Tantalize

Tantalize
Author: Cynthia Leitich Smith
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN-10: 0763627917
ISBN-13: 978-0763627911

Tantalize is a very delicious and thrilling dark fantasy. It was a page turner that kept me glued to the book till the very unexpected ending.

Quince Morris is a 17 year girl with a lot on her plate. Her parents have died, she’s living with her uncle, managing a restaurant and trying to keep it going all the while trying to get the guy she loves to see her as more than just a friend. Oh yeah and the boyfriend Kieran happens to be half werewolf.

Adding to the things she has to deal with, Quince’s boyish uncle is remodeling the restaurant to have a vampire flare and flavor – they’ve renamed it Sanguini’s – A Very Rare Restaurant. He also has a very weird girlfriend that is drives Quince crazy.

After the mysterious death of the chef and Kieran is a suspect, a new chef steps in and boy is he is creepy with his red contacts and always plying Quince with wine. His menu item – baby squirrels with honey sauce totally creeped me out. Yech!

There’s good stuff here and it’s all very original and different. Quince made a great narrator and character. The other characters in the book were different, multi-dimensional and interesting. My only disappointment was that it ended. I smell sequel!

Set in Stone

Set in Stone
Author: Linda Newbery
Publisher: David Fickling Books
ISBN-10: 0385751028
ISBN-13: 978-0385751025

Recommended for grades 8- up

Set in Stone is a very mysterious, very creepy and very thrilling modern day take on the Victorian Gothic novel. Set in a beautiful mansion in very rural England, the story begins with a young artist arriving late, walking through a lonely wood and getting to his destination only to find a young girl running out in the dark hysterically ranting about the North wind. Exciting, yes?

The artist is Samuel Godwin, hired by the owner of the mansion called Four Winds to teach his daughters Juliana and the wild Marianne. It was the beauteous Marianne whom he found the night of his arrival.

Samuel quickly becomes entrenched in the family. He feels nothing but the highest admiration for Ernest Farrow, his employer who’s appreciation for the most beautiful art appeals to Samuel’s own artistic nature. He grows fond of the girls and their plain governess Charlotte but soon becomes quite obsessed with Marianne.

He finds out soon enough that everything is not what it seems and that the house has its share of dark secrets of the nastiest sort.

The book is narrated alternately by both Charlotte and Samuel and is done in such as way as to build the mystery while providing more and more clues. The story gets darker and darker, revealing a web of deceit, lies, suicide, incest, cover ups, a secret baby and murder.

Set in Stone is a thrilling and unconventional story that is completely gripping. I couldn’t put it down.

The Dark Highlander

I picked up this nifty little book at the Del Rey booth at Comic Con and headed back to my booth happy to have something, anything to read in those sometimes slow moments at the booth. The girl at Del Rey said I’d love it, that it was really good and I have to say I had my doubts. I don’t usually read romance novels. Just not my style. However, I was blown away by this one and I’ll be picking up all this author’s titles quite soon.

The Dark Highlander is an enchanting tale of a cursed 16th century Druidic Highlander, who crossed a time portal to save his brother and in so doing, absorbed into himself 13 souls of evil and ancient Druids. He is fighting a losing battle trying to keep these evil souls from totally possessing him and bringing doom to the world. Oh yeah and the way he keeps them at bay is to lose himself in sexual pursuits.

“I am Dageus MacKeltar, a man with one good conscience and thirteen bad ones, driven to sate my darkest desires…”

This Scot is handsome, wealthy and a sex machine! Still, he tormented by the demons and determined to find a way to rid himself of them. He also has the ability to time travel into our century which he does in his search for rare manuscripts which may contain a hint of how to oust the evil souls. The Tuatha de Danan or fairy folk are also involved in this story. It was their Queen who originally trapped the evil Druids which now live inside of Dageus.

Enter Chloe Zanders, student of antiquities and lover of all things Scottish. She finds herself trapped in Daegus’s penthouse and begins to help him on his quest. A dangerous faction of modern day evil Druids are lurking and Chloe and Dageus are dodging danger everywhere.

This is a fine and involved tale and a lovely romance as well. If you’re looking for a heck of a good and entertaining time, then pick this up. I had the best time reading it.

Devil Talk: Stories by Daniel Olivas

In these startling stories, men and women are challenged and confronted with demons, both real and imagined. Some of the stories are chilling, some funny and they all leave you wanting more. They are surprising and the reader never knows what is going to happen next from one story to another or even within each story in itself.

This is the first time I have read Daniel Olivas and I was quite taken with his use of language and wry humor. A few of his stories scared the hell out of me and made my blood run cold. The story of the Devil who lives in Malibu and a demonic game of dominoes was, I think my favorite.

Mr. Olivas touches on our fears, he brings back La Llorona and the Cucui stories of our youth and he brings back that same chill that made us run for our Abuelita’s warm kitchens, hugs and a cup of champurrado.