Tiger's Quest (Tiger's Curse, #2)

by Colleen Houck

[Ashley]

booknook — Young Adult book reviews

3.5 stars

This book confused the heck out of me. I barely know how to review it and I have no idea how to rate it. My thought process was something like this: meh, okay this is good, OHMYGOD YUMMY ROMANCE, this love triangle freakin' sucks, okay I think things will turn around now, awesome adventure, what the fuck is this ending. Despite my many grievances, I was never bored or wishing the book would hurry up and end. I was enjoying reading the book, I just hated a lot of things that were happening. Is that weird?

I feel like the entire first part (~100 pages) of Tiger's Quest could have been cut. It was basically about Kelsey coming home from India, settling into school, adjusting to life without Ren, and dating other people. I mean it wasn't painful to sit through, but it felt extremely pointless since we all knew she'd be going back to Ren anyway. There were several times when I was thinking, "Okay, let's get on with it!"

Then Ren came back and after a while of Kelsey continuing to date other guys and Ren, she finally like decided she wanted to be with Ren (as if she didn't know that already). That's when things perked up. Kelsey and Ren had a few weeks of uninterrupted lovin' time that put me into an "I miss my boyfriend" depression, because their relationship was just so adorable. I have to admit, I'm not really a fan of guys in books who are all into poetry. Maybe that's "mean" but I just think it's a little cheesy. Ren is like that, but it didn't bother me because Kelsey is super into poetry too. That's why they just felt so perfect for each other! They were always leaving each other cute little poems, and watching movies, and making out... yum.

So in summary so far, Tiger's Quest started out okay. But then when Kelsey returned to India around page 175-200 or so, I remembered why I fell in love with Tiger's Curse so much. We return to the awesome Indian culture, myths, stories, and adventures. I'm almost surprised how much I love reading about it!

Unfortunately the love triangle, which was subtle in Tiger's Curse, is very dominant in Tiger's Quest. I didn't like it. I didn't like how Colleen made me totally fall in love with Ren and Kelsey's relationship, and then just yanked Ren out of the picture so his brother Kishan could move in on Kelsey. Also, Kelsey did one of the things that I absolutely DESPISE in love triangles. She and Ren were officially dating, but Kishan was crushing on Kelsey and even told her that. Rather than keeping a respectable distance from him (to not lead him on), she was overly kind and affectionate. I'm talking hand-holding, saying things like, "You're amazing!" or "I'm so glad to see you!!" I know she didn't mean anything by it, but it's comments like that that give a guy hope that a relationship might be possible.. despite the fact that she's already taken. The kinder thing to do is to give the guy a little space so that it's clear she doesn't like him more than a friend. But Kelsey so didn't do that. She was all over Kishan. I mean I wouldn't want to hold hands with a guy who isn't my boyfriend, so why the heck does she? And then when he swoops in and kisses her passionately, she's not pissed. She's more like, "Now now, try to behave!" Ugh.

However, the adventure in Tiger's Quest was really fabulous and intriguing. I loved reading about mythical places, traveling across India, hearing about incredible new creatures, and more. These elements were an absolute pleasure to read about and really got me invested in the story.

Then the ending really annoyed me. I had issues with the love triangle, Ren's absence from most of the book, and Kelsey's behaviour, but I was holding out for an epic reunion ending. That so didn't happen. The ending was sad and depressing. It definitely made me emotional; it was certainly heart-wrenching. My mom thoughtfully reminded me that a book that invokes some kind of emotion must be pretty good.. but I just didn't like what was happening. Which is why I was so stuck on how to rate/review this. So many things about the plot and characters annoyed me, but I still completely devoured the book and wanted to know what happened. Totally contradicting emotions there. I guess I'll settle for somewhere around 3.5 stars, but round up to 4 because halves scare me.