Tiger’s Quest

After her summer in India, Kelsey tries to move on from Ren when she starts college at Western Oregon University, going on dates with a couple of guys. She really likes Li, the guy from her martial arts class, but it isn’t until Ren surprises her in Oregon that she feels whole again. Their romantic bliss is short-lived, however, when Ren is kidnapped by the enemy.

This second book in the Tiger Saga (or the Tiger’s Curse series, whatever these books are actually called) definitely has a lot more adventure and Indian mythology than the first, which is nice, but there’s still a love triangle.

Colleen Houck also explores Ren and Kishan’s backstory from Kishan’s point of view, which is interesting. As much as Kishan seems like a “bad boy” — that’s how the synopsis on the book cover describes him — he’s really not. His attitude towards life is just a façade that he uses to deflect from trauma.

While Kelsey is definitely more confident than in the last book — learning martial arts to defend herself and being in a relationship that feels right definitely help — her point of view, which Houck uses to write the books, is vernacular, so it can be a bit wordy, which makes the books borderline cheesy. There weren’t as many out-of-place exclamation points, but the sentences can be a bit choppy at times.

It’s hard for this reader to stay immersed in a story when she finds herself re-writing sentences differently to make them better, but that doesn’t mean the story itself isn’t good. It’s only going to get more intense.