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Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck
Series: The Tiger Saga #1
Publication date: Januarty 11th, 2011
Pages: 403
Synopsis (according to Goodreads):
Would you risk it all to change your destiny?
The last thing Kelsey Hayes thought she'd be doing this summer was trying to break a 300-year old Indian curse. With a mysterious white tiger named Ren. Halfway around the world. But that's exactly what happened.
Face-to-face with dark forces, spellbinding magic, and mystical worlds where nothing is what it seems, Kelsey risks everything to piece together an ancient prophecy that could break the curse forever.
Packed with magic, action-adventure, and romance, the epic Tiger's Curse series will keep you breathless and yearning for more.
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Review:
Meeting a tiger and befriending it while working a temporary job at a circus was probably the furthest thing from Kelsey's mind when she took the job. Getting offered an all expense paid trip to India to a reserve for her beloved tiger, probably even further. Finding out the sleek, white tiger who has become her best friend is actually a drop-dead-gorgeous prince with a 300-year old curse? Who would think that would ever enter their realm of reality? That is what happened with Kelsey and instead of being skeptical or struggling with their new found information, she embraces it completely and takes it in stride. That may have been my first indication that I was not going to find this book enjoyable.
Ren and Kelsey venture into adventures of various proportions to find ancient artifacts to offer to an Indian goddess and break the curse. The adventures entail such bizarre things as booby-trapped temples, vicious foliage, and... vampire monkeys? Some of the things that they enountered on their trips were interesting and even something I could imagine of an ancient Indian quest, but others were just too far-fetched to keep from laughing at.
Of course, along the way Ren and Kelsey develop a love affair. Ren is very understanding and gentlemanly and Kelsey is whiny and self-destructive. I completely grasp the concept that in any good love story there needs to be obstacles for the main characters to overcome and, really, the whole being a tiger more often than human would have sufficed, but then to add in a girl who narrates every step she takes, talks to the man in the tiger form as she would a pet dog, and decides she's "not pretty enough" for Ren is just frustrating.
I found Kelsey incredibly hard to tolerate. Half the time I really wanted to jump through the pages and shake her. Not only did she have the full attention of Ren but she also sparked the interest of Ren's brother who is also suffering from the tiger curse. Yet, she still feels she is unworthy of such delectable male specimens. Very frustrating.
Kelsey truly ruined the book for me. Her character was immature and more trouble than she was worth half the time. I don't see what Ren and Kishan see in her. As I am a glutton for punishment and do wish to see how the train wreck of a romance and curse play out, I will be reading the rest of the series. I really hope this is not a foreboding sign of what the rest of the series holds.
The one good thing I will say about this book is the cover and inside filigree on the pages was absolutely beautiful. I have considered purchasing a brand new hardcover copy simply because of its outside appearance and not for the story written across its pages.
