Tiger's Curse: Tiger Saga Book 1 (Tiger's Curse, #1)

by Colleen Houck

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.

• ISBN10: 1444734601
• ISBN13: 9781444734607
• Publish Date: 26 May 2011 (first published 22 September 2009)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Imprint: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 512
• Language: English

Reviews

[tweetybugshouse]

This unique series draws you by the stunning cover and rich descriptions of Indian culture and mythology.  Centering around a pair of brothers who are cursed to be tigers and one girl destined to save them and maybe fall in love with one or both.  

I was wrapped up in this story from the first pages, colleen does a great job of describing all the various places that Kelsey and her tiger travel to as she trys to break the curse binding the two brothers as tigers.  The emotion as she struggles with being away from home and traveling around a foreign country are felt on every page.  Not only the emotions from being in a foreign land but also the relationship that is developing between her and someone who is over 300 years old.  

I am intrigued and ready to find out what happens next in Tiger's Quest.

[nannah]

This is probably the worst book I've read all year. I've seen it recommended on everyone's "diverse book" lists, so of course I had to pick it up. But it's bad. It's just . . . really bad.

Book content warnings:
unhealthy relationships
extremely possessive men in relationships
racism

Kelsey Hayes is an incredibly ridiculous white woman who out of everyone in the world, is the Chosen One of an Indian goddess to break the curse on an Indian prince. And if this sounds like some mighty white savior syndrome, you're right! This book has an incredibly bad case of it. The author, Colleen Houck, is also white. Do I think the book's racism/white savior syndrome is intentional? No, but that doesn't make it any less harmful.

So Kelsey is tracked down by this Indian prince's knights (now secretary) and goes to India with them to break the curse (because that's normal, right? And her foster parents are totally cool with it right away). The prince, nicknamed Ren, is under a curse that has transformed him into a tiger, except for twenty-four minutes out of every day.

And that's it, that's the plot. There's no urgent, driving force for the rest of the book. Characters even mention, "there's no rush, take your time" multiple times. That's not an engaging plot! The plot is the driving force behind a book, driving characters, motives, etc. This thing wandered and wandered. Kelsey did something stupid, then romance happened. That's literally the outline.

The main focus of this book is the developing relationship between Kelsey and Ren. However, that relationship is not healthy. In the beginning it disturbed me so much I remember pausing to comment that I hoped Ren would turn out to be the villain! As the book went on, this feeling only intensified. Ren is extremely possessive and frightening. Sure, some of it might be intentional, as the two parted at the end, , but it's still obvious that they're meant to be romanticized by the reader. But with lines like "I won't let you leave", "[. . .] do you think I'd simply let you go? Let you walk out of my life without a backward glance?", "I know what you're thinking, and I'm not going to let you escape again. You can either take a seat and have dinner with me like a normal date. Or, you can sit on my lap while I force-feed you.".

No, this sounds like someone you'd file a restraining order on.

Besides all this, the writing is awful. Not only is it purely functional, it's just bad writing. Don't take my word for it, though. Take a look at this:

"'Ren, stop! The branches are scratching us. They have needles underneath that follow our movements. They're the thorny grasping dangers! We have to run or they'll ensnare us!'"

And finally, I'll just end with the worst of it: the racism. This review is already negative enough, but the racism and ignorance really made this book hard to read. First, we have Ren, who's Indian and . . . . as he states in the book: Asian? He literally says he's biracial because his mother was Asian. I hate to break it to you, Colleen Houck . . . but India is in Asia. She keeps insisting Asia is this separate place from India? And insists Asia is one single place? I know she's thinking East Asia, but ohhh, that's just so ignorant and annoying. If you mean East Asia (or specifically China), just say it. This whole white people thinking Asia = E. Asia is a narrow-minded line of thinking that many Asians have been trying to end.

And then in the second half, for some reason Houck decides to add in a Japanese creature to an Indian spirit world (and says they're Chinese??). It takes a VERY SIMPLE google search to find out kappa are Japanese creatures, not Chinese. Mixing them with Indian religion/mythology really adds nothing to the book, especially since it only happens once during the entire novel.

Except for the villain, every Indian character has golden skin and non-brown eyes. Hmmmm. Ren has blue eyes, his brother has golden eyes, and another has violet eyes. What's wrong with brown eyes and brown skin? Not to mention Ren is a white tiger, and his brother (the betrayer) is a black tiger and described as "darker" when human.

This whole book is just a mess, and I'm so astonished the book has so many fans.

[anne]

Found this book very slow

[inlibrisveritas]

Tiger’s Curse was one of those books I had my eye on for years but never picked up or for whatever reason decided against purchasing. I’d been dying to crack it open and find out what hid behind the really pretty cover. So I’m kind of sad that the book left me so cold towards it.

The overall story is interesting enough and combined with the rather simple writing it was easy to get through in about six hours. However it kind of lacked the drive and depth when it came to evoking my emotions. Instead of screaming at Kelsi or Ren or cheering them on I found myself merely commenting on how interesting something was because I was so detached from it. The story also seems to cover very little ground in 400 pages and while it wasn’t boring, I wish there were more to it. We do get to see India in it’s rich beauty and history , along with some interesting myths. The writing was very formal and felt stilted even during conversations. I felt like some of the explanations were more of travel book entries than actual description, it felt kind of generic. The conversations were really tough though. I could understand Mr. Kadam or Kishan speaking in a formal way because English is not their first language however Kelsi did it more than they did and I found it very hard to believe that an 18 year old would always be so formal and the few times she did break the habit felt weird.

Kelsi definitely seems like a main character I could like if she had been given more dimension. She was down-to-earth and really sweet, but she has her flaws when it comes to self-confidence…and her sarcasm was kind of unneeded most of the time. Ren was quite interesting though he lost more points than he gained once he actually started talking at length. He started out as a really sweet person who was extremely grateful and had a playful side, but the more he got to talk toward the end of the book the less I liked him. He became kind of insufferable at times. Kishan doesn’t get a lot of time in this one but he seems to be the obvious opposite to Ren, he’s automatically suave and charming…and incredibly good at goading Ren. But other than that I don’t feel like I know him.

I’m really upset I didn’t enjoy this one more than I did and I’m not sure if I’ll continue. I want to but I’m scared that it won’t improve.

[Chelsea]

When I started this book I was a little worried. I found that the writing skills just weren’t up to the skills of the writers I usually read. The way the characters talked sometimes drove me crazy which is basically the only reason it didn’t get a full five stars. It’s little things in the writing that really help a reader to get into it. Nobody talks so formally all the time so neither should the characters in the book. The writing was a little simple I guess is what I’m saying. Except when the author was describing something, there was too much writing. Besides that it wasn’t really a bad book.

The whole idea for this book was really unique! The plot was cool and fun and the characters were mostly great. I loved the play on shapeshifting being a curse they have to lift and I LOVED the romance between Kelsey and Ren. I was a little confused at the kind of love triangle going on between Ren, Kelsey and Kishan. It was weird, abrupt and shouldn’t have been in there. I also loved how the setting was in India, that’s not something you see too often, and there was a lot of cool information about Indian religion and myths. I found near the end of the book though it switched from being a huge crazy adventure to just romance which threw me off a little bit.

I found the main character, Kelsey, a little stupid. She trusts this guy of out nowhere to bring her across the world. He then gives her a bunch of hiking stuff and throws her out into the jungle but she’s still cool with that apparently. The author wanted her to seem innocent but to me she was just annoying. There has been worse characters though so it didn’t ruin the book. I loved Ren. Firstly, he’s a tiger so what’s not to love. Secondly, he’s just really attractive and I don’t understand why Kelsey doesn’t want to be with him. One more thing to add to her annoying traits list. I wish the other brother, Kishan, was in the book more though because he was pretty attractive as well. Either way I’d definitely recommend this book!

[ladygrey]

For the majority of this book I just kept thinking that 13 year old me would have loved this book. There's adventures and romance and tigers. What more could you want? Well, adult me wanted a more sophisticated writing style and its over described in a pedestrian way but I got used to it about half way through.

And I knew this was part of a series and I was really hoping [author:Colleen Houck] wasn't going to drag getting all four of the gifts out and of course she did. But even that I would have been fine with if Kelsey hadn't taken that completely irrational turn two thirds of the way through.

I actually liked her as a very normal girl who chose to be brave and compassionate and she was a nice little heroine. She came across as fifteen instead of eighteen, in part because the simplistic writing style made her sound immature. But also then that stupid turn she takes that makes no sense at all and feels incredibly contrived. And annoying. And once she makes that turn she handles it horribly, acting incredibly juvenile. And then Houck tries to give her this bs reason that sounds all selfless and noble but really she's just insecure and afraid. It was very annoying.

Oh! and she braids her hair and ties it off with ribbons. It's not quite a French braid and only my book club girls will appreciate it. But it had to be mentioned.

It's also a good story and mostly really pretty good characters. And I like how unique it is. And I probably wouldn't have been nearly as annoyed with it if I'd had read it when I was 13. So you know I'm going to read the next one just to see what happens.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

This review is also posted at Pages Unbound Book Reviews.

Source: ARC

Review:Tiger’s Curse sets itself up with an interesting premise and setting, but the book fails to live up to its promise. From the start, the writing is noticeably bad. The dialogue sounds fake and any sort of “showing” is completely lacking; readers must rely solely on Kelsey’s statements about whether things are frightening, intriguing, attractive, etc. because the descriptions and pacing that would bring those senses to readers do not exist.

Because of the poor writing, and also poor characterization, it is clear early on that if the novel is to succeed, it must do so on the merits of its plot alone. Unfortunately, it does not. Kelsey and Ren go on some standard quests that they complete too easily and which are not particularly fascinating. I skimmed what were probably intended to be some of the most intense scenes of the book because there is no real urgency and the obstacles the two face are not particularly unique or well-described.

Kelsey, however, is the novel’s greatest problem. Although she is eighteen and preparing to enter her first year of college, she sounds absurdly unintelligent and immature. Furthermore, she is incredibly passive, and often sits around tanning or drinking lemonade while other people do the real work—making camp, solving the mysterious prophecy, etc. Basically, her presence is necessary for the tiger’s curse to be defeated, but she is otherwise of no real value. Frustratingly, the other characters, even those who are not the love interests, tend to praise Kelsey for her most annoying actions. She’ll make a particularly obvious observation, and someone will beamingly praise her for her unparalleled intelligence. The novel puts a lot of effort telling readers how clever and brave and heroic Kelsey is, but she always exhibits the exact opposite qualities.

The one place Tiger’s Curse shines is the romance—but only on Ren’s end. He is fairly swoon-worthy, a handsome cursed prince always interested in Kelsey’s comfort and safety. I could imagine some readers finding him “over-protective,” but I never did, perhaps because Kelsey’s foolishness merits people needing to constantly watch over her. He also has some beautifully romantic lines and scenes.

Kelsey, however, is another matter, as she immaturely decides Ren cannot possibly love plain little her and decides to push him away. Instead of perhaps discussing it with him or believing he has the intelligence necessary to make up his own mind about such things. Such forced “drama” is always annoying in books, as it is an obvious ploy to build false suspense by dragging the romance out over a series. This time, however, it really backfires because Ren’s romantic gestures are the only things I like, and apparently they will be missing from the second book. I won’t be reading it.

There are a lot of good ratings for this book, and it certainly has its share of fans. If you are looking for a bit of romance, you will find it here, and it’s pretty good. If you want anything else from the book, you’ll have a bit of trouble.

[reveriesociety_]

It was amazing, i really liked the Indian setting, but it got boring at times, sometimes I found myself skipping some paragraphs about things hat I wasn't really interested about. I also liked the romance between Dhiren and Kelsey, it wasn't insta-love exactly, it took it's time to develop, and even though Kelsey left me completely frustrated at the end, I enjoyed it. BOOK TWO PEOPLE!

[nitzan_schwarz]

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Believe it or not - this is the much shortened version of this review... 

Can you shout MEH loud enough? 

I was immediately snared by Tiger's Curse gorgeous cover. Learning it was about shape-shifting tigers and Indian culture? William Blake's The Tiger as an opening poem??? Sounded like a shoe-in for me. So much so, that I bought all three books in series at once (it was before the final or maybe-not-final one came out).

If there was one thing this book made me feel, and often, is exasperated. Frustrated. Angry. Occasionally, it would also incite a more positive range of emotions, like a bit of tingling here and there, laughter, and nerves, so it really wasn't all bad.

We'll start with the good: Right of the bat, the most fascinating thing about this book is the culture it presents.The book takes a refreshing turn to the tried and well used plot line of "girl finds herself a chosen one in the middle of a magical world and goes on a dangerous adventure with a gorgeous magical boy" by showcasingIndian mythology.

Everything from the description of the clothes, the weapons, the gods and the culture was delightful to read of. Enough so that I googled quite a bit of them, so I could picture them correctly in my head.

It was hands down the best thing about this whole book, though I did later learn that many of the "facts", mythology and culture presented in these books are not quite accurate.

The girl in question is Kelsey, whom I liked enough... at first. There was nothing overly special about her, but I did find her funny, nice and smart. But then she got annoying. Like, over-thinking, pushing the guy away by being obnoxious towards him for no reason annoying. Despite everyone reassuring her about her worries.

To me, Kelsey kind of redeemed herself towards the end. I expected to hate her decision (which I knew in advance because I had myself spoiled by the sequel's synopsis), but found myself feeling like it was handled correctly, because it felt like the right choice for Kelsey in the place where she was at the end of the book.

The guy she's pushing away and being occasionally a jerk towards? His name is Ren. He was pretty swoony, I admit. He's an adorable tiger, and a sweet and gentlemany man. He speaks in an old fashioned way and isn't afraid to say anything. Mostly, he says things no real boys of our times will say--or rather be willing to say.

And I loved how he wasn't afraid to tell Kelsey he loved her.  

Obviously the main romance of the story is between these two characters. I felt like it started really well - it was both sweet and cute, depending on whether they were tiger and "owner" or man and woman. I was pleasantly surprised at how long it took to develop considering the type of book this is (though I would still have liked for more time to pass), and how Houck structured everything to make the illusion more time had passed--and how she made Kelsey admit they were rushing ahead.

However, once Kelsey's worrying and moaning started, I was feeling a little meh about it all. We'll have to see where it develops to. 

Always alongside Kelsey and Ren is Mr. Kadam, who is the older mentor for our main characters. Every bit of information we get in this book comes from this guy. He shares some amazing stories from the Indian culture, which as I said before was my favorite part of the story.

And did I mention that he cooks, reads, knows how to fight, and ages really well? He just may be the perfect man!

The final cast member we're introduced to is Kishan, Ren's estranged brother. He was in the book for a short while, but you could already tell he was very different from his sibling. His attraction towards Kelsey was a bit jarring though, considering they've known each other for a week. I couldn't help but wonder if he was interested just because Ren was, trying to re-create his former "success" against his brother.

And of course, one also has to mention the none-existing villain Lokesh whom we see 3 times during this entire 500 pages long book. None of which are actual appearances, but more like visions and flashbacks. It's hard to be afraid of someone who thought a good curse would be to turn his enemies to tigers--with a grace period, no less.

I mean, he clearly hasn't read the evil-villain handbook. First lesson on it is kill your enemies if you capture them. But if you're looking for more flair, turning them into deadly animals that can bite your throat off is not a valid option! Turn them into harmless bunnies if you must turn them into anything - that way you could torture them with eternal humiliation and they couldn't really hurt you.

Can you tell I'm a little touchy about this whole thing?

Another highly disappointing thing was the action. It took a looong time to get to it, and when we did there were a ton of exciting problems - with solutions that didn't deliver. Everything was resolved much too easily, with the first idea always being the correct one (even if it was extremely silly). So either it was too easy, or Kelsey was made much too smart.

Speaking of this, I have to mention the writing and the editing.

The editing, at the very least in my edition (Hodder), was god-awful. I'm not one to usually notice these type of thing, but Kelsey's thoughts were sometimes said in past-tense, sometimes in present. Words jumped lines in some places, and in other's paragraphs continued for pages without break. And the freakin' fonts. My god, curly handwriting is pretty and all--but some of it was completely unreadable to me!

Even without the faulty editing, I did not enjoy the writing style of this book. At parts Houck's details helped weave these magical, beautiful pictures that took my breath away, at others I simply drowned in the description, and had to read the same paragraph a couple of times or give up all together. 

I felt like Houck lacked the balance between creating an image in our head and trying to make us see an exact replica of what she saw, down to how the freakin' faucet looks like. I really don't care about that damn faucet.

And the dialogues were sometimes... odd. It was wooden and unnatural at times (especially Kelsey's), and had the Dora-The-Explorer effect every time someone said a "big word" in another language. People don't do that in real life. Usually, when foreigners move to their native tongue, it's because they can't figure out the counterpart in English. So naturally, they aren't going to translate for the convenient of your readers. Be authentic, or don't do it at all. 

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[Ashley]

As posted on booknook - Young Adult book reviews

I have a confession to make. I picked up Tiger's Curse. I opened it up to the first page of actual text (passed the title page, copyright page, etc.). And I laughed.

Yes, I laughed.

Why? Because it started off with a poem by William Blake: Tiger! Tiger! burning bright in the forests of the night.. Has anyone here seen the TV show The Mentalist? If you have, you'll know why I laughed. If not, just know that there's nothing wrong with that poem, it's just that a psychotic serial killer is obsessed with it in The Mentalist. So my first thought while starting this book was of that psychotic serial killer.

So, moving on!

This is a giggle book. If you don't know what that means, see below.

If a book is really good, I giggle while I read it. I don't necessarily giggle because there's a funny part in the book; I giggle because it's just that awesome. I giggle when something intense happens, I shriek and scream when the romance bits get swoon-a-licious, I giggle hysterically when the plot is progressing and heating up and getting OH MY GOD SO INTENSE I CANNOT FLIP THESE PAGES FAST ENOUGH!

Yeah. That's a giggle book.

Supposedly Twilight is what really inspired Collen Houck to write Tiger's Curse, so naturally there are a lot of comparisons between the two books. I'll just address that really quickly. :P If you just want to get on with the review, skip to the next paragraph! There are a few similarities between Twilight and Tiger's Curse, but they're mostly in the details. For example, both Bella and Kelsey love reading, poetry, and the classics. They both seem to enjoy just sitting around and reading. They're both also very independent. Then of course there's a love triangle, the whole thing with the girl falling in love with a very wealthy and generous mythical kind of guy, and so on. I also thought there were similarities in the writing style. It's kind of simplistic, but in a good way (I usually like that kind of writing). But I think that Tiger's Curse is written in such a way that Twilight fans will love it, but it's also so different from Twilight that non-Twilight fans will love it! I wasn't a huge fan of Twilight. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. And while I can see the similarities between the two, Tiger's Curse is still so different and so unique and I absolutely adore it! There's non of the controversial sparkly-vampire stuff, there is no totally overbearing controlling boyfriend (Ren is just pure sweet!), and at least so far, Kelsey hasn't had to give up her humanity for anything.

I think Tiger's Curse is one of the coolest stories I've ever read! I mean, I had my doubts at first. If you think about it, it's basically about a girl falling in love with a tiger (even though he really is a man). Isn't that kind of weird? Yeah, a bit. But Colleen Houck totally pulled it off and in the book it wasn't weird at all! She has told a story about our world, but really amped up the mythology. As a huge mythology buff, I completely fell in love with the story.

Another thing that I thought was going to be hit or miss with me was the setting: India. I have never read a book about India. I kind of had similar thoughts as when I read Cinder. Cinder takes place in Beijing and before reading it I knew it was going to be hit or miss with me. Why? Because the setting is so unique! On the one hand it could be too unfamiliar that it doesn't grasp my attention. But on the other hand, it could be a breath of fresh air. Probably 99% of the books I read take place in the United States or some post-apocalyptic version of it. But India.. wow, totally different. And it was totally awesome!

Because the story takes place in India we learn a lot about the tigers in the region, the mythology, Indian culture, and old Indian stories. It was all very interesting and fascinating to read about. There's a fun mix between learning about modern Indian culture and the mythological stuff. One minute Kelsey is complaining about the crazy driving in India, and the next she's reading about an old Indian myth or listening to Mr. Kadam talk about his time in India 300+ years ago.

I thought all the characters were unique and vibrant. For the most part, I loved them all. I'll talk about Kelsey later, but Ren was kind of your standard nice guy with an air of mystery. He's super sweet, definitely a romantic, but he has that princely vibe. He's confident, privileged, but not arrogant or selfish. It was super easy to fall for him and giggle like a crazy fangirl. Kishan is an interesting character because the first time we met him, I decided I hated him. He seemed like an arrogant jerkface. But it wasn't in a bad way, it was more like, "I love hating this character," rather than "This character sucks and I wish he didn't exist." But as time went on, I became more and more unsure of my hasty decision. He grew on me a bit! As for Mr. Kadam, he's kind of your cool scholarly character. He's a super nice grandfather-ish figure who has an insatiable hunger for knowledge. And after living for over 300 years, he's definitely full of knowledge!

My one character issue is Kelsey. In a broad sense she was okay, but there were some random details that bugged me that I don't even really know how to describe. I just felt like some of her dialogue was awkward. I guess it felt scripted or something. She just said such obvious things and sometimes she didn't seem very impulsive or full of emotion (we all are at some point!). It's like she carefully crafted each sentence, which I suppose is what made it seem scripted. As an example, she's basically about to be mauled to death by a panther when Ren jumps in and rescues her. She immediately is like, "Thank you for saving me." No hysteria, no strong emotions, no like "Z0MG HOLY CRAP WHAT JUST HAPPENED," no life flashing before the eyes.. just a calm, cool, collected, "Thank you for saving my life." Maybe I'm just weird or maybe you see what I mean.

The romance in this book was completely swoon-a-licious. It had me weak at the knees and begging the world to deliver my boyfriend to my doorstep so I could have some romantic cuddle time. Ren is so sweet and it's kind of funny to watch Kelsey blushing all the time since this is her first time being close to a man. So all the cuddling and kissing gets her a little flustered!

But despite the awesomeness of the romance, there were two things that did bug me about it. First, there was no "chase." I really like the phase where both people aren't really sure how the other person feels. I love the uncertainty and the butterflies that brings. Although there was no insta-love in Tiger's Curse, it was obvious when Kelsey started crushing on Ren, and obvious that Ren was crushing on her back. There was no uncertainty.

My other issue with the romance is the nasty turn it took halfway through. This isn't totally spoilerish, but if you'd rather not read about something that happened halfway through, skip this paragraph. :P I won't reveal too many details, but I'll just say that Kelsey decided that she and Ren weren't good together. She's afraid of getting her heart broken and does the whole self-deprecating "I'm not good enough for you because you're a sexy beast and I'm just average" thing. And no matter how many times Ren insisted that he did want to be with Kelsey and not any other supermodel-like girls, she just ignored him. That whole thing had me clawing at the book and screaming at Kelsey. But it was all very similar to how I felt about Kishan. It wasn't a story-ruiner, it was just something I loved to hate and scream about.

Overall I thought this book was amazing. Tiger's Curse ties in so many unique elements: knee-weakening romance, fantasy, mythology, and adventure. And I love how the adventure and the romance play equal roles. This book isn't dominantly an adventure book, but it also isn't dominantly a romance book. The two seem to have very equal weights, and I think that's what can make this book enjoyable to so many people.