Review: Grave Secret (Secret McQueen #5) by Sierra Dean

By Sierra Dean

Publisher: Samhain
Publication Date: March 19, 2013
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Source: Author

Sometimes a secret goes to the grave. Sometimes Secret puts you there.

It’s been a hell of a year for Secret McQueen, and the last thing in the world she wants is to get caught up in werewolf drama. But when her former fiancé Lucas Rain shows up asking for her help, she knows there’s no easy way out.

After making it known she wants nothing to do with him, Secret agrees to help find Lucas’s wayward sister Kellen. After all, how much trouble could one socialite get into in the city that never sleeps?

Unless that socialite has been spirited away by fairies.

Trying to track down a missing girl in an alternate reality is just the start of Secret’s problems, though. Someone appears to be killing teenagers, and the MO looks eerily similar to something for which the half-fairy oracle, Calliope, might be responsible. Throw in a rogue wolf pack claiming allegiance to Secret’s mother, Mercy, and she’ll have miles to go before she rests.

Warning: This book contains a promise fulfilled, sex that’s out of this world, and more heartache than one hybrid assassin can handle.

Goodreads Summary

Sierra Dean, what are you doing to me?! With three books left in the Secret McQueen series, I swear, my heart has been dropped, thrown against the wall, twirled around and stuck in my throat so many times, it’s a miracle it still works by the time I close the one I’m reading. Every time I think I know what you’re going to do, I’m completely wrong, so as much fun as it is, I have to stop guessing for my own sanity and just go along for the ride (not giving up on my Sig fantasy though). If you’re not reading this series – why not?

Since this is a continuing series, there are going to be some spoilers referring to events from the last book. You have been warned (insert evil laugh).

Grave Secret picks up exactly where Keeping Secret left off, which is excellent because someone would have gotten hurt if there had been any fast forwarding. Secret has been left at the altar by scumdog werewolf King Lucas, left by werewolf soulmate Desmond and is knock-knock-knocking on heaven’s door (vampire Holden’s apartment). Unfortunately, Holden is a gentleman, the cad, and after a purely platonic dead day’s sleep, they wake up to Lucas Rain, Furdog Millionaire standing over them.

His sweet – and human – sister Kellan has gone missing for the last couple of days and when anyone freaks out, they come to Secret to have their problem fixed. So even though he humiliated her in front of their pack and oh, hundreds of other people, he stopped by to demand her help. Kellen has a rep for being flighty, so who knows? By the time Secret backtracks where she was the night she disappeared, things take an ominous turn. Kellen made a promise she never should have and has crossed over into fairie under some bad circumstances. This is one of those things that Secret’s trusty katana and gun aren’t going to be able to fix.

I love that nothing in the Secret McQueen universe ever stops moving. The characters develop constantly from book to book and their relationships and motives are always making little shifts (for better or worse in the romantic department, depending on which camp you’re in). Every book brings new revelations about characters that make a click resound in my head and believe me, I always appreciate when I can blame the noises in my head on a book. I also love that Secret’s world keeps expanding and it feels effortless and natural. We’ve always known that there are fairies, have met them and know that there’s a doorway to fairie at Calliope’s, so it’s hardly a shock when Secret needs to pass through it. Suddenly there’s a brand new world with new rules but hey, it’s just another day for Secret and her gang.

There’s still some good action, because it wouldn’t be Secret without butt-kicking, but this is a more thoughtful, introspective story for our badass. She has to confront some serious truths about who she is and what she wants and it’s not feel-good stuff. I admit to sniffling through more than one scene because she just was so lost and vulnerable – it’s not something this beautiful, fearless, snarky, bitchy woman shows to many people.

Almost everyone in Secret’s life makes an appearance here, making it a jam-packed story emotionally and action-wise. Seriously, I don’t know how so much story was fit into this space. I wish I could trust that Secret’s romantic life was being resolved – that dirty dog Lucas should be completely out of the running for her heart, soulmate, schmoulmate. I’m still team Holden all the way, assuming I can’t have Team Sig. My delicious, shirtless and shoeless vampire Tribunal Leader doesn’t have nearly enough page time, but he shows up a few times and scares the spit out of everyone, so it was okay. Ditzy, darling Brigit has a pivotal role – she’s seriously the funniest thing – and Keaty shows up and is pissed at Secret as usual. So…things are pretty normal? But there are developments. Developments that shocked me, made me wonder what on earth the author was thinking and then crushed me. I had to stop for cookies.

I don’t know why I keep thinking these stories can’t get better, because as the series nears its end with all of its big revelations, how can it not? There are three books left (sob), three books for Secret to choose which guy to commit to, to eliminate all of the enemies pursuing her and to figure out her own personal demons. At the end of each book, the current story is resolved and there’s an intro into the next one, a sort of dun dun dun moment. After the series is complete, I’m begging for a little compilation of every last line from each of the books – they kill me every single time.

My Rating: A

Something Secret This Way Comes (Secret McQueen #1)
The Secret Guide to Dating Monsters (Secret McQueen #.5)
A Bloody Good Secret (Secret McQueen #2)
Secret Santa (Secret McQueen #2.5)
Deep Dark Secret (Secret McQueen #3)
Keeping Secret (Secret McQueen #4)