Tantalize

I took a Young Adult writing class one semester. Since then, I've realized that not all young adult novels are terrible, or cliched.

And, of course, we all know how I feel about YA vampire novels. Until today, I never met one I didn't like.

Of course, today I did. I read Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Oh my gosh, what a disappointment.

Our protagonist is a 17 year old who is in love with a hybrid werewolf (that should have warned me off...). She's also rebuilding the family restaurant.

When her head chef (and grandfather figure) dies, a mysterious replacement comes. He begins wooing her away from her "boyfriend."

And then, somehow, with almost no warning and for sure no biting, she's suddenly a vampire. Many of the usual things about vampires aren't true, and suddenly she is introduced to a whole world of the supernatural, where there are almost no rules.

In the end, she'll sacrifice everything for...the restaurant? Really?

Yeah. That's the big disappointing ending.

It was just...odd. Too much happened with almost no explanation. The girl is hardly believable, there are no redeeming qualities by the big bad vampire, not even bad qualities. He's too...vanilla. He's not scary, not nice, not attractive...he's boring.

Disappointing.