Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Orphaned at 13, Quincie Morris is left in the care of her uncle. She finds support and comfort in her werewolf best friend and love interest Kieren. Quincie and her uncle manage the family's Italian restaurant. Four years after the death of her parents, they decide to renovate the restaurant to a vampire themed night spot. They expect that in the unusual town of Austin, Texas, where Vampires and Were-people are tolerated, the vamp theme will attract and inspire all sorts of new guests. And so it does. A month before the opening of the restaurant, the head chef Vaggio, is viciously murdered. Bottling up all the emotion from the death of Vaggio, Quincie must decide where her allegiances lie. When a tantalizing new chef is hired by the restaurant, whose shoulder will she turn to?

I did enjoy this book but found it a little slow and dull at times. It has a great story line. Most of the characters were described well but others failed to grip my attention. I loved the strained relationships and love triangle between Quince, Kieren the new chef, Bradley Sanguini. I think the author was clever in the way she twisted the plot and made it hard to decide what was coming next. I felt disappointed at the end as I expected a big ending and really got no closure. This was an easy read that at times, fascinated and enthralled me. I would recommend this novel to teenagers from 12 up as a book not to taken too seriously. A tantalizing read with all the seduction of good spaghetti and all the fright of men in capes.

Reviewer Age: 14
Reviewer City, State and Country: Melbourne , Victoria, Australia