Yep, those YA books keep comin'. They're so short and readable!

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith is one of those books I REALLY wanted to like.

Both because of the concept (Italian restaurant meets vampire world) and because the author is awesome and her blog is awesome. I mean, she is totally a multic cultural children's literature advocate, as well as providing lots of good information for authors-to-be in her blog.

But...but....while I did enjoy the concept, the story of Tantalize just never came together for me. I don't know if its because I'm clueless or not, but there were parts in the dialogue more than once that I had to read two or three times just to understand what was goin on.

As if it was badly edited or something was cut that would have made the conversation make sense.

And while I liked the main character and I am invested in her during the story, I totally didn't feel anything regarding her feelings for the bad boy werewolf.

So, unlike Twilight, which I didn't want to like, and where I totally felt the main character's feelings for the vampire she loved, this one didn't tickle any romantic bones for me.

I would still give a sequel a chance because I like the restaurant set up so much, and because I like the author, but the book didn't do it for me.