Review: Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck

Tiger's Quest, Colleen Houck

Release date: 9th June 2011

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Genre: YA, Paranormal, Romance, Fantasy, Adventure  

Pages: 496

Series: The Tiger Saga

1. Tiger's Curse

2. Tiger's Quest

3. Tiger's Voyage (November 2011)

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.

This is the sequel to Tiger's Curse (which I liked a lot) and I'm finally getting around to reviewing it!

I have to say that the first 7-8 chapters didn't need to be there. They're just about how Kelsey is back home and has like three guys after her (why does she act so surprised by this? Why are most heroines surprised to have guys after them?) and is trying to live without Ren and blah blah blah. And then Ren comes back (we all knew he would!) and they spend weeks and weeks ignoring each other and trying to date. There's also some tension as Kelsey is forced to choose between her young, hot, buff martial arts teacher and Ren. (She chooses Ren, by the way. No duh!)

So then Ren gets kidnapped and Kelsey and Ren's brother Kishan have to go on a quest to retrieve some items to rescue Ren. Don't you hate love triangles? Especially when you can't choose between two hot brothers? Well, more like Kelsey is trying not to be attracted to Kishan and is trying not to like how he kisses her. But whatever.

One of my favourite characters is Mr Kadam, who is there helping Kelsey and the brothers throughout the whole book. I think he deserves an award for putting in so much effort to help Ren and Kishan. He also gives Kelsey a mansion, a snazzy car, enrols her into uni (which costs like $30k per year!) and deposits an enormous sum into her bank account. I mean, yeah, money is no problem, but isn't the university tuition enough? I thought giving Kelsey all that stuff was kind of overkill...

This book is chock full of Indian mythology and what-not. The quest is exciting and adventurous and I like how the goddess Durga is so supportive of Kelsey and her quest to break the curse. But the ending? Seriously? It just made me want to rip my hair out! Ren, you idiot! Just... just... Kill me now. I hated it. Plus, at the end, Kishan just makes Kelsey out to be the best thing on earth, which she definitely isn't. So how about that love triangle, huh?

My verdict: Tiger's Quest just wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. Truthfully, it just pissed me off because of some of the things that happened. But I will say that it's readable and I would re-read it.