Tantalize (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Following her parents' death, Quincie Morris was left in her Uncle Davidson's care, and the fate of the family's Italian restaurant was left in hers. Now 17, Quincie, who narrates, and her uncle have renamed the place Sanguini's. They've remodeled it with a "vampire theme," which they believe will sell in their Texas college town since "vampires are a fringe population, and Austin is a tolerant place." A month before the grand re-opening, however, the longtime chef is mauled to death in the kitchen, and the murder suspect is a werewolf. Quincie finds this problematic, since her lifelong best friend and love interest, Kieren, is a "hybrid werewolf" who traces his lupine heritage to the wolves that roamed Ireland with St. Patrick. A new chef shows up who may be talented but is also spooky, with red contact lenses, pale hair and a menu featuring sweetbreads, blood sausage and baby squirrels in honey cream sauce. Best known for her Native American stories, Smith uses advertisements, newspaper clippings and menu pages to liven the pace, and creates palpable tension in the novel's second half. Quincie's story hews closer to the campy Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes (e.g., " 'You ate the police?!' I exclaimed") than to the elegant romanticism of Stephenie Meyer's books, but horror fans will be hooked by Kieren's quiet, hirsute hunkiness, and Texans by the premise that nearly everybody in their capitol is a shapeshifter. Ages 14-up. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up–Orphaned at 13, Quince Morris, now 17, has been living with her Uncle Davidson and managing the family's restaurant. Her best friend and the love of her life, Kieran, is a werewolf in training who can not fully control the monster in him. As a result he will not return her affection for fear of the harm he could do to her. Within weeks of the grand reopening of the new vampire-themed restaurant, chaos breaks out. The chef is brutally murdered werewolf style, thus making Kieran a possible suspect. Quince has a month to transform the newly hired chef, Brad, into Sanguini's vampire extraordinaire and at the same time deal with the fact that Kieran is abandoning her to join his own wolfpack and that Brad is making advances. Readers will be tantalized by this dark, romantic, and disturbing fantasy of vampires, werewolves, and a strong no-nonsense heroine. Fans of Stephenie Meyer and Annette Curtis Klause will eat it up.–Donna Rosenblum, Nassau Boces School Library System, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Candlewick (February 13, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0763627917
• ISBN-13: 978-0763627911
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (79 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #83,322 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #42 in

  Books > Teens > Horror

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting..., March 29, 2007

By	K. Gilligan "avid reader" (Haddon Heights, NJ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon recommended this book to me, so I decided to check it out. The cover art immediately drew my eye, as well as the title. "Tantalize" by Cynthia Leitich Smith has an interesting premise. The main character is Quincie Morris, a regular girl with a werewolf bestfriend. Well, they'd like to be more than friends, but let's not get into that... Quincie's uncle has decided to remodel the family restaurant with a vampire them. It's going swimmingly until the head chef is found dead; the police suspect a werewolf to be the culprit.

I agree with some of the other reviewers who stated that the first half of the book was the best. I liked Kieren, and wished we had seen more of him. The new chef, Brad, was a pretty good character, and his two menus (Predator and Prey) for the restaurant were neat. I'm not sure what bugged me about the end of the book. Again, I agree with other reviewers when they say it isn't on par with Twilight. I think it was kind of in the middle of serious and lighthearted which confused me. One minute people are joking around, and the next minute somebody else is dead. And after the first death (of the head chef), none of the characters really seemed to care.

I'm not sure I'd recommend this to somebody else. If you're looking for serious vampire/werewolf stories, check out Stephenie Meyer's books. If you'd like lighthearted vampire/werewolf stories, check out books by Charlaine Harris. Specifically the first book in her Sookie Stackhouse series: Dead Until Dark (Southern Vampire Mysteries, Bk. 1)

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't give in to your blood-lust for this book. It's not worth it., May 11, 2007

By	M. Gadd - See all my reviews

*Mild Spoilers*
I normally don't choose or reject a book based on customer reviews. Readers have different tastes and different expectations, so a book can simultaneously please and displease an audience. Much to my REGRET, I ignored the customer reviews I'd read and went ahead and read the book. Like other reviewers have stated, the premise of the novel was intriguing, but the narration lost steam around half-way, it's sellable wit making way for the tight, mindless, and sexual voice of the second half. These weaknesses would have been bearable if not for the terrible, rushed, hopeless ending. The conflict was resolved with a promise from the villain, a sadistic but sexy vampire. The heroine's inner struggle ended with a realization of her lasting love for Kieren, love that she'd already realized though never vocalized. Basically, evil wins, an ending so uncharacteristic for a YA novel that I questioned my dislike of the novel. Was there a higher purpose? Was the author aiming to create a tolerant fable without a moral, or a "realistic" view of a dark world? Whatever her aim, I found the novel an empty experience, the overall hook being the sensual/sexual content, content that upon reflection I didn't want or need to read. Good things: It was a quick read. The author shows maturity in her writing (good thing, her bio says she's on the staff for an MFA creative writing program). And, I never felt talked down to.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Promising Premise..., February 28, 2008

By	Tamela Mccann "taminator1" (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I, like many others, had Tantalize recommended to me by Amazon and decided the premise sounded promising enough to give it a go. Now, after finishing it, I'm feeling let down and disappointed that what started off as a strong addition to the vampire/shapeshifter genre drifted into a tale at odds with its beginning.

Quincie is a senior in high school, but rather than doing the normal teenage things, she is helping her guardian uncle relaunch the family restaurant with a hip new vampire theme. She's in love with her best friend, Kieren, who is a werewolf, and who seems to be afraid to return the affection. When the head chef is murdered in the restaurnt before the opening, Quincie's organized life takes a turn when Bradley, a young chef, takes his place. Suddenly her beloved uncle is ignoring her, other people are turning up dead, and Bradley rapidly becomes the person Quincie can confide in when she realizes Kieren is going to be leaving soon to join a wolf pack.

I enjoyed the first part of this novel very much, even if I did have problems with the encouragement of Quincie's drinking by the adults in her life. But my doubts began to grow as it seemed no adult was taking any of the necessary precautions to protect Quincie; the doubts multiplied as I realized I was no longer liking anyone involved in the story because none of them were behaving well. When the story turned into forced vampirism (for no good reason I could tell), complete with some sexual innuendo that was out of line for Quincie, I started thinking perhaps the author hadn't known which way to go with her novel so she made it up as she went along. How else to explain holes in the story big enough to drive a car through? Fantasy or not, Quincie couldn't explain everything that happened to a reasonable adult and expect to be allowed to remain outside of a mental hospital or a prison. I can't let go of the fact that this novel, which started out so strongly, ended in a muddled mess. Three stars only because I've read other books by Ms. Smith and enjoyed them; this one is a big letdown.