Review: Tantalize

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Quince has been orphaned…Left to the care of her Uncle D (Davidson), who is her Dad’s baby brother. She was also left with her Mom’s restaurant, which had been her Grandparent’s Legacy. Quince has decided to remodel and re-open with a vampire inspired theme. In walks Brad who appears to have the chops to pull it off. Now that the opening is looming, there are a rash of murders that appear to be the work of Weres…and her best friend, Kieran, is suspect number one!

HOLY COW…this book moved fast. I was so engrossed I didn’t realize the story had ended and I was reading the Acknowledgements. LOL

This had a really good love triangle…or maybe it was an unrequited love triangle?? Quince and I fell so completely under Bradley’s spell, neither one of us knew exactly what was going on, until it was too late. Poor Kieran tried to tell us. Notice how I included myself in that?!? My only complaint would be how easily Bradley seemed to give up? But I’m not convinced he has…need to get into the next book in the series to see if he really did give up.

The restaurant setting was different. I can see where some readers might (did) get turned off. Personally I thought it was a great setting/tool to effectively get the reader from point A to B. Can you tell I’m trying not to give away major plot points? Anyway, as someone who loves to cook and has fantasized about working in a restaurant, I loved the Sanguini’s setting.

Over all I enjoyed this book. Time flew so fast…good thing I started it on a day off with not a lot of chores to do…dinner did not get made though. Not a ton of character development because the characters are constantly reacting to their surroundings. But there were a lot of twists and turns and betrayals which always makes for an engrossing read as far as I am concerned. I hope we get into Kieran’s backstory a bit more in the next book. Him I would love to learn more about.




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