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, spell-binding 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. Tiger’s Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.
Back in Oregon, Kelsey tries to pick up the pieces of her life and push aside her feelings for Ren. But danger lurks around the corner, forcing her to return to India where she embarks on a second quest--this time with Ren's dark, bad-boy brother Kishan, who has also fallen prey to the Tiger's Curse. Fraught with danger, spellbinding dreams, and choices of the heart, TIGER'S QUEST brings the trio one step closer to breaking the spell that binds them.
With the head-to-head battle against the villainous Lokesh behind her, Kelsey confronts a new heartbreak: in the wake of his traumatic experience, her beloved Ren no longer remembers who she is. As the trio continues their quest by challenging five cunning and duplicitous dragons, Ren and Kishan once more vie for her affections--leaving Kelsey more confused than ever.
With three of the goddess Durga's quests behind them, only one prophecy now stands in the way of Kelsey, Ren, and Kishan breaking the tiger's curse. But the trio's greatest challenge awaits them: A life-endangering pursuit in search of Durga's final gift, the Rope of Fire, on the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal. It's a race against time--and the evil sorcerer Lokesh--in this eagerly anticipated fourth volume in the bestselling Tiger's Curse series, which pits good against evil, tests the bonds of love and loyalty, and finally reveals the tigers' true destinies once and for all.
Now, I'm what you would call a "hard pleaser" when it comes to books. More so than not, I read books that are average. It's getting harder to find books that go beyond my initial expectations. However, these beauties do exactly that. When I go into the book store, I usually look at the books on the shelf, then go straight to my iPhone to see if it is worthy of my purchase. I usually go to my trusty sidekick: Goodreads to answer all of my foreseen questions.
For those of you who don't know what Goodreads is, let me explain. This website is a place where you can go to find books and reviews from other people that have read them. It's usually great when you are searching for your next reading project. This is my go to place when I am in desperate need to find a book under a certain genre. It has all sorts of categories to draw you in. I would certainly recommend using this site.
Anyways, I usually tend to stay towards 3.5 and above stars when searching a book that has caught my eye. However, if I see a not so good review, and I have all the time in the world, I will ask other people that I know if they have read the book, and if they liked it, I might end up straying towards that book again.
When I came across the Tiger's Curse series by Colleen Houck, I saw that the last book in the series had just come out. I, being the impulse buyer that I am, bought it without hesitating as soon as I saw that it had above a 4 star book rating, a magnificently beautiful cover, and a thicker than average length.
I immediately went home and threw my face into the first book for the next five or six hours. By the time I finished the book, I had forgotten that night had descended, and was well into the morning. The first book had a ton of twists and turns that kept me at a wow factor. It is a great book to read when you're out on the beach, or just want something light. Colleen Houck did a splendid job with her research about the Indian culture, Hinduism, and mythology. There was a ton of ancient stories that you could tell were researched, and put into one amazing sequence of books.
It had the traditional love story/love triangle thing going on, but you know how at certain times, something happens or someone says something to make your stomach twist into a knot? Well Houck had me feeling like I was falling in love for the very first time, and there were butterflies fluttering everywhere. But it didn't stop there. Each book got better as the series went along. Granted, I couldn't finish those books as fast as the first, but they were worth reading.
Usually when I don't binge read on a book, I lose a little bit of interest when I go back to it, but these just made me anticipate getting home from work, eating dinner, taking a shower, and finally sitting on my bed and reading for a couple of hours.
I would definitely suggest this book for anyone that likes reading fiction books of mythical genres. This is a book that is considered "young adult," (YA genre) but people in their 20s could still get away with reading and enjoying this book, as well as older humans that like books like Twilight or Harry Potter. What makes this book even better is that it doesn't have ANYTHING to do with vampires, werewolves, witches, etc. It has to do with a magical curse, cultures, and tigers, and let's be honest, who doesn't like tigers? I just like the fact that this author had the talent to come up with something original.
Overall, I would give this series a 4 out of 5 stars. I really did like this book, but at some points, the sequence of events were a little too cliché and very predictable for my taste. I also did not like the point of view that it was written in. I, as a professional reader, like to see more than a journal-type book. Writing in a 3rd person point of view as opposed to a 1st person POV makes the storyline less limited, and also makes the author think about more than what is on the person's mind at every page of the book. I find it a ton more difficult to write in a 3rd person POV, because there is a lot more detail and thought that goes with each chapter. I also do not have to limit myself to one person's thoughts and feelings, and can still maintain a book that is clearly still about them.
So, to sum up my thoughts, Tiger's Curse series = THUMBS UP!
This concludes my book review, now I'm going to go back and reread the series (thanks to my own superb review)!
Questions:
What other books can I pick up to read and review?
If you've read these books, what are your thoughts on them?
~Alhana
If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
-Oscar Wilde
