but felt as though I was reading a novella by a novice writer. I really am left scratching my head as to why Ms. Edwards took this approach with this read.

At this point, I am not sure if I am going to read the next book because I don’t know if this series is meant to be a series of short reads or if Ms. Edwards plans to improve the writing with something a little more substantial. All I know is that this read was not her usual writing quality. Sorry Ms. Edwards, you can and should do better!

[TJ]

This reads like the first few chapters of a book. It has all kinds of promise but just ends after what would be chapter three. Would love to see where it goes, though!

[annotated by Noi (in & out)]

This was not a standalone, my fault for not double checking
------
I need something short and light

[Dragana]

Hailey Edwards is one of those urban fantasy authors I stumbled upon a few years ago—and then immediately fell down the rabbit hole. I tore through her newer series and even started working my way through her backlog like a woman on a mission. 😄

But… her last series "The Body Shop" didn’t quite hit the same, and I was really hoping this new one would bring the magic back. ✨ Unfortunately, it ended up feeling kind of meh. Not bad, just… average.

I’m honestly not sure if I’ve just burned myself out on her writing, if my taste has changed, or if her style has shifted a bit. Maybe it’s all three? 🤷‍♀️ I didn’t really connect with the characters, the humor didn’t land for me, and the romance—normally something I love in her books—just didn’t spark that swoony feeling I was hoping for. 💔

That said, I’m not giving up on her! I’ll give the next book or two a shot. I’m still holding out hope we’ll find that old magic again. 🪄

[Devon Rose]

The VERY first sentence of this story is about a mile long with no punctuation at all. I had to read it three times to even understand what was being said, I thought I was having a stroke.

So, that coupled with the fact that this story is so short I’m just going to quit while I’m ahead and DNF

[V]

DNF at 10%
Is FMC 8 years old? Cos it definitely reads like she's a literal child

[Emily Anne]

The downsides are that this book is short. Really short. Barely a novella. It'll take 2 hours to read, maybe? So, know what you're getting when you buy. The other downside is that the ending is a cliffhanger. You will have to wait for book two to be released to get any resolution whatsoever.

The upsides are that the book has fun characters and a fun plot. The other upside is it's a Hailey Edwards book. She's the best and is easily the reason for at least one of the stars on this review that I wouldn't otherwise have given.

[SheLove2Read]

Oh man, did I love this! Hailey Edwards really has a way with creating female friendships, and this book was no exception. I'm excited to see where this series goes. 5 stars

[Jenna]

✨3.5 stars✨

[Sue]

Closer to 3 1/2 stars, this was a short, entertaining read that left me wanting more. The characters are engaging and natural, something that Ms. Edwards dies really well. I look forward to the next book.

[Sass]

This is a cute beginning to a shifter/supernatural series. I like the friendship between Ana and Sloane. And I'm curious enough to read the next book.

[Dani (Daniiireads)]

Rude to just end like that 😒

[Amyiw]

Well got this from both Audible then accidentally with a Hoopla credit. It is the first in a series offer from Audible plus catelog. Which means nothing for later as they keep changing their content and name of program and which, prime or audible member, actually I have no idea at this point but it was "included" and therefore I didn't need to use one of my, now, valuable monthly Hoopla credits since my 2 libraries that I have with Hoopla give me 4 credits and 5 credit a month. Since I read 20 or so per month, Hoopla cannot be my only source, luckily Libby, at all my 7 libraries has it but it has a very different selection and only a little overlap. So, included with whatever at Audible and in my Hoopla.

I'm a bit disappointed as this is a serial, completely! It is an opening that maddeningly keeps on dodging the questions until the 2nd to last chapter and then the answers are half baked, not complete or definite, she is told that she is a dragon and that the wolf alpha is not her father but that he killed both of her parents and then stole her from them. Um, OK, why? Why treat her so poorly, why not tell her something better than nothing and cage her?, so not complete and not a answer of why in fact we have more questions How is Rian her "mate"? When did he figure this and how? Can she say no? At least we are told that she may be able to shift later in lift than wolves do but... who were her parents, exactly who was her aunt that left the house, etc... all these new question and we only got to part one. I see that this is a 5 book (serial) so since they are only 4hrs in audio (1/3 of 300 page book) which make this a maybe 500 or 600 pages altogether, I would continue, by using my treasured Hoopla credits but they only have the first 3 so I'll have to wait for the last two so I won't be tortured by a cliffhanger because of serial type story telling.

Rating: who the hell knows as it didn't get very far though I liked the characters and the start of the story so for now 3 stars (really 2.5 for the non-story and not answering and questions frustration) but it might? have been heading to 3, really as it is a beginning of a story? I don't know. It was a good start, I would've read on in a book without having to "talk myself into reading on" so it was engaging. How it would have turned and plotted?

[Lauren]

The Vampire in the Potting Shed is the first instalment in the Groom & Doom series by Hailey Edwards.

I was intrigued by the title, and was hoping this would be a fun and cute read, but I ended up feeling... confused. I liked the start of this story, but I feel like there was a lack of build-up, or world-building in general. I'm not opposed to a story that jumps right into the mix but it didn't really work for this book.

The characters feel very stale, and the writing style just doesn't work, in my opinion. This book is 125 pages long, and it just felt like a waste of time when there was really no plot or character development.

I think there was some potential here, but unfortunately I can't give it anymore grace than two stars.

[Donna]

Fantastic read!!! Loved all the characters and can't wait for the next installment! A page turner for sure! I AM HAPPILY HOOKED!!!

[OnTheSamePaige]

This book is such a sad mess. It reads like it started life as a mafia story, and then the supernatural was shoe-horned in. This is the clumsiest and most incomplete worldbuilding I think I've ever read honestly. It's a shame, because there was potential that kept me reading long past the time I should have DNF'd. I kept holding out for scenes and explanations that didn't come.

EDIT: This author has written over 100 books? I honestly thought this was a first attempt. Also, I didn't recognize the author's name when I randomly downloaded this off of Kindle Unlimited. I DNF'd a book that she wrote last year! That book was WAAAAAY better than this one, it just had a horrible character. Doesn't feel like it was written by the same person at all.

[Mara]

Short and stupid.

This novella is short and utterly pointless. The plot is barely hinted at and then abruptly ends.
I’m not a KU user so I have to add its price is highway robbery.
(From what I understand it’s a serial, so you get chunks of the novel each time at 4$ each. At the moment it’s a two-story serial, all ending with a cliffhanger. So it’s already 8$ and you don’t get a full novel.)

[L.B.]

Shockingly short and a little simplistic and one-dimensional for a Hailey Edwards. It felt like this was just the first few chapters of a book and I found the writing a little confusing at times, plot pieces forgotten, and the characters’ actions without motivation or emotion (the FMC in particular). Interesting bones to a story though.

[Michelle]

In one of my challenge groups I needed to read a book with a vampire character in it. Cool..No problem, vampires are my jam. I found 1 book that I know 100% is about vampires, but decided I needed to go with a shorter book because I only had a few days to get the book done. So as I was perusing through my tbr list, I come across this. I've read or reading other series by this author so why not pile another one on. Imagine my surprise when I find out there is not a damn vampire in this book despite the title indicating one is hiding out in the potting shed. Spoiler Our guy is actually a dragon shifter who was spelled by his mee-maw to look like a vampire for a hot minute. Talk about disappointment.

Anyways, Our MC Ana has some serious daddy issues. Her dad is a bit of a jackwagon though. As the Alpha of his pack, he likes to throw his weight and authority around and try and run her life. Ana is unable to shift so the rest of the pack looks at her like she's not worth their time and has always treated her like crap. We find out later why daddy has tried to keep her close and run her life for her. This was a good start for a new series and one that I will continue even if there are no vampires 🤬🤣

[Barbara]

I love Hailey Edwards books! This series consists of a bunch of short stories that draw you in immediately to Ana Sartori's troubles with her werewolf clan.

Ana's had a difficult and constrained life so far. Her alpha father is tightening the leash and even with her opening her own business, he's still holding on tight. Enter a bleeding "vampire" and her protective instincts kick in enabling her to "defy" her father and help Rian.

I really liked Ana developing a backbone and sticking up for herself. I look forward to reading about her further adventures and hopefully at some point, she will kick the alpha to the curb.

[Angela Plumeria]

Dnf 10%. This seems like it may be TOO cutesy for me. Just not grabbing me and still haven’t even met the vampire. Seems like a cliche with her being a wolf with a deficiency (can’t shift into wolf form) and being outcast by the wolves. Too many characters introduced with nothing to distinguish or remember them and little to no description. Just doesn’t seem like it will be my jam.

[Krista]

I love this so much. This was a short glimpse into a wonderful, intriguing new world that I want more of RIGHT NOW. Fantastic

[Krasimira Stoykova]

Funny how there isn't a single vampire in this novella. On the other hand, there are plenty of wolf shifters. I think this is supposed to be a romantasy with fated mates, however there isn't much romance in here. The ending wasn't bad, I liked it but the story felt unfinished, it definitely left me wanting more plot and more romance. The title and the pretty cover made me assume this would be a charming, cozy romance with a vampire but it's something else entirely. Regardless, I enjoyed it for what it was, just wish it was longer.

[The Man from DelMonte]

Formulaic. I hate the idea of fated mates. And if I never skim through another shifter story, it’ll be too soon.

[Melia Bauer]

I thought this would be a easy read with fantasy-investigation vibes but just turned in a lot of questions and confusion. I guess to clear up the questions I could continue reading the series, but this book turned me off from continuing. My first problem is the length of the book which is linked to all other problems. It only has 13 chapters and the first 80% of the pages feel like the introduction of the story.
We are introduced to the MC who is the daughter of the Pack Alpha but never transformed in a wolf and is an outcast bc of her lack of transformation. Ok. Legit the whole book is about how overprotective her dad is (he constantly calls her peanut. WHOS PARENT CALLS THEM BY THEIR NICKNAME ALL.THE.FUCKING.TIME??? Yeah that’s just unrealistic and annoying) and the whole dad-daughter dynamic was just lacking realism for me. There were not enough scenes to really get a „round“ character for the dad, everyone in this book just seemed very one-dimensional/one-charackter-trait. I think I would have needed more worldbuilding and background of the pack and it’s politics or history to get a better feeling for the characters.
More filler scenes for characters to show more sides to them! And how all the different fantasy creatures/fractures live together. Like how could she not know that dragons exist? Do creatures not live alongside each other or keep everything about them a secret???? Something like that could have been discussed.
I’m not really excited of the MC, eventhough I feel like at the end she finally used her brain to make up her mind for herself. She was just a bit boring and was lacking in depth.
What really annoyed me was the lack of reason for things to happen.
When Raiu (or whatever this man’s name is) revealed that he and MC are supposed to get married I was like „but why??!?“ the forced marriage thing is a classic Trope and I get that he believes their fated mates. But she herself says most ppl don’t believe in it, so where are the political reasons for him to think this is going to happen????? Give me a fucking reason and not just plot it bc people love this trope.
The lack of worldbuilding because of the shortness of the book really annoyed me. How could shielding of a whole city not cause chaos in the city? People rioting against this? Why is this normal for everyone? How does society?

What can I say. the lack of worldbuilding annoyed me so much that I wrote this review after angrily bitching about this book to my roommate. Do not recommend. I feel like there are more things that made me angry but I’ll leave it with this.

[ACE]

Perfunctory garbage. I used to enjoy this author but the work she’s putting out now is just insulting. Like her Body Shop series (which I gave up on) this book is the barest outline of a story. It’s just a sketch of dialog and a few actions, that don’t add up to believable characters or convincing world-building.

As an example - Ana, the main character, has used an inheritance to buy “a Victorian.” Never a Victorian house, just a Victorian. Nouns are important, people. The Victorian is never described, interior or exterior, so it lacks a sense of place. For some reason, Ana has opened a pet grooming and boarding business in the Victorian. Why did she choose this business? We don’t know. Why not choose a business space more appropriate to kenneling animals? We do not know.

The book opens with a description of a parrot who stays at the business, so you might be forgiven for thinking the parrot will be mentioned again. It is not. You might also be forgiven for thinking that Ana will groom any animals or conduct any pet-related business. She does not.

Nor does she show any concern whatsoever for *other people’s pets* she has responsibility for when the Victorian comes under attack a few times in the book!

I’ve probably given more thought to this review than the author did to her entire book. I hate to be rude but I strongly suspect this book, as well as the Body Shop series, was written by AI. AI can give you dialog and actions but it doesn’t know anything about developing realness in a work.

[Kristine]

I have to start this by saying that I really am a Hailey Edwards fan. I saw this new series out and was excited to jump in. I went in relatively blind, so I didn’t have a lot of expectations.

The two things that are important to mention is that this is a VERY short book. More like a novella. And…it ends. It is not really an awful cliffhanger, but more like when you are reading a book and are on Chapter 11 and you turn the page expecting to start Chapter 12 and realize that there is no more of the book….it has just ended.

And there were several odd things that were errors in the telling of the story - and that pulled me out of the story. Like what? Well, we are told that the area that they are in has been cut off - there is no internet service and no phone service. Yet, not a couple of pages later, one of the characters is told to scan a QR code and make a payment…on her cell phone…..and the payment goes through. There are a couple of things like that and I kept thinking, do you have service or not? It wasn’t important, it was just an error in the continuity of the story.

Other than that, I’m having a bit of a problem with the FMC Ana. Her character is behaving inconsistently, and she is extremely wishy washy. Serious things are happening and she is just rolling along with the flow in ways that are frustrating.

Anyway, I’m going to keep going and see if things get better.

[Victoria G]

This book was absolutely not what I expected it to be! I was thinking "improbable shifter romance" the whole time (as in the preferred genre of books Hailey's character Rue from the Black hat bureau series loved to read the most 🤭)

It's cute! I like Ana and Sloane and their budding friendship. I really like the "vampire" too. But I really thought it was going to go in another direction!

It's all good though as the last time I had this going on it was in The Foundling series and I ended up lovin' these books! I actually enjoy it when authors take me for a ride on new and unexpected roads!

My only complaint is that it felt way too short. For a first book of a series I expected a bit more world building than just setting the scene and cutting off on a cliffhanger almost in the middle of the action.

Would that be a mini series? If anyone has any info on that let me know 👀

I'm chalking this up to an editor decision and I still can't wait for the next one though!

[Kimberly]

Cute

3.5 stars
*Warning ends with a cliffhanger! This is the first time I've read anything from this author and I enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to the next book in the series.

Ana is the daughter of the Alpha of a Werewolf pack. But she can't shift, she has the strength, the heightened sense of smell and enhanced hearing, but no wolf. Her father accepts her as she is, but he has a security detail on her 24/7. She is basically over-protected.

Ana lives in town, away from pack life. She inherited a home from an aunt on her mom's side and bought the house next door and turned it into a luxury dog grooming/spa.

When Ana finds a Vampire bleeding on her property, she protects him from her dad's security. Not knowing who he is or why he's there, she goes back to see if he's ok, only to find him gone. Several days later, she comes face to face with the same vampire again and learns the truth about who she really is.

With this news, her whole world completely changes.

A must read!

[Kelly]

Oh.My.Goodness. I have yet to meet a new HE series I don't love and BOY am I enjoying the setup on this one. There are LAYERS here and secrets that are festering under the surface and I AM READY FOR THEM.

So. Ana is what amounts to a human in a wolf pack. Her inability to shift leaves her in a tough situation and she is trying her level best to carve out a life for herself apart from the pack. Her father makes it difficult, but he's given her some space. Or so Ana thinks. Because the moment things start getting sticky, he swoops in to bring her back into the fold.

But Ana's resourceful and has had a lifetime of working around her father's restrictions. She ferret's out what information she can and when she somehow ends up with a wounded man in her potting shed, she hides him to give herself time to plan. That, as it turns out, was exactly the right thing to do.

A whole lot of secrets, pack politics that are more than a little complicated, a new group moving into town, puppers, cautious friendship, and a lady who is far, FAR more than she thinks she is. MAN, I am ready to see what happens next!

-Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal