Reviewed by Ashley on
My feelings for Tiger's Voyage are very similar to my feelings for Tiger's Quest: UGGGHHH!!
First of all, this book in the series starts reeking of Twilight. We have an annoying love triangle, Ren is in physical pain when he's near to or touching Kelsey, he decides to leave Kelsey because he "can't protect her" or "can't save her" or "might hurt her" or some crap and in order to get Kelsey to take him seriously he has an "I don't love you" speech, and after Ren's rejection Kelsey turns to the "second best" option (Kishan), and then there's the whole thing with every man in the universe drooling over Kelsey — the supposedly 'plain' and 'average' girl. I feel like the love triangle is completely ruining this series.
Kishan actually turns out to be an okay guy, but only because he completely turns into "the old Ren" (Ren before he lost his memory and became a giant annoying douche). So although I liked his character, I hated that he basically stole Ren's personality. He becomes the sweet, caring, selfless guy, who will "always be there for Kelsey no matter what," and so on. I mean it's sweet and they have some great moments, but I couldn't enjoy it because if we did a search and replace from "Kishan" to "Ren," I would have 100% believed Kishan was Ren. Kishan's personality in Tiger's Voyage is vastly different from who he was in Tiger's Curse. That's not usually a horrible thing, because I know people change, but I literally felt like he just morphed into Ren.
And then on the flip side, Ren becomes a pretentious asshole. I hated who he became when lost his memories of Kelsey. He literally said something to Kishan like, "How did I fall in love with her? She's not even that pretty." That's major paraphrasing, but that was the gist of his meaning. Then, after he and Kelsey start trying to make things work and he decides to break up with her, he starts flirting with completely shallow bimbos and just acting like a completely different person. Then later, he starts demanding that Kelsey wear her hair a certain length, even though she wants it cut differently.. what the heck!
If it weren't for this insanely annoying and frustrating love triangle (which at one point became more like 3 guys drooling over Kelsey), Tiger's Voyage would have been an awesome book. Like with the first two, the mythology and adventure is absolutely amazing. We get to read about some fabulous Indian and Chinese stories, and oh my god, we get DRAGONS!!! The dragons were completely different from what I expected, but in a fabulous way. I was expecting crazy fearsome beasts, but they're actually very intelligent beings that have to give Kelsey & Co. guidance and direction. They have very specific purposes and places in the world. Reading about this dragon mythology was definitely the highlight of the book!
What sucks is that if it weren't for the love triangle disaster, I think this would be one of my all time favourite books/series. The story is so incredible and I love all the details and the mythology and the fantasy! And when the romance is going the way I like it—with Ren and Kelsey happily together—it is so gorgeous and swoony and I love every second of it. But this horrible love triangle that dominates and destroys the second and third books is really ruining this series for me. :( I will continue reading it through to the end, but it's still just so frustrating!
Three stars actually might be a generous rating. I considered 2.5 or even two, but I loved the fantasy so much that I'm going with three.
Reading updates
- 8 August, 2012: Started reading
- 10 August, 2012: Finished reading
- 10 August, 2012: Reviewed