Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Quincie Morris and her uncle are opening a vampire themed restaurant in Austin, Texas. When their chef gets brutally murdered they hire a new young man but there are many mysteries still surrounding the murder case. Meanwhile, Quincie's best friend Kieren, who happens to be half werewolf, is trying to sort through his and Quincie's relationship as well as find his place in the world as a half were-person. And then the more serious attacks start. People are missing left and right with no clues as to who the kidnapper/murderer is. It is up to Quincie to put all the pieces of this complicated puzzle together before everything she depends on is lost forever.

This book was not one of my favorites, but it wasn't horrible. One of the things that I liked about it was the imagery. The author did a great job describing the setting and the characters which helped redeem this book in my eyes. I felt like I could really feel the atmosphere of the book which is always a turn-on for me when I'm reading. There were a couple of things that I didn't like very much though. Specifically the undeveloped plot. I felt like there were a lot of pieces left hanging. I also didn't really fully understand the whole were-person/vampire part of the story and I wish the book had explored more into the magical perspective because that was one of the more interesting things. Also, some parts of the book were rather confusing but they mostly cleared up as I kept reading. So overall, although this book was not a favorite of mine, it wasn't extremely bad either. It had a nice general plot but could have done more with developing things. I'm hoping there might be a sequel to clear some things up but I'm not counting on it. I guess I would recommend this book because it did hold my attention while I was reading for the most part.