The last thing 17-year old 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. Tiger’s Curse is the exciting first volume in an epic fantasy-romance that will leave you breathless and yearning for more.
After seeing so many fantastic reviews for Tiger's Curse I finally decided to request a review copy, which I received at the end of last week and finished today. I'd expected something absolutely amazing.
Did I get something absolutely amazing? Totally.
I actually didn't get into Tiger's Curse straight away, at first I found that the first few chapters were very slow, as Houck is just introducing us to the characters and so suffers a little from telling the reader, not showing. I advise anybody else that had trouble with this to just push their way through, as not too far in, it gets absolutely amazing.
What I really loved about Tiger's Curse was the writing, at first I didn't think the writing was amazing, I though it was very simplistic and childish and too train-of-thought-ish for me, but when the story becomes more exciting and emotions begin to kick in the writing massively improved to poetic and emotional, (there is a teeny bit of purple prose in there - one notable example being Kelsey describing the feeling of being kissed to 'a love flower inside her blooming'). But other than that, the voice was unique, believable and very fun.
I loved the characters, Kelsey is believable as a teenage girl, and as said above, her voice is fun and emotional, Ren is just eeee! swoon-worthy, even as a tiger he's adorable and as a human? Smouldering. I felt for sure that Mr Kadam was a bad guy! Kisham was swoon-worthy too (but I'm still Team Ren!) I really hope that Houck makes it Ren in the end! She had better!
The story was totally original, intertwining Indian mythology with an American girl and a hot prince. I found myself becoming so absorbed in the story, the romance, the history that I absolutely loved it. Houck has obviously done a lot of research into the mythology and it reads very well. The pacing is fantastic after the first few chapters. What can I say about the ending..? D:
I would totally recommend this to anyone. An emotional read that I was swept into. Not only is this a romance, like most other paranormals out there, it's also an adventure and a fun one at that. As soon as you finish it you will be dying to pick up the sequel! I am in love with Ren!
Rating: A+
Stand alone/series: First in a series
UK Release: 26th May 2011
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Book obtained via: Received from publisher in exchange for an honest review
I really want to read these books! I have heard so many great things!!!
ReplyDeleteI've heard so many good things about this book that I really want to read it now. Great review!
ReplyDeleteabsolutely LOVED this book and Im so glad to see you did too! :) will you be reading the 2nd book?
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