Weak and Powerless - A Perfect Circle

Blessed
Tantalize, Books 3

Author: Cynthia Leitich Smith
Pages: 454
Publisher: Candlewick

Brief Summary:
In Blessed, the storylines of Tantalize and Eternal meet up. At the end of Eternal, Zachary was assigned as the GA (guardian angel) of Quincie. With Brad apparently gone, Quincie is hurriedly hiring replacement staff, who will also be familiar to those who read the prior books, and seriously missing her best friend Kieren. Especially since his parents are now her legal guardians, meaning she has to stay at their house and hide her condition. Other than that, she just has to figure out what to do about all of the people who ate Brad's baby squirrel dessert and will be turning into vampires themselves any day now.

Review:
The storylines coming together is pretty cool. I actually had no idea that these book were a series when I read the first two a couple years ago, or, I knew they were supposed to be and was very confused to find they weren't particularly. The world that Smith created still strikes me as an interesting one, although I still wish her characters could be a little more interesting.

Quincie bothered me the slightest bit less, but mostly only because I was prepared for her annoying-ness. Her new obnoxious trait is complaining about the words people use, but not being smart enough to come up with a replacement of her own. Oy. Anyway, Kieren I still like, as much as one can, considering that he doesn't get much screen time or depth in his personality. Zachary is a bit less cool in this one, since he's trying to be good again. Miranda's gone and I didn't miss her, but I sure could have done without the constant missing of her.

I want to talk a little bit about the restaurant that Quincie owns. Sanguini's: A Very Rare Restaurant has a vampire theme. This makes for some humorous jokes and doesn't seem like something to be taken seriously. However, the restaurant does really well. What I want to know is why? The menus are completely nauseating. Note the baby squirrel dessert from the menu above. Another food featured is crickets. Why?!?

Smith decided to end this volume with a slightly happier note. This actually struck me as a bit forced; the ending seemed to wrap up to nicely, and not entirely realistically. Of course, maybe Smith is saving the real emotion punch for the end of Diabolical.

Rating: 3/5

"Desperate and Ravenous
I'm so weak and powerless over you"