Review – The Secret Guide to Dating Monsters by Sierra Dean

 

Publisher: Samhain
Publish Date: July 19th
How I got this book: eARC from author

Are blind dates supposed to be this bloody?

They say it’s impossible to find a man in New York City. Secret McQueen needs to find two in one night. Of course, it’ll mean pulling off the impossible—find and kill a displaced rogue vampire without disrupting the first promising date she’s had in ages. As a werewolf hybrid used to walking a fine line of survival in the vampire world, though, Secret eats impossible for breakfast.

Somewhere between hello and the first round of drinks, Secret makes her move. Her target, Hollywood’s biggest star, shouldn’t be hard to spot. Just look for swarms of fans. Except every time her vampire liaison, Holden, helps keep her mission on track, her date runs further off the rails.

Either Holden has a hidden agenda, or he knows more than he’s letting on about her quarry. One way or another, Secret is determined to get her man, and meet Mr. Right. Or die trying.

Warning: This book contains a sword-wielding assassin whose barbs are sharper than her blade, a vampire with serious brooding issues but a skilled tongue, and an A-lister with a bad habit of eating his fans. This novella takes place approximately one year prior to the events of Something Secret This Way Comes.
*Blurb from Goodreads*

This is a short but very action packed novella featuring Secret kicking ass and taking names. Secret’s best friend has set her up on a blind date, and the last thing she wants to do is suffer through it. When Holden shows up with an assignment, it might provide Secret with the perfect change to ditch her date and go out doing what she loves.

But once on her date, Secret realizes she doesn’t want to ditch him, she actually likes the guy, but work gets in the way. She is forced to bring her date closer to the famous rouge so she can get her chance at killing him, but when he doesn’t want to be killed, and alludes Secret at every turn, she will have to go through hell and back to rid the world of him.

I love Urban Fantasy books, and the Secret Series is no exception. I both love and hate when authors give us little teaser novellas from their story lines, love them because it’s such a great chance to re-integrate into the world and learn a little more about our favorite characters. But hate them because the stories are always so short and never enough!

The one thing I love most about Dean’s writing is how action packed the story always is. Secret is one of those characters that always manages to come out on top, but the journey is never easy for her. She gets beaten and bruised and sometimes even a little broken before she gets to save the day, and I love that she isn’t perfect. The action in this short novella is jam packed and never lets down once it gets started, and I loved that.

I also really enjoyed watching Holden get so bent out of shape about Secret dating, and Secret’s cluelessness about it all. For a bright girl, she is kinda dense when it comes to relationships. The scorcher of a kiss that Holden plants on her is a “cover up” but damn hot! With the way Something Secret This Way Comes ended, I’m nervous to see where things with Holden go. Especially since this novella had me cheering for Holden the whole way through.

All in all, fans of Urban Fantasy will not want to miss any of the Secret books. They are fast paced, fun and always full of monsters and mayhem. Secret is a great character and has some fun snark to her. While the story was very short (just 50 pages or so), it was a great prequel to the Secret series.

I give The Secret Guide to Dating Monsters a B+

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1 thought on “Review – The Secret Guide to Dating Monsters by Sierra Dean”

  1. Pingback: Review: The Secret Guide to Dating Monsters by Sierra Dean | Smexy Books

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