A Bloody Good Secret by Sierra Dean

Book stats:
Reading level: Adult
E-book: 248 pages
Genre: Urban fantasy
Publisher: Samhain
Release date: September 20, 2011

Series: Secret McQueen #2

Source: Personal shelf

Reviewed by: Jenn

Purchase: Amazon | Book Depository

You can’t keep a good Secret for long.

Secret McQueen, Book 2

After cheating death twice in one night, confessing her true nature to her werewolf soul mates and being asked to kill one of her closest friends, Secret took a much-needed vacation. By running away.

Now she’s back in town—dragged kicking and screaming—determined to clear Holden Chancery’s name. Right after she finds out what he’s accused of. It shouldn’t be hard—Holden has a habit of using their new and scintillating psychic bond to break into her thoughts and dreams at some very, shall we say, awkward moments.

Just a few things stand in her way: a secretive Tribunal leader, a group of would-be vampire slayers and two werewolf boyfriends who refuse to let her operate in her customary lone-wolf style. Even less amusing are the terrifying creatures that someone is using in an attempt to gain control of the council. Even for this out-of-the-ordinary bounty hunter, it’s a challenge with potentially deadly teeth.

Warning: Contains an ever-plucky heroine with no shortage of weapons, super-hot mind games, an ever-complicated love triangle and one hell of a creepy amusement park.

My love affair with Secret McQueen continues after reading A BLOODY GOOD SECRET. As you may remember, I dared you to read the first book in the series last month after really enjoying it. And now I can report that the second book is just as much fun as the first, if not more!

The book opens in rural Manitoba, where Secret grew up with her grandmother. She ran away to Canada to avoid her latest mission from the vampire Tribunal: killing her friend Holden Chancery. But she's kidnapped and dragged home, forcing her to deal not only with her assignment but also the two werewolves she left behind. Desmond and Lucas have very different reactions to her reappearance and I enjoyed watching her negotiate her relationships with these men. Even though she's soul-bonded to both of them, the dynamics of each relationship are quite different and I find myself staunchly on Team Desmond. To further complicate matters, she's also starting to have sexy dreams about Holden, sometimes at extremely inconvenient times, and I appreciate the added dimension of confusion this brings to the relationship table.

We also get to learn more about how the Tribunal assigns missions to Secret and how Holden has been affected by his position as Secret's warden. It was a nice change of pace to see Secret think about the ramifications of her actions, even though it was all in retrospect. The author also starts to reveal what it means to be a warden, since Secret is now in that position with Brigit. (Can I just say that I love how Brigit has become incorporated into the story, going from the nameless blonde that Secret saves to a bigger part of the story?) The Holden storyline also shows us what Secret was like when she was younger, which was neat. She's still much the same since only six years have passed since Secret moved to New York but it's nice to see that she has developed some smarts and skills since first meeting Holden and Keaty. If that's not enough, there's also some great reveals about Sig but they left me with a lot of questions about his relationship with Secret.

As with the first Secret McQueen book, A BLOODY GOOD SECRET ends with a titillating piece of information that makes me glad I used a Christmas gift card to get all of the existing ebooks. I can't wait to see what Sierra Dean does to Secret next!

Read an excerpt (click on the excerpt tab)

Posted by jenn at 06:41

 Review, Samhain, Sierra Dean, Vampire, werewolf  6 People left their mark

Born and raised in the Toronto area, Jenn moved to St. John's, Newfoundland, eight years ago for school. She's still in school (thankfully on another degree!), now trapped in her dissertation. When she's not dissertating, which happens more often than it should, Jenn spends her time reading, watching movies, playing volleyball, travelling, and enjoying the local music scene. Her latest addictions: yoga and Almond Crunch cereal.