Tantalize - Cynthia Leitich Smith

Tantalize
Cynthia Leitich Smith
Candlewick
ISBN 9780763627911

I bought and downloaded this book immediately upon finishing Eternal, which is set in the same world. The story is written around a menu for a new restaurant. Quincie Morris inherited a restaurant when both her parents passed away; her Uncle is running it in trust for her until her 21st birthday. The story begins when the restaurant is closed for renovations - it is being re-imaged as Sanguini's: A Very Rare Restaurant, a theme restaurant with a vampire chef and vampire Goth theme decor. And the chef is to be the unlife of the party. But a few weeks before the grand reopening, the chef, a close family friend, is murdered and it looks like a werewolf attack.

Soon they find a person who appears to be the perfect fill-in, Henry Johnson, a chef whose food is amazing but seems to be struggling with the vampire appearance. But things are not always what they appear. A wedge is driven between Quincie and her best friend, a half-werewolf named Kiernan. Soon she is isolated, not attending school and spending all her time with her uncle and the new chef preparing for the grand reopening.

This story was amazing, I did not want to stop reading it, and often kept reading when I should have put the book down. I read it in less than 48 hours. The story was great, with amazing twists in the plot. The surprises kept coming. The story is told in sections following the menu for the new restaurant, from antipasto, primo, secondo, dolce and finally conforno. I loved the story and how it was written and cannot wait for the third book in this world to come out in 2011.

(As a side note: this was the first book I read on my Blackberry using the Kobo eReader app. I think reading on the Blackberry actually increased my reading speed. There were some pictures in the text that the eReader app and desktop application did not display. Not until it became obvious did I go back and compare with the epub version and find out that there were about a dozen images missed throughout the text. Kobo should have an indication that an image is missing but that is just my opinion.)

Books by Cynthia Leitich Smith:

Young Adult Books:

Tantalize
Eternal
Blessed
Cat Calls - Short Story
Tantalize Kierens Story - Graphic Novel
Haunted Love - Short Story
Diabolical

Books for Kids:

Holler Loudly
Santa Knows
Indian Shoes
Rain Is Not My Indian name
Jingle Dancer

Author Profile Interview with Cynthia Leitch Smith