SOMETHING SECRET THIS WAY COMES reminded me of the fantasy books I read during high school. Not in content, but emotion. In a genre that abounds with vampires and werewolves, Dean managed to add twists to the mythology and social structure of her characters that made me feel like she was treading new ground. While SOMETHING SECRET does draw on many Urban Fantasy clichés, Dean adds enough of a new spin to make me interested in seeing where the series is going.

One of Dean’s best departures from the Urban Fantasy cannon was giving both vampires and werewolves a strong respect for life and an almost National Parks service approach to managing their numbers and offspring. There were several instances where this attitude is pivotal to the plot (and being a vampire hunter is a new and different beast altogether when the vampires issue warrants themselves). Dean also made some clever assumptions regarding the personality quirks that would be common in an immortal or were population, and I enjoyed these glimpses of supernatural society.

While the preternatural anthropology was interesting, the writing in SOMETHING SECRET did have a few first novel downfalls. The first several chapters had heavy handed explanations and data dumps to establish the world, and the name “Secret McQueen” never stopped feeling awkward. These shortcomings were never enough to stop my forward progress, however, and I have high hopes that book 2, A BLOODY GOOD SECRET, will contain more of the creativity that sparked my interest with less of the writing bumps.

Sexual Content: Several sex scenes.