Sunday, March 16, 2008

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith



  • Reading level: Young Adult
  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Candlewick (February 13, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0763627917
  • ISBN-13: 978-0763627911
Okay, so here's the thing. Guilty pleasure are supposed to be pleasurable. Tantalize has all the makings of being a pretty hot teen vampire read. Except somewhere in here things fall short.
Quincy (yeah, short for Quincy Morris. From Dracula. Not even a girl's name. also from Texas. uck.) is a senior in high school with a (half) werewolf as a best friend/secret love interest. Like ya do. Anyway, apparently they live in some world where everyone knows about werepeople and vampires and they live in some kind of uneasy truce like in X-men. (Coincidentally, were = man so werepeople is manpeople? boo.)
So Quincy's fam owns a restaurant but now the only surviving family members are her and her passive aggressive Uncle. They are remodeling the place to be Sanguini's (get it?) a vampire themed restaurant. And the chef dies at the last minute and they need a new one and of course Quincy is the one to train him/oversee his vampire routine and creation of the menu.
In short order Quincy adopts a skipping school problem almost as serious as her shiny new drinking problem. She also alienates her were-boyfriend and develops an uneasy crush on the dockers-wearing blond cook who she's supposed to be turning into a vampire chef.
This ends, I'm sure you could guess with Quincy tied up in the bonds of some vamps. There are the makings of some good stuff here, but it all goes kind of flat somewhere around the addition of baby squirrel to the menu and Quincy donning a crazy lady dom outfit.
Not a fan of the characters in here so much, and there's nothing really sexy going on although it really seems like there should be (with a title like Tantalize....just sayin'). Oh, jebus, I forgot to tell you. None of the other werepeople turn into anything cool. Here's a thought for you: were-armadillo. Not Sexy! I want to hit this book's nose with a rolled up newspaper and say "Bad book! No were-armadillo! Bad!"
Here's the thing: I was hoping this would be some nice filler until I can read about Edward and Bella again, but it only made me miss them more. le sigh.

6 comments:

The Whirlwinds said...

Hello Again! I don't know if you've ever been memed before, but this might be your chance! I have tagged you for a spectacular meme. For rules and specifications go to my name link, then to Aella Siofra from the side bar (Post March 23rd). I hope you will deign to participate!

Cheerz,
*Aella*

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with your review of Tantalize. I thought it might be good... has a nice cover... about vampires and werewolves... but no. I mean really, were-armadillos?

Carl V. Anderson said...

The book may not be the greatest, but Wow do I love that cover!!!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that's why I originally bought it... too bad

V said...

Truthfully I gave up on anything ever filling in for Edward and Bella a long time ago, though I guess it doesn't hurt to try...

Then again, were-armadillos...you may have something there...

Ms. Yingling said...

This did not make me happy personally, but it does circulate well, and suddenly there are not enough vampire books in the world to keep my readers happy, so I did buy a copy. Guess I'm too old to "get" it.