Review: Something Secret This Way Comes (Secret McQueen #1)

Title: Something Secret This Way Comes (Secret McQueen, Book 1)

Author: Sierra Dean

Release Date: May 10, 2011

Publisher: Samhain Publishing

Category: Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance

Type: Kindle

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Website: http://www.sierradean.com/

                            

Book Blurb:

Some secrets are dangerous. This Secret is deadly.

Secret McQueen, Book 1

For Secret McQueen, her life feels like the punch line for a terrible joke. Abandoned at birth by her werewolf mother, hired as a teen by the vampire council of New York City to kill rogues, Secret is a part of both worlds, but belongs to neither. At twenty-two, she has carved out as close to a normal life as a bounty hunter can.

When an enemy from her past returns with her death on his mind, she is forced to call on every ounce of her mixed heritage to save herself—and everyone else in the city she calls home. As if the fate of the world wasn’t enough to deal with, there’s Lucas Rain, King of the East Coast werewolves, who seems to believe he and Secret are fated to be together. Too bad Secret also feels a connection with Desmond, Lucas’s second-in-command…

Warning: This book contains a sarcastic, kick-ass bounty hunter; a metaphysical love triangle with two sexy werewolves; a demanding vampire council; and a spicy seasoning of sex and violence.

Book Excerpt:

“I am your darkest nightmare. I am your death.”

Wow, someone had definitely given him the Introduction to Sounding Like a Poncy Asshole seminar before sending him out into the world. I rolled my eyes at his speech, which reeked like an old Lugosi movie.

“You’re a f**king baby,” I said, not even a hint of awed, cowering fear in my words.

That got his attention.

“I will rip your head off and bathe in your still-hot blood.” He didn’t sound as arrogant this time, but I had to give him credit for his continued efforts.

“No. You won’t.” I said it as matter-of-factly as one might say New York is a big city. “You’re what? Three days old, maybe? You’re not even a blip. You’re nothing. For all the vampire world cares, you might as well still have a pulse. Talk as big as you want, but I’m not the one who should be scared.”

He stood up and I tensed, my finger tightening on the trigger a fraction of an inch. His new position brought him to almost a foot taller than me, but I didn’t lower my weapon, and I didn’t back down. He saw now that I was well aware of what he was. Most people didn’t even believe in vampires, let alone utter their name with such nonchalance. He raised a brow at me and waited.

“Why don’t you ask me what I am?” I pressed the gun into his forehead harder.

He scoffed. “You are my dinner. Or perhaps I will turn you, bind you to me and have you every day until you wished you were dead.”

It was my turn to make a noise of disgusted annoyance and roll my eyes again. If he didn’t stop with this ridiculous, ostentatious performance, I was going to strain something.

“You wouldn’t know how to turn me even if you wanted to. You’re so young, you wouldn’t be able to stop. You’d drink too much and kill me before you could figure out which of your own arteries to open.” The sun would be up in a few hours, and though the night was still on my side, I didn’t particularly want to let this drag on much longer for either of us. “Now go ahead…ask who I am.”

He ignored me and tried to bat the gun away. I brought my knee up with a hard thrust and caught him in the groin, which was still excruciating even if you were undead, and replaced the gun at his temple when he collapsed. “Ask.”

“Bitch.”

I smacked him with the gun. “Ask.”

The part coming next was my favorite. It was a moment six years and many, many dead vampires in the making, and I never got tired of it.

“Who are you?” His voice was strained, though he would have his full strength back in an instant.
“My name is Secret McQueen.”

His eyes widened for the briefest of seconds, and I knew he recognized my name. It had an almost legendary status among the undead. Newborn vampires came to know it right away, because to be introduced, in person, to the owner of it, meant that you were dead. Well and truly dead. The forever kind, not the fun, false-immortality kind of death that vampires luxuriated in.

Knowing who I was, he understood I meant business.

“He told me about you.” And then, to my surprise, he smiled. “Oh, he will be so very pleased with me.”

Favorite Dialogue:

“Wow,” I said once I’d caught my breath and my fangs gad retracted. “Just…wow.”

He licked his lips, and I noticed his eyes were no longer solid blue. The ring of gold around his pupil had doubled in size, and they did not look human.  “That was unexpected,” he said, his voice husky.

As the wolf inside me returned to her dormant state, my skin cooled to its normal temperature. The flush in his coloring faded as well. Never before had both of the monsters inside me woken at the same time. The wolf had wanted to mate, the vampire had wanted to feed, and both desires had felt like one and the same.

“I’m sorry.” Heat flooded back, this time only to my cheeks.

“Why on earth are you sorry?”

“That was so inappropriate.”

He laughed. It was an exuberant, booming, honest laugh. He put an arm around me, and I flinched before realizing there was no sexual overtone in the gesture.

“If you hadn’t done it, I would have. Just being in the same room with you makes me dizzy.”

“Me too.” Though dizzy should have been substituted with horny as sin, his phrasing seemed more polite.

“You’ll get used to it.”

“I hope not.”

Review:

Let me first say that I have been told to read Sierra Dean, and told to read Sierra Dean, and told to read Sierra Dean … are you seeing a pattern? Yeah – I finally got the hint too. LOL So after much pressure from a friend (you know who you are), I caved and finally made a place in my reading schedule to read Sierra Dean. And to my friend I say … THANK YOU! Holy crap on a cracker can this lady pack a punch in her stories! I mean seriously, I had no idea what was going to happen next. My brain was struggling to process everything that happened, while simultaneously having no problem understanding what was going on at all. Make sense? Read Sierra Dean and my statement will make perfect sense! *cross my heart*

So Secret McQueen – what a kick ass name, by the way – is a hybrid of sorts. Half vampire, half werewolf. Though few know her secret. Many reasons for the lack of genetic detail exist: survival being the top one. You see on one side you have werewolves and on the other you have vampires. The two generally steer clear of the other and pretty much never comingle. And Secret born a mix of both … well, you can imagine the havoc she could potentially cause. Oh! Did I mention she is an assassin for hire? Oh, and did I also mention that she also murders her own kind when instructed to do so? Hey, no judgment. You do what you got to do to survive. Right?

Then you have this interesting tidbit. As a wolf, Secret has a mate. Being shunned by her wolf mother as an abomination and raised by her witch grandmother, she doesn’t know a whole lot about her wolf side. Goes so far as to repress the wolf urges pretty much all of the time. But she is undeniably drawn to Lucas. He has to clue her in on many of the … errr … wolf ways, and there is a catch. She may possibly have another mate – a wolf. And there is some innuendo that she could possibly, at some point, even have a mate for the vampire side. I know, right? Craziness! But surprisingly, Ms. Dean does a phenomenal job of intertwining all of these lives without turning the book into a raunchy pornfest. While the sex is pretty steamy – and possibly not quite what you might expect – forget it because I am NOT saying anything more on that topic – I would have loved this book even if there was no sex. *coughs* Did I really just say that? Perhaps I should rethink … NAH! It was that good! And amid all of this … I don’t know … self discovery I guess you could call it … Secret is kicking ass and taking names; either carrying out a hit for the Council, or saving herself from the latest attack. She is bad-ass, like WOAH! And her bad-ass ways have earned her a reputation.

Also in the story are secondary characters that ultimately play a much larger role as the story evolves. No single character is insignificant. Every detail is important. The story flows and moves along quickly and amazingly keeps the reader enthralled without causing confusion within the mass amount of information that is supplied. I have no idea how Ms. Dean crafted such a brilliant story, but she did and I am now a believer. The story drops after a pivotal scene, leaving me feeling like a bombshell had been dropped. I literally shook my Kindle yelling” Wait? What the hell? It’s over? It can’t be over! What happens next?!?!?!” Then I took a breath and remembered I had the other books loaded and ready to go. Phew! That is a helluva relief! Seriously! Stay tuned! I have many more Secret McQueen reviews coming up! But I worry that I will reveal too much. So why don’t you just do yourself a favor and start reading yourself! You will NOT be disappointed! And won’t feel so bad for dropping spoilers in the next review. *winks*

(Book purchased for personal digital library)