Tantalize

Has Stephenie Meyers totally ruined your appetite for young adult vampire stories or star-crossed teen lovers or hunky ethnic werewovles like she did for me? Well, don’t despair! I’m about to introduce you to a genre-blending fantasy novel set in Austin, Texas that will restore your faith in the undead. Let me introduce you to Tantalize, Cynthia L. Smith’s homage to food, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juilet.

Quincie P. Morris is like your every day regular teenager if that teenager’s best friend was an Irish-Mexican hybrid werewolf and she stumbled upon a murder at her family’s vampire-themed restaurant. Quincie is struggling with her feelings for best friend Kieren, who will soon be leaving to join show more wolf pack, as well as trying to reopen her late parents’ bankrupt restaurant with her slacker Uncle D. Things get really complicated with Quincie’s growing attraction to the new chef, who is wooing her into a world of wine, sensuality and vampirism.

With endless amounts of humor, shape shifters, vampires, and a serial killer on the lose, it is needless to say this is not your regular cold, dreary, Washington State-based horror-love story. Tantalize is a thinking reader’s horror novel that you must simply take a bite out of. show less

The title is intriguing, the description fascinating. Werewolves, vampires, a vampire-themed restaurant, a love triangle… sounds like a recipe for an amazing book, right?

Not so, unfortunately. TANTALIZE does not live up to its hype, and I was deeply disappointed in it.
Quincie Morris, orphaned daughter of two restaurant owners, is helping her legal guardian, Uncle Davidson, with the transformation of their old family restaurant into a new, hip restaurant, guaranteed to attract the elite weirdos of Austin, Texas. It’s going to be vampire-themed, with the appropriate décor, costumes, and menu.

Ah, the menu. What a problem. Five weeks before the restaurant’s grand opening, their head chef is brutally murdered in what appears show more suspiciously to be a werewolf attack. Quincie and Uncle D hurriedly hire Henry Johnson (rechristened “Brad” as his vampire name), a nondescript, vaguely intriguing young man in his twenties.

Meanwhile, Quincie is dealing with the ever-potential fire of passion that never lights in her best friend, werewolf-man hybrid Kieren, who is studying vigorously to apply to become part of an official Wolf clan. Quincie has held a torch for him forever, but something always seems to hold him back, and it frustrates her to no end. Good thing Brad is always there, with his soothing words, delectable dishes, and offers of wine and…something more, perhaps? Quincie isn’t sure.

Tensions fly high in the neighborhood as the restaurant opening approaches. Quincie and Kieren fight more and more as his date of departure looms ahead, the neighborhood is being terrorized by some murderer, and Brad’s vampire costume seems to be missing something. It is not long, however, before Quincie realizes that having a vampire-themed restaurant may have been a very bad decision. In fact, it may be the very last decision she ever makes…

…Unless her own inner strength and love can pull through and save the day.

TANTALIZE is a hurried jumble of underdeveloped characters and too much action. Smith’s attempt to probe into the highly popular genre of paranormal romance is commendable, but not anything too special. show less

This is an interesting YA vampire novel. It's an over-saturated genre of late, and it's hard to bring something different to the table, but Smith does that with her story of Quincie Morris, a teenager who is working with her uncle to open a new vampire-themed restaurant in Austin, TX. The world-building is good but maybe too subtle--- while werewolves are "out" and there are people campaigning for the rights of werepeople and vampires are real, it's never really explained how this got to be so-- were they always accepted as reality? Or is it a more recent development?

The plot really picks up in the last 1/3rd of the book, to the extent that the ending feels overly rushed. Nevertheless, Quincie is a likable heroine (although maybe not show more the brightest) and the world is suitably intriguing to make me wish for a sequel. show less

Whatever world these characters live in, I'm glad I'm not a part of. Teenage alcohol use and nobody cares; it's even encouraged. Death is embraced; murdering someone in your own family - no problem. Your boyfriend won't confide in you about anything but expects to run your life for you. Just a whackadoo world and again I'm glad it's not mine.

This was fast-paced, sexy and interesting. A must-read if you liked Twilight!

Ahhh, vampires. I love ‘em. I love ‘em when they’re traditional, punk rock, evil, tortured, comical and downright horrifying (I cannot wait for the 30 Days of Night movie adaptation – the graphic novel was delightfully gory and terrifying…). I also love other beasties, be they adorned with claws and moon-weakness, or a plain-old hankerin’ after brains.

Now, Tantalize, by Cynthia Leitch Smith, focuses mainly upon vampires, both real and legendary, but throws in a wee bit of were-animal fun for kicks. Seventeen-year-old Quincie Morris is doing her best to transform her family restaurant into a success, but the slacker uncle who’s been her official show more guardian since her parents’ deaths isn’t much help – he’s too busy spending all his time with his creepy wanna-be vampire girlfriend, Ruby. And though it was his idea to re’vamp’ the restaurant into a Transylvanian culinary experience, it’s Quincie who has to work with the new chef to help him come up with creepy enough menu selections.

When the bodies start piling up in their small town, however, Quincie has to wonder if she and her uncle have aroused the interest of real vampires with their Dracula-inspired restaurant. Oh, and add to the mix the fact that Quincie’s long-time friend, hybrid werewolf Kieran, is planning on leaving town to join a pack of his very own before kissing Quincie breathless and falling as head over heels in love as she is with him… Yeah, Quincie’s having a bit of a time.

Tantalize is fast-paced and sexy, and Quincie is an admirably tough chick. Check it out if you, too, dream of pale men with wicked-sharp teeth… show less

Quincie's family restaurant has become all the more important to her since her parents death, the restaurant is a second home, its staff a second family. So with the restaurant failing it is given a makeover, a vampire theme, but not everyone is happy with the theme nor the type of people a theme like that will attract. But Quincie has other worries, head chef and surrogate grandfather Vaggio has been murdered.

Kieren, Quincie's best and only friend, not to mention first love, is about to embark on a werewolf right of passage, the outcome of which being Keiren's absence from Quincie's life, forever. With so much loss in her life it is little wonder that Quincie soon makes friends with Henry, the newly hired head chef of her family show more restaurant.

Tantalize offers a smorgasbord of murder, mystery, unrequited love, vampires, wine and deliciously seductive food that will change the way you eat forever. An exciting story of a girl changed by her experiences, and yet still determined to hold on to who she is. A story where the good guys don't always win, the bad guys are able to destroy everything and sometimes not everyone gets a happily ever after. This is one supernatural series with bite. show less

This was an interesting take on vampires in YA books. They are not sexy, brooding, bad boys who you can't help but fall in love with. They are good at disguising themselves and murder people and turn others into vampires against their will. I liked Quincie, she was self sufficient and brave. I totally ship her and Kieran. Her uncle was a shitty parent and I didn't like him. The story was quick and fun to listen to.