Tiger's Curse (Tiger's Curse, #1)

by Colleen Houck

[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.