Book Review–Tiger’s Quest by Colleen Houck

Tiger's Quest is the second book in Colleen Houck’s epic fantasy romance that began in Tiger's Curse .

Story
Kelsey has left India and Ren behind in a misguided attempt to give herself some distance and Ren time to  find himself a more worthy girlfriend.

It’s also a chance to lay low and avoid the evil Lokesh who has now become aware of the quest to break the curse and Kelsey’s part in it.

She returns to America, and thanks to Mr Kadam’s generosity she has a house, a car and her college tuition paid for.  She begins to settle in and dates other guys.

Then Ren, unable to stay away, comes to her. They are united and Kelsey realises what a twit she’s been. They are in love, happy and even Ren’s cheeky brother Kishan can’t upset the situation.

After a freak accident, however, Kelsey’s name is leaked in a newspaper story and Lokesh finds them.  A fight ensues, Ren is captured, and Kelsey and Kishan must flee back to India to pick up the quest where they left off.  If they can complete the quest, then they can rescue Ren.

But can they rescue themselves from the attraction they feel for each other?

No longer a passenger
In my review of Book 1 – Tiger's Curse , I commented that I felt Kelsey was a bit of passenger. In Tiger's Curse she was given the Gada( a magical club like weapon) by the Goddess Durga.  She was given the power to wield it but she spent most of the time letting Ren do the “manly” thumping and crushing. The answers to puzzles or mysteries that Kelsey had to figure out also seemed plucked out of the air, plot devices with no real chance for the reader to try and figure them out alongside Kelsey.

In Tiger's Quest, though, Kelsey  is gifted additional weapons and is trained in their use by her Indian guardian Mr Kaddam and we start to see a more Buffy-esque character develop.  The physical side of the quest also seems more equally shared between her and Kishan.

Now on the one hand you could argue that this is a natural progression of character…from insecure teen to a more self assured young woman. This is fantasy though and I have to ask,  if she’s the chosen of Durga and she’s handed a weapon of great power, couldn’t she be granted the skill to use it.

Sufficed to say, Kelsey gets to kick butt in this book.

Juxtapositions upset my condition

I can see the loving research that has gone into this book, the cultural and travel information is comprehensive.  Unfortunately I could see it too well. There’s an art to blending background colour into a novel and in a number of instances I found that I was dropped out of the story by ill-fitted blocks of information juxtaposed with the narrative.  I won’t be as rude to say that some sections were copy and pasted from a travel guide but it felt that way.  I am aware though that I am an experienced reader and might spot info dumps where younger  less experienced readers might not notice or care. Nonetheless it irked me on more than one occasion.

The second juxtaposition, if you will, was the inclusion of other myths and legends – Biblical and Northern European alongside an epic Indian Fantasy.  Again I can appreciate Houck’s love of history and culture but I found this adventure swung away from Indian myth and legend and roped in Noah’s ark Shangri-la, Fairies and Norse myth.  It was a case of too many myths spoiling the broth.  I lost the sense of the mysterious, the freshness, that comes with learning about a culture that I have no real background in.

Finally I had trouble in the believability of Kelsey’s  relationship with Ren.  She pines for him romantically but I didn’t feel a strong sense of concern for his wellbeing.  She seems more worried about the presence of Kishan and developing feelings for him than fearing for Ren being tortured at the hands of Lokesh.  Perhaps this was a pacing issue?

Ruminations and recommendations

So it’s no surprise then to find Tiger's Quest isn’t my cup of tea. As a young adult adventure I find it a bit long.  I think it could have been a hundred pages shorter and moved a bit quicker.  I don’t mind a good romance but I felt the dates Kelsey endures at the beginning were a bit superfluous.

It’s a good safe read for your teen, nothing past a kiss and a cuddle.

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This book was a review copy provided by the publisher
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Book Review–Tiger’s Curse by Colleen Houck

Tiger's Curse is Colleen Houck’s first novel.  Its first release was as a digital offering on Amazon where it sat at the top of the Children’s Best Seller rankings for 7 weeks.  It’s subsequently gone on to become a new york times best seller.  It’s published in Australia by Hodder.

The Tale
Kelsey Hayes has  finished High School and is facing a summer of temp work while she decides what to do with her life.  She’s carries a bit of baggage, – the loss of her parents and the emotional scaring that it brings, but on the whole she’s your average young adult ready to see what the big wide world has to offer.

  She lands a job with a visiting circus as a spare pair of hands for two weeks.  It’s from this point on her life begins to take an unexpected turn.  She falls in love with the circus’ white tiger; captivated by his calm demeanour, blue eyes and almost human sentience. 

We soon find out that not all is as it seems with the Tiger Dhiren or Ren for short, he’s a cursed Indian prince, trapped in Tiger form until the one who can free him comes along.  The one happens to be Kelsey and Tiger's Curse takes the reader on an adventure to India, modern and mythological, as Mr Kadam (Ren’s manservant and adviser), Kelsey and Ren attempt to unravel clues to break the curse. There’s magic, adventure and romance as Kelsey and Ren are thrown together.

 An epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more?
I am aware that I am not the target demographic for Tiger's Curse , but the fact that a book is written for teens is should not excuse it for what I see as some of its faults.  I wasn’t breathless (frustrated at points certainly) and I don’t yearn to read the next volume -though I have it and hope to see some growth in Houck’s writing.

The romance in this fantasy-romance was the strongest part of the novel, at least until the end where I found the somewhat juvenile bickering and melodrama could have been resolved(then to be ripped asunder by an evil and ingenious plot device).  

Kelsey is, to my mind, too cynical of love, for someone who is experiencing real lust/love for the first time. She acts like someone who has had her heart broken too many times and displays wisdom that I think only comes with having loved and lost (romantically – I don’t think the loss of her parents translates). 

I felt that it was right for her to have misgivings and doubts, to be a little bit scared of her first real relationship but her continued rebelling against her own desires and Ren’s obvious interest in her felt distinctly unrealistic.  Towards the end of the novel Ren’s speech about having watched human society over 300 years, and knowing what he wanted should have convinced Kelsey that Ren was an adult who could make up  his own mind.  As I hinted above, I think the romantic tension between the two should have been resolved here, only to have them pulled apart somehow, leaving the reader on a cliff hanger.

Indiana Jones meets Twilight
The above is a pitch from Houck herself.  Tiger’s Curse can be compared to the Spielberg/Lucas classic in as much as there are temples, jungles, booby traps and hidden artefacts.  The element that it lacked, at least for me, was the suspense.  The adventure is fairly linear – they do some research, got to a site discover a secret door or unravel a puzzle.

In unravelling clues or finding secret passages, success seemed to be achieved through happenstance as opposed to intelligence.  I think there was a chance missed here, to draw the reader in, to get them to figure out some of the mystery along with the characters.

Despite the booby traps and mythological dangers I never felt that Kelsey or Ren were in any danger. Indeed the only danger to Kelsey was that her overly stubborn denial of her love for Ren would dash any chance she’s have with him.  The various physical trials they had to pass seemed to be overcome with relative ease.

For the favoured of a goddess Kelsey ain’t no slayer.
Kelsey is set up as some fated saviour to the cursed Ren.  In that role though, she seems to rarely step beyond that of a plot device.  Other than being a compassionate person she doesn’t bring much else to the table (in the way of skills). 

Early in the story we find out that she is the favoured of Durga and she is granted a magical weapon, the Gada which she wields with ease, yet Mr Kadam (who plays somewhat of a Mr Miyagi to Kelsey’s Daniel-san, or so I thought)  finds difficult to lift. I was thinking at this point Kelsey was going to become a weapon wielding avatar.

I felt like we were being set-up for some buffy-esque heroine who under the tutelage of Mr Kadam would project a strong female figure - a young woman that could fall in love with her handsome Indian Tiger-man prince and able to handle herself.

Indeed I could see some possibilities for conflict between ancient Indian concepts of gender roles and modern American ones.  The reader is even given a backstory to Mr Kadam, who was the Kings military strategist and proficient in several fighting arts.  The mansion in which they live had a fully equipped training room, bedecked with ancient weapons. 

Alas though, it’s Ren  that uses the Gada, it’s Ren gets them out of any physical danger. Kelsey appears to be just along for the ride, a passenger.

A vacation for readers
I appreciate what Houck was trying to do in exposing young American readers to another culture. The execution of this left a little bit to be desired .   There were a couple of very blatant info dumps that read like they were written for a non fiction piece or a travel book, wedged into awkward pieces of dialogue.  It did get better though, the scene where Kadam is touring around the old palace and reminiscing, felt very natural.

To appreciate a different culture there has to be some interaction with it, we get plenty of references to Indian cuisine and dress but it feels a bit superficial.  As mentioned above I think Houck might have missed an opportunity to present conflicts between American and Indian culture.

Did nobody see?
I don’t get too worried about typo’s, nowadays, especially with eBooks and the rush to do parallel releases in all formats.  Traditional publishing is no longer a guarantee(Was it ever?) that the book, whatever container it comes in will be without error. 
I can forgive formatting errors, I can forgive repeated phrases and goodness knows I publish my fair share of grammatical errors.  For the life of me though I can’t understand how the following made it through the  a) author b) thousands of readers c) professional editors.

‘Back then Kishan and I tried to avoid each other as much as possible back then.’
page 287 Tiger’s Curse

Final thoughts

The book is YA and from the reaction from Teen readers, it’s been pretty well received in that demographic. So who am I to argue with success?  I am aware that I bring experience from life and from reading that teen readers won’t have. I do, however, think that Houck can do better and I think that teen girls deserve a little bit more from their heroines than a passenger with confused romantic notions.

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This book is a review copy provided by Hodder at no cost to myself.

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