Blessed by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Blessed by Cynthia Leitich Smith
"Quincie P. Morris, teen restaurateuse and neophyte vampire, is in the fight of her life -- or undeath. Even as she adjusts to her new appetites, she must clear her best friend and true love, the hybrid werewolf Kieren, of murder charges; thwart the apocalyptic ambitions of Bradley Sanguini, the seductive vampire-chef who "blessed" her; and keep her dead parents’ restaurant up and running. She hires a more homespun chef and adds the preternaturally beautiful Zachary to her wait staff. But with hundreds of new vampires on the rise and Bradley off assuming the powers of Dracula Prime, Zachary soon reveals his true nature -- and a flaming sword -- and they hit the road to staunch the bloodshed before it’s too late. Even if they save the world, will there be time left to salvage Quincie’s soul?"- summary from Amazon

I love this trilogy of books and how, in this one, Smith merged the casts from the previous two books, Tantalize and Eternal. She did a wonderful job doing it and it felt right. I really enjoyed revisiting these characters and I fell into a rhythm even though it's been a long time since reading both (though less time from Eternal but Blessed is mostly from Quincie's perspective from Tantalize). The book picks up where Tantalize left off and catches the reader up to speed easily.

I couldn't put this book down and I was surprised at how quickly I went through it as it's not a small book by any means (455 pages). The plot moves at a decent pace though there's some lagging bits here and there. One of the things I loved about Tantalize were the menus for Sanguini's that were included; a different set of menus is included here too and while I would never eat anything on either menu (I'm not an adventurous eater by any means, and this takes it to the stratosphere), I love the thought put into it. It's a nice touch.

I mean, I really can't say enough good things about this book and the overall trilogy. It's just so good and it ended really well. It's a wonderful series that blends vampires, were-people, and angels all together, which makes it really fun. Smith has a good time putting together the vampire lore, especially in this book.

FTC: Received ARC through the publisher. Link above is an Amazon Associate link; any profit goes toward funding contests.