Review: Tiger's Quest by Colleen Houck

Back in Oregon, Kelsey tries to pick up the pieces of her life and push aside her feelings for Ren. But danger lurks around the corner, forcing her to return to India where she embarks on a second quest-this time with Ren's dark, bad-boy brother Kishan, who has also fallen prey to the Tiger's Curse. Fraught with danger, spellbinding dreams, and choices of the heart, TIGER'S QUEST brings the trio one step closer to breaking the spell that binds them.


I hate sequels. I especially hate sequels to books that I totally loved. I hate how they never live up to my expectations and despite being very nervous I was really hoping that Tiger's Quest would prove me wrong.


I'm afraid to say that it didn't. While Tiger's Quest was a nice read, it didn't hold me the same way that Curse did and there were so many times that i wanted to just slam this book down in frustration and put it down as a Did Not Finish. I'm glad that I didn't though because while I didn't love Tiger's Quest, I still enjoyed it, some parts more than others. The story is still captivating, with mysteries and puzzles and a good dosing of romance but I didn't find it as interesting as I did the first, or as intense. It just seemed quite slow to me.


I really enjoyed the twists and turns in this book. While I feel that the start was slow, towards the end of the book the pace really picks up. There are also a few romantic moments and a lot of comedic moments, and lots of Kishan! I really liked how Kishan, who is the 'other guy' in the love triangle actually had a personality and background. While I tend to dislike love triangles, Kishan was a nice enough guy and I really grew to like him in this book.


I think that what really annoyed me in this book was Kelsey. She annoyed me majorly in this book and while in Curse I liked her, in Quest I couldn't even bring myself to support her cause. Firstly, she was very whiny in this book and I hate the whiny heroines, at the beginning of this book Kelsey is trying to get over Ren, who she left in the first book so I couldn't give her any sympathy... how does she try to get over him? Date three guys at once! I just couldn't support her in that, I was like 'make your mind up girl!' then Ren comes along, her true love, the guy she was pining for and she's suddenly all over him as well... while dating two other guys. Then she gets with Ren, then she has to leave Ren behind and go on an adventure with Ren's smouldering brother Kishan then she starts to fall in love with him. I could not stand her whiny indecisiveness.


I also didn't enjoy the writing as much as I did the first book as well, the book was 500 pages long but I felt that Houck put a lot of pointless sentences in there, reading like that really annoying person you know's Facebook statuses 'I went to the toilet then I had an apple, after eating half of the apple, I threw it in the bin.', these lines made the story very monotonous and had me bored. Most of the time, Houck's writing style held all of the magnificence of the first book, which is what kept me reading, but at some times I felt that the standard dropped to mediocre and I had to really force myself to push through.


All in all, Tiger's Quest may not be as good as Tiger's Curse and lovers of the first book should not set their expectations too high, however the story is great, the writing is generally magnificent and Kishan is in it lots, making this book full of sexy hot tigers! While I didn't enjoy this as much as I hoped, I would still recommend it to paranormal fans.

Overall rating: B-

Stand alone/series: Second in the series (after Tiger's Curse)

UK Release: June 9th 2011

Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton

Book obtained via: Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review