Dagger (The D.U.S.T. Ops) (Volume 1) by Steven dos Santos

The D.U.S.T. Ops Mission #1

by Steven dos Santos

When Ultimate Evil engulfs the entire world, only Dagger can pierce the Darkness—even if the Apocalypse falls on a school night!

Dagger Beaumont is a High School senior who’s been recruited by D.U.S.T. – a covert governmental organization dedicated to battling supernatural terrorism all over the globe.

However, Dagger’s unresolved conflict over his missing brother could be his undoing, as he races around the world battling the Dark Reich, a diabolical organization on a quest to possess an ancient artifact and unleash a mystical plague to enslave humanity. If that weren't treacherous enough, Dagger must juggle his life as a secret agent with his social life, where he faces romantic rivalry for the guy of his dreams, a mysterious and handsome new student at his haunted boarding school.

But in a high-stakes world where nothing is as it seems, and death lurks in every shadow, love rides shotgun with survival!

Genres: LGBT, Fantasy, Young Adult, Science Fiction, Queer, M M Romance, Gay

Paperback

First published September 1, 2015

About the author

Steven dos Santos is author of THE TORCH KEEPER novels, a Young Adult Post-Apocalyptic series. Book One, THE CULLING, was released by FLUX Books in March of 2013, and named an American Library Association 2014 Rainbow List Top Ten Selection. Book Two, THE SOWING, was released on March 8, 2014. Steven is currently finalizing Book 3 of The Torch Keeper series, THE RAISING. His new novel, DAGGER, a Young Adult Paranormal Espionage Adventure, was released by Evernight Teen in September 2015! Steven is a Team Member of We Need Diverse Books and is represented by literary agent, Lynnette Novak of The Seymour Agency. Steven graduated from Florida International University with a B.S. Degree from the School of Journalism and Mass Communications Television Broadcasting program and also has an MFA in Writing from Spalding University. He is an adjunct English Professor and a passionate advocate of LGBTQ+ rights.

To learn more about Steven, visit his website: www.stevendossantos.com.
You can also connect with him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/stevendossantosauthor); Twitter (www.twitter.com/stevendossantos, www.twitter.com/thetorchkeeper); and Tumblr (http://stevendossantos.tumblr.com/).

You can also add Steven's books to your Goodreads reading list here:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Reviews

[★MC's Corner★ · Rating 5 out of 5]

SO MUCH FUN AND DAGGER IS A KICKASS SOB!
It started great and ended great! I can’t wait for the next one.

*MC’s Corner*
Note: Spoilers.

• DUST - Department of Unexplained Supernatural Terrorism
Daaamn… their headquarters… let’s just say it’s one of a kind! Ha!
Where can I sign up? I wanna join.

• This thing kinda reminded me of DEO on SUPERGIRL. The only difference is that they fight alien there and Dagger fights supernatural ‘elements’. So yeah.

• I love that Dagger is still on school and having his ‘life’ there. It was separated to his supernatural ‘life’. I think that balance everything.

• I’m just sad that … did that. WHY? What an A-HOLE. Sticking his nose on other people’s business. Now look what happened. *shaking my head*
I really hate betrayals! It makes my heart ache, literally, for the one being betrayed. So sad.

• I think the concept of young guy fighting supernatural forces is not original. But Steven dos Santos added some elements that make this one unique and I really love what he did. Good job!

• I think a few months or a year after now I still remember the story. I don’t need to re-read the whole thing before reading the second book. It’s pretty memorable.

• SUGGESTION: I really do believe that this story will be more ‘powerful’ if it has a prequel. There are some parts that need in a way a support. I’m talking about the last part. How did … ended up there?

• BY THE WAY… THE COVER UIS A KILLER!!! LOVE IT SO MUCH!

• BOOK 2 PLEASE!

@gleekidMC

[Medeia Sharif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dagger is no ordinary high school student from Miami Beach. He is an agent for D.U.S.T., an organization that fights supernatural evildoers. The enemies are ghouls, fairies, and other horrifying creatures, some of which are gruesome the way they’ll take a chunk out of an opponent…literally.

There are issues with Dagger’s brother and mother—which adds an emotional dimension to an otherwise fast-paced adventure tale—but he must push forward to save the world. Another wonderful layer is the steamy, dreamy romance. All these aspects fit in nicely together as Dagger and his crew fight the Dark Reich.

I adored the mishmash of genres. High tech meets sci-fi meets the supernatural meets espionage…I can keep going, because there was always something new and different. I can’t recall reading any other book quite like this. I loved all the gadgets, organization lingo, and helicopter rides as Dagger traveled the globe for his assignments. Also, my jaw actually dropped reading the end chapters—that's how intense this novel is. I hope there’s a book 2 in the works.

[Trisha · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful new series by Steven Dos Santos, you might remember him from his other award winning young adult dystopian series, The Torch Keeper, in which he is working on finalizing the third book now. Like that series this new series, The D.U.S.T. Ops, also shows great diversity that our young adult departments desperately need more of. Dagger is classified as a young adult paranormal espionage adventure, I was very curious to see how all of that was going to fit together, but it sure did and is so action packed you will have trouble finding time to breath. Dagger and his friends are typical high school seniors, for the most part , and they have the same family issues, school issues, love issues, and ghost issues (?) as the rest of us. There is some romance but the spying and suspense will also keep you reading well past you bed time. Another awesome read from Steven Dos Santos and yes #WeNeedDiverseBooks!

[The FountainPenDiva, Old school geek chick and lover of teddy bears · Rating 5 out of 5]

You keep your Harry Dresden and Anita Blake. I've got Dagger and at seventeen, he's more cool and more kick ass than those two urban fantasy tentpoles. Better yet, Dagger's paranormal world is diverse, with an unapologetically Latino gay male hero whose sexuality is treated the way we'd treat heterosexual male heroes.

This is the second novel I've read recently featuring a Latino hero in an urban fantasy universe and I hope to see more.

Not to mention, lots more snark per page. Lots of danger and secret spy societies. Good stuff.

[Lee Rey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love it, this should at least be a trilogy series with each novel having a separate mission with an overall mystery throughout the series!!! Loved the mission and action that this story contained! I want to see the romance blossom for Dagger! This is like Buffy the vampire Slayer crossover with Alias and the lead is a gay guy, a great combination.


Dagger's brother reappears. A friend becomes evil at the end and his love interest "may" or may not be also a spy ;)

[Jesse]

Here's an interesting conundrum: how do you rate a book which is witty and well-written, but just isn't for you? Do you focus strictly on the story itself and the skill of the writer? Or do you focus on whether or not you liked what you were reading?

I think I can leave a review and not a rating, so for now I'll do that.

I was intrigued by the notion of a high school-age boy who is part of a secret supernatural James Bond-type government organization. My curiosity was also piqued by the fact that the main character was gay, as there is a shortage of good stories/roles for gay male characters.

Unfortunately this book did not work for me, for a couple of reasons. It's nothing to do with the book itself - totally a "it's not you, it's me" moment if ever there was one. I personally am not interested in reading what I'll call "gay fiction" (or to be more politically correct, LGBTQ fiction--and before you can say I'm being prejudiced, for the record I bat for this team.) I am not interested in reading a gay-themed story where sexual orientation and sex in general is present in almost every page.

What I do like? Stories about events, situations, etc, where people happen to be gay, and where that is not the focal point of the story. Where you could interchangeably put either a gay or straight character, and with the exception of the love interest, everything pretty much goes the same. Because, gay straight or anything in between, what I don't really go for is a story which hints at sex in some form or another on practically every single page. That's boring to me (and a little cheap.) Sorry, that's just my opinion.

So this story starts out, right away, in a bedroom. In a bedroom scene, and though the characters aren't having sex, the description of perfect toned bodies ad nauseam was just that - enough to make me nauseous.

But I gave it the benefit of the doubt and stuck it out about 20% through the story. Until which I ascertained that not only the teenagers were acting like horny teenagers--the few adults were also acting like horny teenagers. Not to mention those attractive, muscular guys around every corner whom the protagonist is lusting after (while alternately singing his own praises for remaining "sort of" a virgin, whatever that means. I didn't stick around to find out.)

This will sound funny, I know. But when reading a book, too much sex (not just the act, but horny characters in general) is a huge turn-off for me. If it furthers the storyline, I have no problem with it. But when every page drips with sex, I'm out. It's too much.

What's interesting is that I read a lot of YA fiction, and now I wonder if, in general, most (other) characters in other YA novels are given a bit of adult common sense to appease reader older than 17 (sometimes not a LOT of sense; but usually some). I can't fault that Dagger and his friends are exactly like a gay guy and his friends in high school (I should know, right?) But I really dislike stereotypes (I mean, come on. Fighting with a female friend to compete for the attentions of the new guy in school? Bleh.) Some guys probably empathize highly with the characters in this book. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people.

Take too much sex, add vapid/perpetually horny characters, and then put a secret agent lair in the basement of a school (?!) and I pretty much lost interest. Sorry. If the author happens to read this (hopefully not) please don't take it personally, and I am planning on giving this book a try again at some point in the future. I am confident it is rated highly for a reason. I just can't deal with the oversexed characters right now.

[Luke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dagger reminded me of Alias with more supernatural elements. As it turns out, I like them both.

I enjoyed Dagger: it had an intricate plot, full-fledged characters, action-packed scenes, well-developed mythology, and gorgeous writing.

The entire story was engaging: it was filled with intricacy, suspense, action, and humour. Paired with the beautifully descriptive writing, and the incredible world building, it was a read that, throughout it all, I didn't want to put it down. Plus, the diversity makes it even more appealing—it had the whole lot: all kinds of species, races, and characters who are gay and straight.

And Dagger... He is the type of character I admire: he is witty, clever, brave, strong and, in my mind, attractive. His amusing comments, especially when he is in action—or when his life is in peril—curled my lips with a smile; they made me think of Buffy, who always had something to say, especially when fighting the vampires, and that silly grin would make an appearance on my face.

I loved the ending: it ends on an open note, leaving room—lots of it—for another.

[Stacie Ramey · Rating 5 out of 5]

“…In a high stakes world where nothing is as it seems, and death lurks in every shadow, love rides shotgun with survival.”
Dagger Beaumont is a high senior/secret agent who has to battle the ultimate evil, the Dark Reich, while attending a haunted boarding school and fighting for the guy of his dreams.
This is an epic book with twists around every corner. Will Dagger learn the secret behind his brother’s disappearance? Will he be able to stop supernatural terrorists from finding the ancient artifact? And what’s Alexi’s deal? Is he into Dagger? And can he be trusted?
Steven Dos Santos is able to effectively weave urban fantasy intrigue with cool supernatural elements all the while portraying a believable and root-for-able LGBQT character we all want to see more of. It feels like Buffy The Vampire Slayer meets Jason Bourne. The writing is incredible and the action is fast paced and fun. This one is a must read!

[Corey Henio · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a DAGGER in my heart. It looks like BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER has teamed up with ALEX RIDER in this totally epic, action packed, sexy, suspenseful, very clever, kick ass story that dives into one hell of a mission and has a number of hilarious gay jokes. If anyone is looking for a diverse YA novel with Urban Fantasies and consorts with the LGBTQ, this is what you are looking for. I am crossing my fingers that The D.U.S.T Ops is never going to be finish with Dagger Beaumont!!!

[Ken-88 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky to Win a Signed Copy of DAGGER (my 1st book personally signed by the author, Thanks Steven)

This book is abit of rollercoaster ride. For awhile i did think their was just a little to much going on with Dagger going for mission to teen drama and back again. But it all comes together for one really good story and exciting final act.

I'm not 100% sold on the love interest yet however Iam looking forward to being convinced in book 2.

[James Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

The one good thing about having a cold, more time to read! And this book was a fantastic way to keep me busy. I really liked the plot and characters. I can't wait to read the next one.

[Qin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really torn about the grading of this book, for its abundant and considerable qualities have a whole bucketful of vices to keep them company, sometimes to the point of snuffing out all the good that imbues these pages within a mushrooming cloud of bad taste and petty superficiality. On the one hand, the writing is very strong: lively and fluent with just the right amount of purpleness to go with the teen ages of the narrator, it never shines more than in action scenes (full marks go to Mr dos Santos for his effortless juggling of pyrotechnics and usually excellent gestion of all involved characters). The universe building, though it could not be equally superb, given that the author went with the general principle of eschewing longish clusters of contextual background or sit-rep type chunks of information in favour of a dissemination of the necessary clues (and often rather less than what would be required) on a strictly need-to-know basis, nonetheless reaches a nice level of competence; especially commendable is the effort that went into edicting the laws that govern the complex paranormal bestiary on display (these laws and characteristics mostly remain on the good side of quirkiness) and into mixing up historical events and the author's own supernatural twists. A strong desire to draw as sharp a line as possible between the present world and those of several infamous MF paranormal romances Mr dos Santos's creation noticeably resemble without sounding like he pilfered them, determined him to be creative in his amorous subplot; thus the book coyly toys with the cliché of love triangles before going in another direction altogether, for this reader's great relief. Unfortunately, this entertaining tale of magic and first love destroys most of its credibility by its mock-serious tonality - not only does the hero forever crack jokes which are seldom funny, let alone called for in the context of the scene they were supposed to adorn, his youth and preppiness have been pushed so far that their other literary manifestions such as his horniness and lack of maturity and childish conceit when it comes to his own worth tone down the darkness which ought to wrap around his fate and the plight of humanity he supposedly is the champion of, to such an extent that the realistic approach to plot and most other characters to which the author adheres consequently suffers a lot. You cannot have it both ways - either you turn your story into a full-blown lark or you do what it takes so that it reads as a visceral experience. Dagger's brash, one-dimensional narrative voice all too soon grows tiring, then grating, and finally insuferable (I was regularly reminded of the Alex Rider series of novels); all the more so since the pacing is one of fits and starts to accommodate the school stuff and the romance, or rather the marivaudage which all too often the latter element boils down to. Hard to maintain the suspense when one has to labor under such requisits. Another cardinal mistake in my opinion is the baleful reliance upon too many old hat plot devices, whose cheesiness increases exponentially when clustered together: indeed we are served the utterly stale canard of the hero's traumatic past, the one of his inevitably scheming family, the use of the school he is a pupil at as a microcosm on which his secret career as a paranormal assassin and operative inevitably intersects, and the confusion between puppy love, or rather lust based on mere good looks, and actual love. Add the dramatically flat and one-dimensional picture of the Third Reich as the looming evil, which looses much of its power from the conspicuous lack of research on historical and linguistic and even arcane topics (whatever German, whether the language or the Nazi lore or even personal names, appears whithin those covers is laughingly mangled), and the end result could not fail to be a cheese fest which even the author himself must not be very anxious to revisit since the expected sequel remains in limbo. Two stars and a half rounded up to three, since I was fairly vested in this book as well as entertained and there really is a lack of decent paranormal MM stories out there.

[Calvin Pallett · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a light quick read.
Definitely one I enjoyed escaping with. It's books like this that make me wish I was living in rather than reality. Lots of action and adventure and very engaging, some good twists as well. A little explicit at some times but as bonus there's a gay storyline! which is something I definitely haven't seen a lot with this kind of book which really makes me feel seen.
Would love to see more of this world hopefully in the not so distant future.

[Youselin · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I got recommended this book, no words can explain the emotions it had me feeling thought each passing chapter. This book was go engaging it was hard to put down at some parts , and those plot twist 🫣 loved them.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn on this one. On one hand I liked the supernatural elements of the story and Dagger was mostly a sympathetic protagonist. There wasn't a lot of suspense but I still liked most of the story (even if it is a bit generic).

But there are quite a few things that bothered me. First: The puns. Some of them were funny and fit in there. But there were far too many of them. Especially near the end they stopped being funny and only took me out of the story. Half the amount of puns would've sufficed.
Then there was the terrible German. I can't say anything about the other languages used in the book since I don't know them. But I know German (I'm from Austria) and some of the sentences just made my skin crawl. Please, no more German!
The romantic storyline didn't convince me either. I was happy that the love triangle was not at the center of the story and didn't take over the entire narrative though.
The last thing that bothered me was the conflict Dagger had with his mom. It was dealt with very quickly and the whole thing was very anticlimactic. I usually love family conflicts and this one could have been far better told and played out very differently.

That said, I WILL read the next books since I really like The Torchkeeper series and I hope The DUST OPS-series will improve as the story moves along.

[Amry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely awful. There was no kind of emotional depth to any of the characters, and it had the pacing of a preteen’s first wattpad fanfiction. Great if you love a character’s personality based on the fact that they’re horny, but not so great if you’re looking for an action book with good development, pacing, plot, and characters. I definitely do not recommend.

[Nathan Sims · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my third outing with dos Santos and with each book I see his writing improving. His pacing and plot development are spot on. Dagger's voice and perspective on life are just tongue-in-cheek enough to let me invest in the character without him turning trite.

If I had any wish for the book, I would like to see the emotional blows of what Dagger experienced hit a bit more. They were all there, were well-revealed, and weighty enough to make a profound impact on Dagger. However, I would have liked his recovery from them to have been more of a challenge. As it was, he seemed more than capable of shaking off any and all 'slings and arrows' coming his way.

As this is a series, the other thing I'd like to see in future novels (which I will return for) is further development of the secondary characters and the school environment. Both are rich fodder and I'm excited to see what dos Santos does with them.

Dagger is well worth the read.

[KJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars? DNF @ 50%

This book was on on Bookriots.com 50 MUST-READ LGBT FANTASY BOOKS and after reading in the description "high school senior who’s been recruited by a covert governmental organization dedicated to battling supernatural terrorism all over the globe. If that weren’t treacherous enough, Dagger must juggle his life as a secret agent with his social life, where he faces romantic rivalry for the guy of his dreams."

I read about 50 percent of the book and I didn't care for a single scene in the book. You're thrust into the story from the first page and I was left really confused and had to double check if this was actually the first book in the series, and not the second or third.

This book gave me major Agent Cody Banks vibes on the cheesy scale and low budget feels.

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very excited to read this book since I first heard about it. Mr. Santos has done it again. The book was filled with great twists and turns. The crossing, double crossing,and tripple crossing kept me riveted to the story. Great pacing and great characters let me get through it in just two days. The sexual tension that permeates through the story was a nice twist. I hope this series will continue,as it was a awsome read. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes Spy Vs. Spy novels, high action and adventure, with a twist of the supernatural.

[Stacy Davids · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another superbly written, action-packed, teen novel by Steven dos Santos. The tense storyline and main character, Dagger, remind me of a combo of Jack Bauer, Jason Bourne, and James Bond. The descriptions make you feel like you're in the room with Dagger. A wonderful and exciting read! Highly recommended!

[Annabella Michaels · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book so much and I adored Dagger and his friends. This story was very well thought out and had the perfect blend of heat, action and humor. I can't wait for the next book.

[Maurane · Rating 1 out of 5]

this book is so terrible it’s actually impressive. “oh but you read it in two days” yeah because it’s really short (250 pages) and so bad i just needed to get it out of the way. the characters are one dimensional and so i didn’t care about anything that happened. when a plot twist wasn’t extremely predictable, that was because it didn’t make any sense. some characters had a complete 180 degrees turn and it wasn’t shocking, just made me roll my eyes. there was an attempt at subtle info dump by relaying info through a class except it was literally the teacher asking the mc and the love interest to tell a story that was never given any educational context and was only for the plot, like tell me why these high schoolers needed to hear this ghost story. they did absolutely nothing with it, it was all for the monster hunting plot, which the students weren’t part of. the one relevant girl character got described with her curves (mind you this is a high school student) and “just enough makeup” oh please tell me this was written by a man without telling me this was written by a man. she has no personality beyond men but can i really call that misogyny when that’s the case for the mc and their male bff too? anyway. everyone loves the main character and any mistake he makes gets solved within the chapter because he’s the author’s self insert from a story he published on wattpad at 15 (not literally but you get the vibes from this). did we need to have that many adults thirsting over him and groping him? that many scenes of this underage boy using his body and promises of sex to seduce the grown bad guys? my god. his only personality is being horny (including with grown adults (including good guys) who respond to this 17yo, ew) and 2015 tumblr snarky with a pinch of “suddenly soft uwu boy so he tears up and the love interest can hug him with a line about huge biceps/chest/whatever”. please this 17yo kid is getting shot at and chased by flesh eating monsters while dealing with the pressure of having to save the world, where’s the anxiety. also where’s everyone. the world needs saving and all it has is a team of 4 people including a child? oh girl we’re all doomed.

also it pissed me off how this book seems to just not have any professional editing done like wdym it lacks a space after the period MULTIPLE times my godddd

[Ashley E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I've enjoyed other books from Steven dos Santos in the past, this one just didn't quite deliver for me. The plot and the mystery were both intriguing, but the characters were a bit lacking.

Dagger is a fun and funny character for the first couple of chapters, but he lacks a certain depth. At some point, it seems like he can't keep up the constant banter and snark, even in the worst of life-and-death situations or potential heart-to-heart conversations... and yet he always does. Ultimately, it makes him come across as shallow and callous. Funny but without depth. What could have been an interesting character if only he took off his mask once in a while, turns into a caricature.

While the story itself was a great adventure, in the end I was disappointed that Dagger never revealed any hidden depths of emotion other than an endless well of sarcasm.

[I received this book for free through First Reads and was not required to write a positive or any other type of review. All opinions stated herein are solely my own.]

[Sthep · Rating 3 out of 5]

3. 5
There were parts where I dazed off, to be honest, but I really did like it. Maybe I'm not into the supernatural as much as I used to be, and that's why I didn't enjoy it as much. Supernatural is a big huge part of this story. Me? I was here for the espionage and gay romance (which was okay). So yeah. I liked it, but didn't love it. Maybe the hardest part of this situation is that this first book was to published like three years ago and there are no signs of the next one. Don't you just love when authora begin a series and then casually say "well, Fuck it"?

[Saskia · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

I liked it, especially the beginning, but I also wanted to hit Dagger over the head a number of times, because the consequences of his actions were so glaringly obvious, that I just wanted to tell him to stop and think of every teenage (action) drama there is and ask what he supposes would possibly happen...

[Nynn Hidings · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kinda like it and hate it at the same time. It was a good read but I expected much more, in a sense that not everything should be explicit. I get it, coming of age and raging hormones of a teen. But I just couldn't grasp myself with the protagonist as much I would like. The resolve that he had with his mother is great tho. And I'm just that into any supernatural stuff. Kudos for that.

[Tyrannosaurus regina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very readable, and there were a lot of cool ideas in it, so I forgave the fact that I had a hard time suspending disbelief about the premise. However, what I have a harder time forgiving is the fact that overall it was just really emotionally shallow.

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

this could have been so good because it was a gay assassin-type-thing that wasn't basically just porn BUT then it was too all over the place so i didn't really know what was going on most of the time. so, disappointed.

[Madara · Rating 3 out of 5]

It kinda had all the ingredients of stellar book, but I almost didn't finish it. Too much action and zero character building. Meh

[Giulio · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5