Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith

So... vampires are popular right now, this shouldn't be a surprise. Its up in the air as to what started it - was is Buffy? Was it the books from the last 5-10 years from folks like Stephanie Meyer, Amelia Atwater Rhodes, Melissa De La Cruz, Darren Shan? So far we've seen vampire action, vampire love, vampire hunting... now enter... vampire cooking. (There was a quasi vampire cooking-baking cross over with Sunshine by Robin McKinley)

Don't get me wrong, I groaned when I read the back of the advanced readers copy (thank you publishers... the finished cover is MUCH better than the AR) - I thought perhaps vampire campiness had gone too far. However, the reality was much better than my jaded mind allowed me - and this was skepticism born of really, really loving teen horror - even the mixed sub genre in there of horror-romance.

Quincie hasn't and still isn't living an easy life; her parents died several years ago, her younger uncle is nice - but not a real adult presence in her life, on the eve of reopening her family restaurant with a hot "vampire themed" menu and atmosphere one of her closest adult friends and mentors (and head chef at the restaurant) is murdered, and Kieran, her half-werewolf/wished for boyfriend, is about to leave to join a werewolf pack - and most likely leave her life forever.

Enter Henry Johnson, average Joe, and newly hired as head chef - unfortunately for Quincie, he doesn't exactly fit the bill as "Dark Lord" of the restaurant. Can she convincingly pass him off as a vampire and successfully reopen the restaurant, are the murders after more than she originally thought, and beyond that... is it possible that Kieran is the murderer? Or, another possibility, did a real vampire find the idea of her themed restaurant too much to resist?