Format: 281 pages, Kindle Edition
Release Date: September 14, 2026
Publisher: Black Dog Books, LLC
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Danger in the line of duty is a given, but Officer Samantha Tiegs always figured her death would come in the form of a heart attack in her golden years after a lifetime of researching the age-old question— Can it be fried? Sadly, death has less delicious plans in store for her.
When she’s called to intercept a hijacking in progress, her world gets turned upside down. The thieves aren’t human, and whatever’s in the delivery truck they looted, they want it bad enough to kill for it. Except her death isn’t their end goal. It’s only the beginning of a twisted plan orchestrated by the person she loves most.
Everything she believed about her life, her family, was a lie. The truth is, she’s a pawn in a deadly game she can’t win alone. Enter the Bureau of Cursed Objects. The supernatural agency has a vested interest in her survival, and they make her an offer she can’t refuse.
Come work for them, and they’ll guarantee her safety, but her new partner is a man who poses the greatest threat to her yet. As long as she remains valuable, he’ll protect her from everyone. Including himself. But should her returns diminish, he won’t make any promises.
Warning: Contains one manga-obsessed heroine with an anime addiction, more fried food than a fairground on opening night, one hero with a reputation for killing his partners and a compulsion for labeling what he considers his, and a whole lot of family secrets, drama, and evil hiding where you least expect it.
When she’s called to intercept a hijacking in progress, her world gets turned upside down. The thieves aren’t human, and whatever’s in the delivery truck they looted, they want it bad enough to kill for it. Except her death isn’t their end goal. It’s only the beginning of a twisted plan orchestrated by the person she loves most.
Everything she believed about her life, her family, was a lie. The truth is, she’s a pawn in a deadly game she can’t win alone. Enter the Bureau of Cursed Objects. The supernatural agency has a vested interest in her survival, and they make her an offer she can’t refuse.
Come work for them, and they’ll guarantee her safety, but her new partner is a man who poses the greatest threat to her yet. As long as she remains valuable, he’ll protect her from everyone. Including himself. But should her returns diminish, he won’t make any promises.
Warning: Contains one manga-obsessed heroine with an anime addiction, more fried food than a fairground on opening night, one hero with a reputation for killing his partners and a compulsion for labeling what he considers his, and a whole lot of family secrets, drama, and evil hiding where you least expect it.
The Doll Squad is the first book in Hailey Edwards’s new Bureau of Cursed Objects urban fantasy series. It follows Officer Samantha “Sam” Tiegs, a cop who expects to die of something mundane (preferably after a long life of fried-food research) and instead gets yanked into a hidden supernatural world when a hijacking turns out to be anything but human.
Edwards, known for found family, messy magic, banter, and high-stakes chaos across series like Black Hat Bureau, The Beginner’s Guide to Necromancy, and The Body Shop, is working in familiar territory: a snarky heroine, a dangerous male lead, family secrets, and an agency that collects cursed or dangerous items. Sam responds to a hijacking in progress with her brother Cole.
The thieves aren’t human, the cargo is something they will kill for, and her “death” is only the opening move in a plan tied to the person she loves most. Everything she thought she knew about her life and family is a lie. The Bureau of Cursed Objects—a supernatural agency with a vested interest in keeping her alive—makes her an offer: work for them, and they’ll protect her. Her new partner, however, has a reputation for killing partners and a possessive streak.
He’ll keep her safe as long as she’s valuable. After that, no promises. Sam is a classic Edwards heroine: competent, food-obsessed (fried food and fairground-level snacking get mentioned in the warning), manga-and-anime-addicted, and funny under pressure. The voice is first-person, fast, and conversational—easy to fly through. As book one of a brand-new series, a fair amount of page time goes to world-building and Sam’s crash course in the Bureau.
The possessive-partner dynamic and “he’ll protect you until you’re no longer useful” hook will delight some readers and annoy others depending on taste for that particular romance flavor. Because the book is very new, long-term series payoff (how the Bureau works, what the “Doll Squad” really means, how the family conspiracy unfolds) is still unknown.
Pick this up if you enjoy:
Urban fantasy with a cop-turned-agent heroine
Banter + danger + found-family seeds
Possessive / morally gray male leads
Light anime/manga flavor mixed with Southern-fried food humor
Skip or wait if you dislike possessive tropes, want a standalone, or prefer slower, more literary urban fantasy.
No comments:
Post a Comment