Eternal

Series: Tantalize (#2)
Genre: Romance
Author: Cynthia Leitich Smith
Publisher: Candlewick

I've been advised that criticizing other authors on this blog could hurt my chances of getting agented. Unfortunately, I also have an obligation to my readers to be honest. And I'm terribly sorry, but there's just no easy way to say this: Cynthia Leitich Smith can't write. She got her start in children's literature, and maybe she's good at that, but YA is a different beast. While Eternal is generally an improvement on its predecessor, Tantalize, it's still light-years away from where it needs to be to stand out in the crowded YA Paranormal field.

Tantalize

Series: Tantalize (#1)
Genre: Romance
Author: Cynthia Leitich Smith
Publisher: Candlewick

Sometimes in literature, the hero will have a poorly-written love interest. You know the type: not a really defined character, little personality, even less agency in the story. She hangs around the hero a lot, just kinda being there, not really contributing anything except maybe a sex scene or two (If it's an adult book, instead of YA). Then, in the last act, she finally serves some purpose in the book by being kidnapped by the bad guy, prompting the hero to get really steamed and race to the rescue. Tantalize is this girl's story: the story of the shallow, uninteresting, totally-irrelevant-to-anything love interest. Who thought this was a good idea?